raceral wrote:
For horizontal benders all it takes is a 20 dollar rosette from Swag Off Road and the horizontal bender can be used in any small space.
So you do not need 14 feet of space to do a bend with the horizontal bender.
Also to be honest the ram is what makes it portable, if you want to attach a cheap harbor freight ram to a horizontal bender you can also have the same features.
I think each bender should be considered on its own merit as far as applications go.
The vertical bender has a lot going for it, but the features it has can be applied to the horizontal as well for not much money.
The bender in either consideration is the cheap part, regardless. It is the dies that cost the 'real' money.
Al
AL, You're correct, if you convert the horizontal bender to hydraulic it can become moveable or portable. You still don't have the retract function however, which is indispensable. Pushing the ram back manually sucks. The really nice part about going vertical is that you can use an angle finder, either manual or digital, and toss the degree wheel and pointer.