I finally ordered a new Hossfeld bender...

[TheEquineFencer]

It's one to replace the one that got cooked when the shop burned down. The old one was "probably salvageable" for reuse if I would take the time to do a little heating and beating.

The old one I'd modified a couple of times. When I first got it, the thing came mounted to a "table" that was a 3 inch thick section of what I think was hull plating that was about 3ft square. The first time I added a long reach hydraulic cylinder I had that had the cylinder mounting pins midway of the cylinder on the sides. I was powering it with a 12V over hydraulic pump for a dump bed.
That worked great for bending 90* until I wanted to bend 180*.

Then I modified it again, I made the stand pictured below. It was complete rebuild of the system. I added the stand that has a steel pipe inside of a pipe. The bender was mounted to the inside pipe on the end, with the other end welded to another steel plate was was bolted to a wooden cargo dolly. The pipe on the outside has two chains repurposed from a forklift mast wrapped around it, these were pulled by two double acting cylinders used as single acting to rotate the pipe on the outside. The arm welded to the outer pipe would catch the end of the Hossfeld bender and swing it. For the hydraulics, I used a log splitter valve with auto detent return. The 120V electric over hydraulic pump was repurposed from an old Areoquip hose crimper.

Eventually I'll probably take the old bender apart as I need some of the tooling off it for the bare bender I just ordered and try to straighten it out some.

I ordered a set of dies for doing 1 inch OD round tubing on a 2-1/4 radius and a set for doing 1-3/4 OD tubing on a 6 inch radius for doing roll bars/cages. I did find most of the old dies, they need to get blasted and cleaned. I have a set for doing 1 inch square tubing on a 3 inch radius plus a few other odd dies. After I get the bender back operational I'll finish sorting and seeing what went missing. I think I have all the parts for doing 1/2 pipe 180*.

I enjoyed using this machine. The neatest thing it would do is bend a steel rod 90* with a sharp bend and look really nice, nothing like as if you put it in a vise and beat it with a hammer. I used it for making hooks to weld onto horse shoes for hanging brackets.

I've got a few projects that I've dreamed up that I really need to get the bender going to make. If they work like the others I've made for my long time G/F, her friends will see them and want some and I'll be back in business making stuff for our horse buddies.

I just could not see paying almost $4000 for the hydraulic attachment Hossfeld wanted and then it would have to be "ratcheted" to work. The way I did it seems to work for me pretty slick. If later I need more hydraulic power, I'll just add another cylinder. I may go ahead and move the chain brackets and use bigger cylinders when I rebuild it in a few weeks. I'm looking around for a cheap hydraulic pump and/or motor now.

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

I have hossfeld bender would like to see some pictures of the hydraulic set up.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

I have hossfeld bender would like to see some pictures of the hydraulic set up.

If my "helper" comes over today, I'll drag it out and get some better pictures of it.

Basically the pedestal is a pipe inside another pipe. My lathe was not big enough to turn the OD of the inside pipe so I had a guy do it in his big lathe. I cut a section, about an inch or so off the outside pipe and also welded it to the bottom for the outside pipe to ride on as I knew the weld for the inside pipe would make it bind. I welded the inside pipe to a plate on the bottom and the top of the inside pipe to a plate at the top. I mounted the Hossfeld bender so the center pin is dead over the top of the two pipes. I welded an L shaped square "arm" out of some 4 inch channel to catch the swing arm of the Hossfeld. It's 24 inches long. To move the outer pipe to make the arm move the swing arm, I milled a steel block so the forklift chain would attach with a regular forklift attachment link. The spacing of the chains from each other were dictated by the size of my cylinders so they lined up with the cylinders. The chain attaches to the cylinders with a pin that I milled down so the Forklift chain would work with the same link pins as the other end did. They are DA cylinders used as single acting, one fitting has just a vent. When one is pulling, the other is returning. I'm just using the "small" side of the cylinder. I used a regular log splitter valve with a return detent. I mounted the hydraulic valve to the end of the L arm. I did put a Hydraulic pressure gauge at the valve so I could tell if I got it in a bind. I did adjust the relief pressure for the splitter valve up to almost max of what the pump would do. Usually while bending it ran around 1000-1300 PSI.

At the time I built it like this, the most I was bending was 1 inch square tubing or something close to that. This next time I build it, I'm going up on the cylinder size as I plan to one day be bending 1-3/4 .120 wall tubing.

I'm not sure how much mechanical advantage I lost the way I did it, but it looked like better idea to me than the way Hossfeld did it with that ratchet type system they used. I figured if I needed my power, I'd just go to a bigger cylinder. I figured the worst that would happen is I'd rip the L arm off. BTW, the outer pipe is 6 inch OD with a 1/4 inch wall. I did add some grease fittings to it to lube the two pipes. The cylinders on it as built are 1-1/2.

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

I am a bit confused on the system but I usually work with 1.5 .120 wall and 1 in. and flat stock. I do have a greenlee electricians hyd. bender for 1.5 tube that works perfect.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

I am a bit confused on the system but I usually work with 1.5 .120 wall and 1 in. and flat stock. I do have a greenlee electricians hyd. bender for 1.5 tube that works perfect.

OK, the two chains both can pull, but only one at the time. As one cylinder has pressure applied to the rod/chain end of the cylinder, it retracts making the cylinder shorter,pulling the chain around the pipe it's welded to, the opposite cylinder/chain extends expelling the fluid to the return side/tank through the splitter valve, as the other cylinder is pulling.

I then hit the hydraulic valve to the return position and the opposite happens. If I stop the bender anywhere, the hydraulics hold it where it's at. If I hit the return on the valve far enough for the denet to lock, I do not have to hold the valve for it to return fully, it'll return to the end of the stroke and go to neutral.