Metal Bending tool

For the money the HF bender is hard to beat and suprising quality. I had to drill 4 1/2" holes in my concrete floor, epoxy threaded stud so I could mount the bender. Quite a bit of side force is generated when bending.
 
I always planed on making a hydraulic bender , in the planning development and procuring , have couple cylinders , two may help. Oh well I'm hopping
 
I made mine. It can handle 1/2" x 2-1/2" hot roll steel with no heat...

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There are three basic kinds of benders. The ones being talked about and shown above are great for bending flat or solid stock into ornamental designs.

They've also mentioned using hydraulic presses with those jigs, and those are great for harder and sharper angles.

There is a pipe bender, (harbor freight has these,too) but they will often kink your pipes if you aren't careful.

The one I am looking at (I've already purchased the metal) hails from the chopper builders forum, and they have plans for building a ratchet-style. This style will allow you to bend some larger stuff :

http://www.chopperhandbook.com/bender.htm

Good luck!
 
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