[TheForge] Diacro vs Hossfeld

[RIES NIEMI]

The Diacro and Hossfeld benders are very different tools, made by companies
with different goals and markets.

The Diacro is built more like a machine tool, by a company whose main focus
was precision sheet metal equipment. Many of their tools, like their 18"
finger brake with micrometer adjusting back gages, or their precision 9"
shears, are used by jewelers, machinists, and prototype shops.

The Hossfeld, on the other hand, is more of a blacksmiths and fabricators
tool. Built like an erector set, you can make much additional tooling for a
hossfeld with a stick welder and a 3/4" drill.

The Diacro is best suited for small, precise work. Even though a hydraulicly
powered Diacro bender was built that will handle 1 1/2" pipe, the majority
of the hand operated machines you find are suited to work up to about 3/4"
in diameter. If for instance, you need to bend a couple of thousand pieces
of 1/4" stainless tubing to the exact same bend, or 3/8" round spring stock
into a complicated shape, use a Diacro. It strengths are in small diameters
and sizes of tubing, round, and square.

The Hossfeld is capable of much larger sizes- 1 1/2" pipe, 2" angle, 4" flat
bar. It is much better for hot bending- with its open framework it is easy
to slide a red hot piece in, or to heat up a specific section with a rosebud
and bend it pronto. I would feel uncomfortable throwing a huge heavy piece
of red hot steel, with mill scale flaking off of it, onto a Diacro- it just
wouldnt seem civilised. Besides, the massive machined disc of the Diacro
platen would suck the heat out of a piece rapidly, making it cool much to
fast.
In particular, the Hossfeld is better at hot bending, large diameter circles
and arcs, and edge bending. I have bent 1" x 4" flat bar hot in the
hossfeld, into complicated curves for a transmission loop, that just could
not be done on a Diacro. The Hossfeld dies for bending angle iron flange out
come with a selection of fixed radius dies that enable you to bend
repeatable circles in large angle, pipe, round, square and flat that isnt
really doable on the Diacro, and certainly not as quickly or as repeatably.
I did a railing job last year where we hot bent 1/4" x 1 1/2" flat bar the
hard way into 4" radius corners. The hossfeld dies for edgebending consist
of sliding angles machined into them, so the will fit any thickness. You
just need to cut some same thickness shims, and you can bend up to 1/2"
thick flat bar the hard way. I am working on a piece now where I had to bend
1/4" x 3" flat bar into a squiggle, the hard way. We did it cold, and it
took almost not time. On the Diacro, custom dies must be machined for many
of these operations.

So- two different tools, with two different uses- I would love to have both,
and have been looking for a good deal on a large used Diacro for years. For
precision, small scale work, the Diacro shines. For a blacksmith, I think a
Hossfeld is a more versatile, better choice. Plus there are at least 3
companies (Hossfeld, American Bender, and JDsquared) competing making
Hossfeld compatible dies, while many Diacro dies are either prohibitively
expensive or unavailable.

Ries Niemi