H Rob,
I have one that I salvaged out of a metal shop that was closing...you don't even want to know the price! I had also bought a cabinet full of dies a long time ao at a shop auction because I knew they would come in handy one day.
Even though I probably don't use mine correctly...it's great!!! if you want to buy extra dies it's expensive but..I think they are amazing to have. I bought an edge bender attachment about two years ago and still haven't figured out how to set it up! (But I think my bender is actually set up slightly wrong from the previous owner. One day I'll figure it out. Hydralic would only add to the fun. Good luck. Check out auctions and Craigs list etc. You can't destroy them so ...
Janet R. (my two cents)

Hi Rob,
I personally love my Hossfeld. They're built for bear and you can take your investment as far as you want. You can make simple dies yourself, buy dies/tools, and go all the way to hydraulic, step by step depending on your project/funds. Janet's right about setting up some of the tools, the instructions leave something to be desired, but i'm sure someone on this site knows how to set up the different tools. It comes with a 4' extension arm and if you make an even longer one on you can bend some pretty hefty material by yourself, although it can be a workout. You might want to get some adjustable material stands as well to help support longer material if you plan on working by yourself. Even a 6' section can get awkward if your working on the end. They take up a little space with the clearance needed for longer pieces, but all in all it is one of the best pieces of equipment i own. Keep us updated, especially with the tools you pick for it. Maybe you'll be teaching us. :)

Jake

Thanks everyone for the input. I am going to seek out the #2 model (thanks Nic) and add parts piece meal for a while. I'm sure I'll be posting additional questions once the thing comes and I manage to mangle myself up in it.
Rob

I bought my hossfeld in about 1979, and I havent looked back since.
Personally, I dont have, and have never felt the need for, the hydraulic power pack.
The standard bender actually comes with a 4 foot arm and a 4 foot extension bar- if 8 feet of leverage aint enough, its probably a bigger job than you can do by hand anyway.
And I find one of the greatest things about the hossfeld is the tactile feedback you get by hand bending, with all that added leverage the bender gives you increasing your strength by a huge factor.

I often straighten crooked stuff, by lots of little bends, that would be just impossible with the hydraulics, but with a bit of practice, is a snap manually.

Hossfeld's patents have expired, so there is one Clone Company-
American Bender-
http://www.americanbender.com/
They make an exact and interchangeable hossfeld copy.
They have cherrypicked the huge range of dies hossfeld makes, and only make a few, but their stuff is very high quality- in fact, my hossfeld is currently a frankenstein of both manufacturers, as American sold me a few parts separately that hossfeld would not.
JD2 makes a modified hossfeld that is optimised for round and square tube. It does these two things much better than a regular hossfeld. And it does nothing else a hossfeld does. So if its tube you want, go JD2- but for most everyday bending, its Hossfeld all the way.
http://www.jd2.com/

All the other manual benders I have seen are vastly inferior to a hossfeld or american- I would entirely skip the Shop Outfitters, which for some odd reason skips many of the features that makes a hossfeld so useful, and kind of misunderstands many of the basic principles. And the Harbor Freight/Chinese benders are worse than useless, in my mind.

I find the most commonly used dies are the ones in hossfelds basic $850 set, and then, I use the angle iron flange in dies a lot- this is a master die with individual dies for radiuses of 3" up to 36". With them, I can bend curves or circles, precise and repeatable, up to 6 feet in diameter. We use these all the time, very handy, in square, round, square tube, flat bar the easy way, and angle.