Rich is right, the hossfeld is worth the extra cost. It is extremely versatile and tough. It allows you to bend and form so many more profiles and sizes than the shop outfitters bender and you can invest in the bender a little at a time. This allows you to tailor the Hossfeld to your specialties and tweak the bender as new jobs come in. There are so many dies and attachments and it is fairly easy to make your own dies, especially if you end up getting the cnc plasma cutter.

Jake

I've got a Hossfeld, there is NO other choice. It's just one of those "why reinvent the wheel" kind of tools, it works and it works well. You can get or make any die you could possibly need, I've got a little wall full of them.
save your pennies, you won't regret it.
matt

I bought (several years ago) a Harbor Freight bender similar to a Hossfeld. For a hobbyist, it is OK, depending of course on the scale of work you're doing. Almost ALL of my work is under 1" stock. I would rather have the Hossfeld, but could not find one for cheap as I could afford. The Harbor Freight is about the same quality as the one you are looking at, but MUCH less money. If you can afford the Hossfeld, good, but otherwise, maybe cheaper is better for a start. When you find out how much you use it, then may be time to upgrade.

Rick Crawford at Smoky Forge

I love my Hossfeld, and I'm probably one of those people who don't even use it to it's fullest capacity . Keep your eyes out for metal shops that are going out of business, check out auctions in your local papers. At one auction we bought a cabinet that was full of dies (most of which I still haven't used) I didn't have the bender at that time. Then a local shop was closing and they had a Hossfeld in the back area. My husband casually asked if they wanted to sell the bender,and how much. The guy said " I don'tknow give me two hundred dollars for it!!!!!"
you wouldn't believe how fast my husband pulled that money out of his wallet!
Miracles do happen. Janet R.

Hi
I also am looking for an affordable bender. Are you talking about the orange hydraulic pipe bender at Harbor Freight?
Mele

Mele,

No, not the orange hydraulic one. That is a poor piece of equipment designed for bending muffler tubing, andit will barely do that.

The one Rick was talking about is a sort of knockoff of a Hossfeld, scaled down and cheapened. It will do small stuff up to maybe 3/16"x1-1/2" or so. It comes with a handful of dies for various bends, but you would have to make your own dies for unusual profiles or bends. Hossfeld dies will not fit the HF bender.

Look for Harbor Freight part number 31980-1VGA online. About a hundred bucks, and just about worth it.

One note about Hossfeld-type benders: They take a fair amount of room around them to swing the stock you're bending, and they MUST be anchored to the floor securely.

Rich,
Thanks a bunch, I found it. It looks like what I need until I see if I am going to do a lot of bending.
Thanks again, Mele

Matt,

Yeah, that will sure enough allow you make a Hossfeld clone, alright. The patent on the Hossfeld has long since expired, so no problem with making a copy, I don't think, even if you sell it. However, if your shop time is worth much, I'd think you'd be as well off to simply buy one from the folks who invented it and still sell it and support it. From all accounts, they're really great people to deal with.

Hossfeld benders look deceptively simple, but the measurements and relationships are pretty critical if it's going to work correctly, and that takes time and good equipment. Then there's the manufacture and heat treating of the dies to consider, too. All in all, I think they are a bargain at under a grand.

That same site did put me onto a cute little freeware program (Tubemiter) for plotting cutting templates for joining tubing at any angle, which is really neat. Thanks for the tip!

Rich

gotta agree I made my first bender (my own simple design), it now sits in back developing a good patina. theres a reason why hossfeld is still in business.
Matt