CHASSIS GUYS, New bender purchase HELP...

I have been using Hossfelds for over 20 years. Built many off road ch***is with them, including Baja 1000 winners. Very good solid machine. An even though I use an Ercolina (quite costly) now for roll cages
http://www.ercolina-usa.com/topbender.htm ,and an Eaton Leonard for Exhaust http://www.eatonleonard.com/pages2007/VB80.html, I would never hesitiate to go back to a Hossfeld. From what I understand they pretty much invented the category for this type of bender http://www.hossfeldbender.com/

 

For what it's worth, I bend all my stuff with only two die sets. I have a 1 5/8 and a 1 3/8 set. When I first used them I bought some moly from a race car builder and made spacers or shims. A 1 5/8 x .063 when bent will bend a 1 1/2 tube. Just slice or split the radius and keep the inside ,pair it with a piece of the straight and insert them when bending a 1 1/2 tube. Do the same with 1 5/8 x .120 and you can bend 1 1/2. The 1 3/8 set I shim to 1 1/4 and 1 1/8. Lube them heck out of them and it works great.I did weld a small tab to help keep the shims in place.
Best of luck.

 

I've done the same thing with my old Pro bender. The newer bender dies are designed with 2 aluminum "feet" on the follow bar, rather than the old solid shoe. One of the feet has a slight angle to it. The shim trick doesn't work on those (at least on our JD benders). Maybe the mfgs caught on to that trick?

 

We have both a JD2 model 3 and the newer JD2 model 32. They both have hydraulics on them, and both do a great job. The model 32 bends 2" DOM 1/4' with no strain at all.

 

I'd like to see that. Sounds like a cool idea. Do you have to get up in the bed to use it?, or is it still low enough to use from the ground?

 

i use a pro-tools 105

it can be converted to hydraulic,using a hydraulic ram.. they have a kit available, but you can make your own using a ram from harbor freight and a air over hydraulic pump pretty easy..

if your going to be doing alot of bending your going to want it to be hydraulic, my 105 is still manual and it bends 1 3/4 .134wall easy with a 3ft handle but i dont use it much any more, but if i were going to start on a ch***is or a 10pt. or 12pt. cage i would convert it to hydraulic and wouldnt think twice about it. no reason to work harder than you have too..

i would also mount the bender on an rolling frame of some type instead of bolting it to the floor, and old engine stand would work good..

 

Very good idea.. Thank you for sharing.. I like tips, and tricks like this... even If you can not use it on the new bender!!!!

RJ

 

I wouldn't mind seeing it either..


RJ

 

My buddy uses a JD2 and loves it. I've seen his work and can vouche that it did a good job.