Locating and using a Compact Bender

[Big Barn]

I mounted mine on an "outside" corner of my office in my shop. It is secured to the floor with 5/8" concrete anchors. The stomp shear can be moved out of the way with a pallet jack when I am bending longer pieces. Terry

 

[dragoneggs]

I will say this, I've put very tight bends on 1/2 in steel rod, at the very end of the rod, I weigh 220 and am 5 10, pretty stout for my age still and I put a lot of effort sometimes getting a bend. They better be strong inserts able to handle a lot .

Jesse... good thought. I was wondering the same... regardless whether they are studs or inserts. The inserts theoretically should be better as the bearing stress on the concrete will be less. The inserts require a 5/8in drill bit vs. 1/2in dia. for the anchor bolts. But I suppose I could weld the stand to a bigger steel plate and drill four holes in the larger footprint? The more I think about it the more I like that idea.

 

[Big Barn]

Jesse... good thought. I was wondering the same... regardless whether they are studs or inserts. The inserts theoretically should be better as the bearing stress on the concrete will be less. The inserts require a 5/8in drill bit vs. 1/2in dia. for the anchor bolts. But I suppose I could weld the stand to a bigger steel plate and drill four holes in the larger footprint?

Or you could get fancy and jackhammer out a section and set a trailer hitch type receiver into the floor. Sorry if someone has already mentioned this.

Terry

 

[dragoneggs]

I mounted mine on an "outside" corner of my office in my shop. It is secured to the floor with 5/8" concrete anchors. The stomp shear can be moved out of the way with a pallet jack when I am bending longer pieces. View attachment 388127 Terry

Thank you BB for posting that pic! That is exactly the situation I was thinking with it being on an outside corner and I have a cabinet on rollers that I could move if necessary.:drink:

 

[Jesse masterson]

I'd weld the plate and do that !!! You'd be surprised how much leverage you exert when bending !!! Mine is in the floor of a gravel barn, I dug a hole with my backhoe and put in hardened bolts thread up ! Maybe overkill but that baby in all that concrete ain't moving!

 

[notme]

if your really that worried about stress put in a bigger floor plate with more bolts but im guessing your really overthinking this the inserts go into the concrete and to move them you will have to twist/break the concrete I don't care how fat you are that's gonna be hard to do ;-)

 

[dragoneggs]

if your really that worried about stress put in a bigger floor plate with more bolts but im guessing your really overthinking this the inserts go into the concrete and to move them you will have to twist/break the concrete I don't care how fat you are that's gonna be hard to do ;-)

You may be right... and since I didn't have a convenient piece of 3/16in plate that is bigger than the stand itself, I went ahead and hammer drilled and banged in the RedHead 1/2in inserts. These worked great. You do need the corresponding set punch to properly seat them and I am happy with the result. Thanks everyone!

 

[dragoneggs]

Well, I thought it only just... to post a pic of my first scroll. Was pretty easy actually. The little idea/pattern book that comes with... is handy for set up for different scrolls and sizes. I used the optional scroll attachment. Time to make some planter pot stands for the better half!

 

[Clay45]

I bent a lot of 1" EMT and discovered I sometimes needed to reposition the work and block my base up due to the length and location of the bends. A rigid base would not have been useful then. I finally just made a good heavy wood workbench with enough of a lip that I could C-clamp my Harbor Freight bender to it on the corners and get to bending. Don't fence yourself in. When thru I just removed the C-clamps and set the bender and its assorted pieces on a shelf in table and had a clear 36" square tall work table to use for other projects in the meantime. I'd take a pic but I don't have any of it anymore.

 

[dfkrug]

I bent a lot of 1" EMT and discovered I sometimes needed to reposition the work
and block my base up due to the length and location of the bends.

Nice bends, CLAY.

I, too, bought the HF bender many years ago and agonized about where to mount it in my small (625sf)
workshop. Space is at a premium, and I bent some long pieces of 1/2" rod, and want to use it more
for the EMT conduit I use to make ATV racks. The conduit is in 10-ft lengths.

I was leaning towards mid-floor and easily removable because of the lengths involved. I dropped
the idea since I did not think that threaded anchors would be strong enough. (I have already had
some pull out in another application.)

So, I mounted it on my tractor forks. The same receiver is used for my HF tire changer.