[TheForge] Hossfeld benders and survival of the fittest.

[Woolley]

To All:

Thanks for the response.  I wasn't hoping to spur a debate on
manufacturing in America but you never know. To RIES, I was waiting to
hear from you on this subject since you had responded to past Hossfeld
threads.  Your comments and observations are well worth considering.  To
Bob Shade, I looked on Ebay for dies, nothing.  I'd have to agree with
RIES here, I've never found die sets seperately from a bender. I ordered
a basic set of dies from Hossfeld for flats.  BTW, the Ellis bandsaw
that I bought some time ago based on your suggestions is an excellant
tool.  It is worth every penny.  I could never have done the last 4 jobs
that left the shop without it.  Anyway, I will have  more of an open
mind when considering tooling for my bender.  Finally, I have to say
that in my humble opinion(yeah right)  I think it is a bit naive to
think the US government or military would allow a situation in which
they could not get made in this country anything that they need to
further or sustain our national defense.

Regards,
Bill Woolley




RIES NIEMI wrote:
> 
> I have had a hossfeld for over 20 years now, and I have always looked for
> used dies, but never found em. If you can get em used, more power to you.
> However, I have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on dies from
> hossfeld, well over the thousand mark, so I have done my share to support
> the company. Currently, I have an order in with american bender. I have yet
> to receive it, but based on what I saw at LaCrosse, I think there are
> reasons to buy from them. There is definitely an ethical quandary here-
> American does not produce the whole line of hossfeld dies- they are cherry
> picking the ones they think will sell the best. Theoreticaly, buying from
> them could cause hossfeld to go under, and then you couldnt get the full
> line of parts. On the other hand, hossfeld has done almost no innovation
> since they started- the first thing I saw at the American booth was a clever
> degree indicator which will make using the bender a whole lot easier. How
> come hossfeld never thought of that? I have always found hossfeld to be
> unresponsive to customer demand- they are very old fashioned in their
> distribution system, for example. Hossfeld wouldnt sell me just the parts I
> needed- I had to buy a bunch of stuff I didnt want to get what I did want.
> American will sell you just the parts you need. American is designing new
> dies and parts, based on customer feedback. Hossfeld intentionally distances
> itself from its customers. As for the patent issue, I think if you go back
> and look, you would find the hossfeld to be an improvement on traditional
> benders manufactured by other companies since gone out of biz- not a new
> idea sprung from whole cloth. Just as hossfeld improved and marketed better
> in their time, American, JD and others are doing the same now.
> Lead, follow, or get out of the way. Competition makes for better products,
> not just lower prices.
> By the way, Bill Wooley, I would heartily recommend you buy, from hossfeld,
> as American does not make em, a 50B angle iron flange out die set. We use it
> almost every day to pull circles and arcs from round, square, square tubing,
> flat bar, and to edgebend flat bar. It is pricey, especially if you get a
> whole set of radius dies from 4" up to about 36", but it is amazing how
> quick and easy you can get repeatable curves in all kinds of material cold.
> One of the most useful things a hossfeld can do. I also have a $7000 angle
> roll, and I find the hossfeld can do 80% of what it can at a fraction of the
> price.
> 
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