Harbor freight 38470 setup for 90 bending

Harbor freight compact bender 38470 setup for 90 bending

[dans]

My unit was purchased over 10 years ago and could not find the manual. I never could have figured it out, thank you for the video.

[jart]

The fact that the camera work is sub par and all over the place and that I still managed to learn more from this short tutorial than I have from a lot of other tutorials including the instructions from the manufacturer says a lot. Thank you for taking the time to make this, it really helped. ( also your description of the instructions given with the tool was spot on. )

[PiMotoTours]

Thanks, what a pack of instructions, kept me from wasting an hour of my life and countless pieces of test material.

[trevethan]

Thank God for YouTube videos about different tool set up's and how-to videos

[ZoeGnosis]

Thanks for the video. Painting the pins and right angle bender red made it look like better quality. However, the book does illustrate the 90° bend exactly as you show, but only in reverse, though you do mention the reverse way. But at least we all now know that we don't have to always pull from the right.

[AntiqueWindmills]

Great video, short sweet and to the point. I bought mine about 15 years ago. The instructions looked like it was written by a kindergartner with a crayola that had been xeroxed about 1000 times before I ever got it.

[newstart]

 I made a sharp bend once, then forgot how I did it and stared at the bender for a long time trying to picture the setup. Thanks for this video. Next time I'll take pics when I set it up right for reference.

[rickster]

- I've been looking everywhere for this bend, Thanks!!

[mean]

I just figured it out. When bending flat bar that's much longer than the video shows at a 90 deg angle, you can still do it as long as it's 1/8" thick or less, but if you're bending the 1/4" thick flat bar at a 90 deg, and you want to place the bend much farther away from the end of your work piece than this video shows, then to get the end of the piece to slide past the closed end of the loop on the tool you must avoid using the silver die on the black pin of the tool. Use the black pin alone

[ryancl]

thanks for the instructions. just got mine the other week.

[jimbarchuk]

Thanks for the clues!!! I have a very 'geometrically oriented' brain, but this gadget baffled me, and the 'instructions' made it only worse. LOL!! Your videos make it all *understandable*. With your *clues*, bending 0.1" piano wire, with the 7/8" die on the fulcrum pin, and the 3" die on the outer pin, I could achieve up to a 320 deg bend, which is the limit of the 'right angle' attachment. :) :)

[paulstone]

Thank you very much for the video. The instructions are FUBAR, but now I can use this thing.

[bopdoowop]

Thanks!! I bought one of these a while back and tried to use it just now but like you said, the instructions suck.

[mean]

to add to what I just said, if you use even the smallest diameter die that comes with the bender (which is the 7/8" one) it's too big to allow a 1/4" thick flat bar piece to slide past the heel of the loop in the handle of the tool. If you you use the black pin alone, it will allow you the extra clearance room to push your 1/4" thick work piece through and past the loop. Thanks to USMCDOC for posting the vid.

[carlosextromolo]

I've got to get myself one of these. I almost always need to bend something when fabricating with my everlast welders.

[mean]

I just bought this cheap Chinese harbor Freight bender, but I have the bench top model which is the exact same thing as the one in this vid except for the floor pedestal. I can appreciate the effort made to post this video, but the only problem I see with the way it's being used here is that it's only good for making 90 degree bends that aren't anymore than about 4 inches away from the end of your work piece, because if the work piece extends longer than that, it cannot be done. Am I wrong?

[mean]

I ran out of space to fully explain my question in the last post. If the work piece extends more than four inches from the spot that's being bent, then it will crash up into the heel of the loop on the bender. Unless there's something I'm overlooking here(and if there is, then someone please correct me on this) there must be a better way to bend long pieces of flat bar steel with this tool other than the way it's being shown here. I agree that the instructions that came with this tool STINK!!!

[spaight]

I really like that pain job, I think it helps visually for setup and use.  What kind of paint  did you use on it?

[cledesma]

Trying to bend a 13 3/4" x 1 1/2" x 1/4" piece of metal into a U shape to have 1 3/4 space and can only get one side to bend correctly. The bending anvil doesn't allow the for the 1/4" to pass through for the 2nd bend. It does fine bending a 1/8 x 1 1/2 flat bar into a U shape. Do you have any suggestions?

[LarrymanYT]

Ok. once I set up the machine correctly for 90 degree angles,   (using print outs from stills from this video), it was pretty damn easy. I used 1/8" by 1.5" construction steel to make 4 perfect right angle bends. I did 2 practice runs on some leftover material from a previous project. and then created my 4 Ls. Bolted back to back, they are now 2 perfect Ts. I used them to hold in place two stacks of barbells that I often need to transport in the back of my pick up. I'm sure a machine shop would have charged me more than the Under $100 that I spent on the machine.  and now I have a metal bending machine!