Learning to use my bender.

[silentpoet]

Picked up a harbor freight compact bender a while back. Mounted in the carport with 3 inch 3/8 inch red head anchors. Learned about proper hammer drill bit selection from my mistakes. So far I’ve made a shepherd’s hook, paper towel holder, tp holder, and these dumbbell spotter hooks. Right angle bends are still a struggle. But should be easier now that I mounted it in a more convenient place. Bending all 4 hooks at once took some oomph. But it made them more uniform. Going through test them out later this week.

 

[jack stand]

Looks nice!
Repeated bends are my struggle also. I have a Hossfeld bender (for over 30 years) and I still can only "scratch the surface" as far as it's capabilities. I'm certain that it's practice, practice, practice!
Get a few 20' sticks of smooth 1/2" rod, it'll behave much better than that re-bar. Those bumps don't help.

 

[txvwnut]

I have that same bender and the only thing it has ever bent has been rebar and that was when I was doing the concrete work for my shop.

 

[no704]

Best thing to do is rig a degree wheel with a tell tail. Doubt u will get consistent results on ribbed rebar.

 

[danielbuck]

Looks nice!
Repeated bends are my struggle also. I have a Hossfeld bender (for over 30 years) and I still can only "scratch the surface" as far as it's capabilities. I'm certain that it's practice, practice, practice!
Get a few 20' sticks of smooth 1/2" rod, it'll behave much better than that re-bar. Those bumps don't help.

using stops and marks on the bender help alot. Taking the time to setup stops and such on the first piece lets the other pieces go alot faster and more accurate.

my problem is that there's so many ways to setup these benders, and I don't use it daily, I often forget how I set it up to do a particular bend previously, and have to mess around a bit to figure it out again. I suppose I really should keep a diagram handy, lol

 

[Crazyjake8493]

I really need to get more proficient with mine, or at least draw some setup guides for common bends.

It's one of my all-time favorite Harbor Freight purchases and paid for itself several times over. I just use it so infrequently that by the time I need it again I have to open some PDF's or a Youtube video on how to set it up. Made a lot of brackets and stuff over the years.

I mounted mine with two 1/2" drop-in anchors so I can remove the bolts and move the bender out of the way, if needed. Still plenty sturdy with just two anchors.

 

[brianh]

I have that bender comes in handy worth the floor space, made this creation not long after getting it.

 

[v8nutz]

That is so cool, you are an artist!

 

[silentpoet]

I really need to get more proficient with mine, or at least draw some setup guides for common bends.

It's one of my all-time favorite Harbor Freight purchases and paid for itself several times over. I just use it so infrequently that by the time I need it again I have to open some PDF's or a Youtube video on how to set it up. Made a lot of brackets and stuff over the years.

I mounted mine with two 1/2" drop-in anchors so I can remove the bolts and move the bender out of the way, if needed. Still plenty sturdy with just two anchors.

The Clarke manual I found online is pretty handy compared to the bare bones harbor freight one. When I switch to my computer I’ll link it if you want it. I found it linked on a YouTube video.

That is so cool, you are an artist!

That’s some impressive work and art. I agree.