parts bender

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I have been looking at parts benders like those sold through Northern and Harbor Freight.  They all have a max capacity of 1/4" x 2".  The more expensive Hossfeld #2 can do 3".I need a bender that can bend 3/16" x 3" plate to make about a dozen brackets.  The Hossfeld is out of the price range.  Does anyone know of a bender that can bend this material that is reasonably priced?Thanks,Neil
Reply:do a search in here on "bender"   There is a lot of info about benders in here.  If you want more specific info use the advance search or maybe google's adv. search feature and put in weldweb.com as the site to be searched.
Reply:I've been googling, emailing the companies, and did a search on here.  As I stated the compact parts benders only seem to go up to a 2" width.Neil
Reply:If it is brackets you want you might want to look at http://www.shopoutfitters.com/PressBrake.html.   This seems to be better suited to brackets as I evision them.   \No relation to the above company but I have been researching benders for a while and am about to purchase thier 2020 model.  It is more expensive but I did put hands on and there is no comparison between it and HF stuff.   If the handy bend is anything like the 2020 it is very well made.StevenInspiring Thought for the Day:Some people are like slinkies ... Not really good for anything....but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.
Reply:Real tools cost real money. Cheap chinese crap from Harbor Freight breaks.Buy a hossfeld. New, about $800, including basic tooling. It will bend 3/16" x 4" the easy way all day long. It will bend 1/2" x 4" for that matter.Also pipe, round bar, angle, flat bar the hard way, square tubing, and on and on. If you only want 4 of something, pay somebody else to do it. But if you are gonna be making stuff with metal for years to come, the hossfeld will pay for itself in no time.There is no other bender that comes close to a hossfeld, in versatility, quality, or bang for the buck. The shop outfitters is a crummy copy, and is up to $589 now- the extra $200 plus change to get a hossfeld number 2 is worth every penny.Just my opinion, based on owning a hossfeld since 1980, and bending hundreds of thousands of parts with it.
Reply:I'm only making 12 brackets so the Hossfeld is not an option.  I'll never make th brackets again after making them one time.I'll look for a shop in my area that can bend the metal for me.Neil
Reply:Originally Posted by standlesIf it is brackets you want you might want to look at http://www.shopoutfitters.com/PressBrake.html.   This seems to be better suited to brackets as I evision them.   \No relation to the above company but I have been researching benders for a while and am about to purchase thier 2020 model.  It is more expensive but I did put hands on and there is no comparison between it and HF stuff.   If the handy bend is anything like the 2020 it is very well made.Steven
Reply:I took a look at the 'handy bender' referenced above and to be honest I was going to suggest bending the parts in a press.   This device would make that a bit easier.    the reality is that it wouldn't take much to make something similar for yourself and may do for a few parts.    Beyond a few parts and it would become very tedious from what I can see, though I could also see a home built solution improving on that greatly.Frankly I'd go that route if you don't want to buy a real bender such as a Hosfeld or something similar.   Unless you have a very specific task in mind the lesser machines really aren't worth the modest savings.    You simply give up to much in flexability.    Flexibility is what you build a business on.    The onytime I could see a benefit from the cheap machines is if they would do a specific job that you can expect to pay for the machine and them some with.    The qualification being that you don't have the funds to invest in the better machine at the time the job comes up.I look at it this way most people here would avoid buying a welder only capable of two or three current settings because that would effective limit them as far a potential jobs go.   It is a poor investment.    The same applies for a bender you want to be able to do a series of sizes and shapes to accomodate as many potential customers as possible.The other possibility here is that if you only need a dozen brakets why invest in a bender at all?    Consider heating the part up and bending manually.     This would be suitable if hammer tracks aren't a problem.    If you are real inventive you might come up with a socket to slip over the plate to give yourself a cleaner bend.     There are other ways that don't involve a bender of any sort, think about how a blacksmith would go about this.    The no bemder approach would certainly be the cheapest approach if it meets the required final part quality requirements.DaveThanksDave
Reply:Hi Dave,I have a hydraulic press.I don't have a garage or storage shed so having an oxy setup is not something that I would keep in the house.All of my work is done in the cellar with limited room.I'm not in the fabrication business.  I do fabrication and welding as a hobby.The brackets that I am makiing are for use on the house.  That's why I will never have to make them again.I also have a 12 ton pipe bender so I don't need anything that the hossfeld could do other than bending a piece of 3" wide 3/16" plate.  I'm not into the decorative stuff that would normally be bent with a hossfeld type bender.I do however from time to time make brackets for various things that I make and have usually just cut a piece of 1/4" square tube and cut one side off to make a bracket.  This time the brackets are larger.  I'm trying to make 8" square band clamps out of 3/16" plate that is 3" wide.If I were to do this all of the time or do it for a living I wouldn't hesitate to buy a larger more expensive machine.Neil
Reply:Originally Posted by fallon416Hi Dave,I have a hydraulic press.I don't have a garage or storage shed so having an oxy setup is not something that I would keep in the house.All of my work is done in the cellar with limited room.I'm not in the fabrication business.  I do fabrication and welding as a hobby.
Reply:Hi Dave,The clamps are going to be used to wrap 8" square beams to keep them from splitting.  The original thought was to run bolts through the beams with 3/16" plate but after a closer inspection of the beam in question I found a split on the side and on the bottom.  Running bolts through the beam would do no good for me so the beam clamps will do the trick.  I cut up some metal on the band saw the other day and welded one up and it worked great.  I could just go this route again.Neil
Reply:Here is a picture of the clamp tacked up.Neil Attached Images
Reply:Talk about a picture being worth a thousand words!     I was thinking along completely different lines.    I can see where this would ideally be one piece.To be honest some other suggestions of having the piece made by somebody with the right tools seems to make more sense.    It would be difficult to justify the cost of the tooling to just make a couple of these.    I was thinking one 90 deg bend per part which would be reasonably doable.   Here you not only have multiple bends but I would imagine tolerances you want to keep for the band to work correctly.Never one to give up have you considered a four bolt approach?   That is have a quarter band made up for each part of the beam and use four bolts to clamp things up.    This might be a bit easier to make as only 3 - 90 deg bends are required.    It may have advantages in that you can apply pressure in multiple directions.    Of course you need access to all four sides of the beam.    This might also be much easier to weld up out of angle stock.As to  your beam; are you sure it is not overloaded?   Frankly I'd be concerned about concentrated stress that a clamp like this might introduce.    On the other hand I grew up in an area where a lot of the old post and beam barns where held together with wire rope and who knows what else.    If the beam is just twisted or has cracks from drying I'm not to sure I'd get worked up over it either.    In the end I'd also have to wonder if 3/16" mild steel will hold up to the expansion and contraction of the beam as the climate changes.ThanksDave Originally Posted by fallon416Here is a picture of the clamp tacked up.Neil
Reply:Hi Dave,The beam is 13 feet long and has 2 cracks from age.  It's over a hundred years old in the basement of a 2 story house.  There are bearing walls above it but it is not the main beam in the house.  I will be putting 8 clamps on the beam and then adding a lally column to middle to give it more support so that it can't move downward.Expansion and contraction is something I see every year in the house.  Being in New England the wood shrinks in the Winter and expands in the Spring/Summer.  I try to do any wood work in the Spring/Summer because I know that if I make a tight fit up it will not expand any further.Neil
Reply:You know....I would imagine that you could get one of the guys on this forum to make those for you! I mean, we all have a different set of tools, but someone should have a nice press brake that would do that. I have been wanting to build a press now for a long time. I just don't have a project to use the press for. I have all the hydraulics and materials....If I had this built already, I would press those for you. But then again, that's just me.Offer a 12 pack of suds and see who bites!Lincoln Power Mig 210MP MIGLincoln Power Mig 350MP - MIG and Push-PullLincoln TIG 300-300Lincoln Hobby-Weld 110v  Thanks JLAMESCK TIG TORCH, gas diffuser, pyrex cupThermal Dynamics Cutmaster 101My brain
Reply:I just purchased a small press brake for the hydraulic press from ebay.Neil