BENDERS 2

Commercial Benders

Two small dedicated benders from the M.O.T.A.T (Museium of Transport and Technology) located in Auckland, New Zealand. The scroll bender on the left is cast iron but there are similar benders made of flame cut steel that is bent (pulled out) after torching a spiral cut. The bender on the pipe stand is for bending horseshoes. Note the extra hole for the anchor bar. Images above courtesy Andrew Hooper, Kiwi Blacksmith, NZ.

This unusual little bender is from Andrew Hooper's collection. It appears to be a production product and is very similar to the cast bending jig above. What is unusual about this jig is the ingenious method of manufacture mentioned above.
The scroll is torched from a piece of 1/2" (13mm) plate and then pushed out. The end pins are knurled to help grip the bar and are mounted through excentric holes so that the jig can be adjusted for different bar sizes.

A Diacro bender. These comercial benders are still manufactured in several sizes. How-to Manual

Hossfeld Bender. These are also still manufactured. The Diacro and the Hossfeld are most often found in commercial fabrication shops and are used for cold bending. However, they can both be used for hot bending and greatly increase their capacity. Full sets of dies for these benders are expensive and rarely found with used benders. Generaly it is easier to make a special hot bender than to make dies to fit these machines.

Scroll Bender attachment and detail of Hossfeld bender. Note that this is for bending 1/8 inch flat stock without a forged end. All the leverage needed comes from the 6" (9cm) offset of the crank handle bent in the shaft.

Future articles will cover how these commercial benders are used and building similar benders.