hossfeld

i'm considering buying a hossfeld #2, are these worth the price?

Yes they are worth the money if you do alot of bending. I get just as much done on smaller bar with my 49 dollar Harbor Freight bender and its done over half a million bends, but i have the big boy in the corner if i need it. Dies and tooling ins't cheap and i make what i can. Here are plans to build your own frame if you can...Bob
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OrnamentIronPics/

Depends on the price.
A new hossfeld no. 2, with basic tooling, is around 800 bucks.
Either a real hossfeld, or the clone, by American bender.
http://www.hossfeldbender.com/
http://www.americanbender.com/

If you compare that to a shop outfitters, at almost six bills, the hossfeld is a great deal- its easily twice the bender the shop outfitters is.

And with hossfeld, dies are available to bend almost anything- form channel to angle iron on the vee.

But if all you want to bend is 1/8" x 1" flat bar the easy way, then maybe all you need is a $79 harbor freight bender.

I have had my hossfeld since about 1978, and it gets used every day. I use it to bend square, round, pipe, flat, angle, tubing, and everything else.
I have bent 1" x 4" flat bar, hot, angle iron, big 2"x 3/8" stainless flat bar the hard way, and hundreds of thousands of pieces of small round and square.
Its a great tool, built to last, and there are hundreds of dies available from hossfeld- versus maybe 10 from harbor freight. Plus, you can build your own dies for the hossfeld, to do all kinds of odd stuff.

There is a learning curve to the hossfeld- there are usually 2 or 3 different setups that would do any given bend, and you need to refer to the manual to learn them.

If you are doing serious metal work, with materials bigger than 1/8", and getting paid for it, so your time is worth something, a hossfeld is definitely worth the money.

Ries, What are the difference's between the Diacro Bender and the Hossfield ???

Two different design approaches.
Both basically use two fixed and one moving point to bend metal, but the designers really came at it from different directions.

A Di-Acro has a big, machined circular plate for a base, with precisely drilled holes in it.
It was based on a tube bending philosophy, with a design that supports a three piece tube bending die setup, which makes for nice, evenly supported tube bends. It is more of a small scale, precision bender. A Di-acro is usually smallish, althoug they did make them up to a number 4, which is pretty big, and even a number 6, which was a power version. The most common ones, though, are 1's and 2's.
Nonetheless, even a number 4 Di-Acro wont bend as big of material as a hossfeld. A hossfeld will bend up to 4" wide or 4" diameter material, although for some larger stuff, it has to be done hot- but anything that will fit in the frame, a hossfeld will bend.
A Di-Acro number 4, on the other hand, tops out at 1" round bar, as recommended by the factory.

A Di-acro is also much more limited in the types of profile it will bend. Solid Square and Round, flat bar the easy way, and small tubing.

A hossfeld will bend angle, channel, T bar, square and round tubing up to 3" or so, pipe, solid square, round, flat, hex, flat bar the hard way, railing cap, and just about anything else.

So I would say a Di-Acro is more a small scale, precision bender, while a hossfeld is a slightly looser tolerance, multi faceted workhorse.
And a Di-Acro, because of the way its made, costs more for the basic machine- 1200$ to 3000$, new, depending on size.
A new hossfeld is only $800.
But with a hossfeld, you could literally buy another ten grand worth of tooling if you wanted to, while there just isnt that much tooling available for Di-Acro's- different size tube dies is about it, as far as optional tooling.

Which is not to say a hossfeld is not accurate- with degree of bend stops, and depth stops, a hossfeld can do things like bend 20 foot long pieces of 1 1/2" square tubing into 40 foot radius curves (my carport roof) repeatedly. Or hundreds of multiple bends in 3/8" round stainless, all the same.

Really, you need both. And not just one Di-acro, either- it would be nice to have a No. 2 and a No. 4 as well, in my opinion, to go alongside my hossfeld.

Di-acro benders-
http://www.diacro.com/manualBender.htm

Great info, Thxs Ries...There's a Diacro coming up at auction near me...but for most of the stuff I'm doing the Hossfield #2 looks like the perfect tool.

The Di Acro factory used to be over by me until it went belly up and got bought back by a guy in Minn where it was founded years ago. So they should be back up and running. I know there is some updated info somewhere on this PM forum from them. It was kinda neat to walk around and look at all the benders being made and the parts...Bob
http://www.diacro.com/

The Diacro #2 is better for bending smaller diameter bar for hooks etc. However the Hossfeld has many more options for tooling in the catalog plus making whatever you can dream up. They even have punching and shearing attachments although they are quite limited. IMHO none of the benders available are good for any of the heavier work without hydraulics. We have power on our hossfeld and one of our customers sends us several thousand pieces of 3/4" dia. stainless bar per year. They have 2 diacro's and a manual hossfeld but the job is a beast to try and pull on that handle, so we get it. Someone with an imagination can do a lot with a hossfeld, tubing, bar of all types, scrolls,etc.

Ahh, cmon- measly little 3/4" stainless bar, and you need power?

I bend stainless all the time on my hossfeld, and up to 1" I dont even put the second extension handle on.
And I am no Arnold, either- I am more the 98lb weakling type.

The whole concept of the hossfeld is leverage. Which is not to say I dont have some jobs i use the 50 ton hydraulic press for, but properly set up, a hossfeld can bend welding rod to 2" round bar.

I do bend some stuff hot on the hossfeld, like recently when I had to bend some 3/8" x 2" stainless flat bar both the hard way and the easy way, multiple bends in a foot or so- and heat sure helped.
I had to make some circles a while ago from 1 1/4" round stainless, and I did heat them up too- and the hossfeld did fine.

Here is a picture of the flat bar- it was the outline of the soles of the boots- I made an "I" beam shape from 2" flat bar, with a top and bottom in one plane, and then the vertical piece at 90 degrees-but pretty much everything else was bent on the hossfeld too- 1/2", 5/8" and 3/4" round stainless.

Um, yea. the bends are 2 1/2"R X180 degrees. At 300-500 pc. per run it's a bit of work

Thats why I hire young strong guys to work for me- as a cranky old fart, I get to do the setups, and the first few bends, then tell them- do 200 of these.
At the gym, you pay for the same exercise.

Nice boot Ries. When i was a millwright we made our oun furnace line hooks, thousands if them. It was a full time job for 2 people for years. The hooks were made from 5/8" 430 stainless and is that stuff tough. My wife says i don't have a neck and i wonder why. LOL.
My custom hossfeld copy has a longer swing arm that will bend 8' dia parts with no problem. I started using it to roll my tubing for my tracksoverhead.com train bridges then i bought a roller. I had the dies laser cut and built them how i wanted them to roll 80" OD sq tubes. I have since got all the hydraulic parts to make it power but i don't have the time to put it together...Bob

good god almighty! when i saw the picture of the boot, i went out to the barn and gave my no. 2
a kiss! that is beautiful! i just started doing
sculpture in stainless it is a bitch! you are the
man!!! matteo

post a pic of you bending some 2". Sounds interesting.

300$ with some dies included off ebay. of course shipping will be close to that, but now i need to track down a manual and apparently some strong young men, i feel dirty after saying that.

I have the Hossfeld dies and arm to do 2" iron pipe 180 degrees. The thing literally flexes an inch when you do it too.

never mind, auction was cancelled and seller had trading privileges revoked, good thing i didn't pay yet.

just bolted a #2 to the floor, i can't believe i ever lived without this thing.

Cool deal rr, be sure to post some pics...Bob