[TheForge] Speaking of benders...

[Dave Brown]

At 08:44 03/15/02 -0600, you wrote:
>I have talked with a few shops that have
>the shopoutfitters bender. They were
>pleased with it. I still bought the HF
>version. My work is mostly light stuff
>that is well within the range of the
>cheaper tool.

Mike,

When I went and looked at the Shop Outfitters web site it looked like the 
specifications for stock size limitations is the same as that of the HF 
benders.  There are a couple of differences to be considered, though.

The HF bender that compares to the SO bender is the pedestal version, not 
the bench top version like we have.  The HF pedestal mounted compact bender 
is $129 in the latest catalog that I have (it is NOT on sale like the bench 
version is).  So, that narrows the price gap a little.

The HF bender's dies and pins are mild steel, the possibility exists that 
the SO bender maybe uses medium carbon steel.  The only way to know though 
is to ask SO directly about what grade of steel is used.  If it's all A36 
or 1018 (mild) then there is no advantage in the dies.

The payback on the HF is surely faster, even for the pedestal mounted 
version.  My son has roped me into a major remodeling of the shop layout 
and will be installing a lot of shelving.  There's a lot of brackets to be 
made.  Using the HF will make it quicker to do than bending hot steel by 
hand, or even cold bending in the vise.  They will also be cheaper than 
buying even cheap brackets.  While this may not in and of itself pay for 
the HF bender, it will put a dent in the price.  Bending these brackets is 
a minor task, but it still points out the immediate savings and benefits 
that these benders offer.

One think that I don't like about the SO bender is that the upper and lower 
plates for the receivers (those "Y" thingies) are not bent U's like the HF 
and Hossfeld's are.  They are bolted together with spacers separating the 
plates.  That seems to put all the sear stresses on the bolts.  If they are 
not torqued down evenly and hard enough, then the receivers may develop a 
tendency to twist and rack out of alignment.  I don't know if this would 
actually happen, but it doesn't seem too far of a stretch of the 
imagination to think that it could happen.

Price advantage is the big thing with the HF.  The advantage that the SO 
unit has is that there is a tubing bending die set available ... expensive, 
but available.

I am curious, though, as to whether the HF and SO dies use the same 
mounting pin diameter and if the dies are the same or near the same 
height?  If so, then maybe the dies are interchangeable.  This could be a 
plus and make one of the advantages (medium or higher carbon steel 
dies/pins for the SO) become adaptable to the lower cost frames and 
receivers of the HF bender.

Bottom line for me is that I'd go for the HF bender and buy the tubing die 
sets from SO and adapt them to the HF.

Still, I haven't seen nor do I know anything about the SO bender beyond 
what I see on their web site.  Lacking this knowledge all my speculation 
could be more smoke than substance.

Dave Brown