Has anyone had any experience with the Evans Bender? I am currently on a large commercial job and can see the benefit of having one of these machines. Does anyone know the price of one of these as well?? I will try and pitch to the higher ups only if I can justify its usefullness and cost/profit ability.
www.evansbenders.com

Thanks

I priced it out if I remember right it was just over $1,000. I allways thought it would be great to come up with or have a tool like this but I think it is over priced for what it is. I am a sucker for buying new tools.

If you set this up at a job for your people how far are they going to have to walk to get to it? Are you going to need to move it around and lock it up every day? You still need to use some thought using it to figure in "10%, 15%, etc. spring back" like the video said. It might be nice for the stiffer pipes like 3/4 ridgid. It may be nice for exposed work.

I would think a skilled pipe bender could do just as good and save time by not walking to the mackine. I believe the key to being a fast piper is no waisted steps, no waisted motions, and a little concintration. Maybe you would have more benifit from training emploiees(vedio/books/demostrations) on bending formulas etc.. I don't know your peoples skill levels but something as simple as making all the same bends at the same time will save alot. It is crazy to see some guys where everything is the same (wall hight, outlet, switch) and they measure and make each piece one by one.

You can check out this thread for some more info.

https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/004190.html

IMO it is to limited for it's price.

Seems to be crippled in not being able to make 90° bends.

I checked it out & felt it was too costly for me. The selling point of reducing scrap didn't apply for me. The other selling point of saving time really only applies if you don't include going to the bender, setup, teardown, etc. It also looked like it wouldn't do short pieces. After looking at the video I thought it would be better for machine production where you could do 20+ of the same bends at a time. For my commercial work, I run about 1000' of pipe & have about 10' of scrap...all shorts, not mis-bent offsets. The figuring for spring-back as a percentage put me off, as well as its weight (over 100 lbs. as I recall...not something I'd throw in my pickup regularly).

Dave

How many people have ideas for a better bender? I do! I day dream about them all the time........ Especially after running 1"+ rigid, and saying to myself, "If I could only put an off-set, or a kick there without having to go back to the shop..."

I came across the evans bender while researching some ideas. my thoughts were that it was too big to move around to different sites. It is meant as a production bender. One guy cranking out the same type bend over, and over again. Great idea though!

We own one and it has sat in our tool cage for two years.

It has only been on one job I know of and was not that well thought of.

It works well, but it didn't save enough (if any) time to be a worth it's price tag.

Roger

Shameless, totally unapologetic huckstering on my part www.benfielddirect.com


[See: "Back Pocket Bending Buddy"}

We own one too, with the same experience as Roger. It works well but the guys never really cared for it. Too heavy to haul around!
KB

you would be better off with an enerpac or cyclone bender. they look like a beehive. can bend emt or rigid up to 2" all on the same beehive shoe. they both have adial on top which serves two purpose: 1 set the size of the pipe, 2 set the degree of bend , push the button sand it automatically stops at the desired bend.

Don't you guys use "Chicago" benders anymore?

As long as you fellows are dreaming...
you really should carefully check out the Burkey Bender. It creates an entirely new class for conduit benders because it provides exactly the qualities other benders ommit.
CONDUIT BENDER

[This message has been edited by burkey (edited 07-08-2004).]

Thanks for the input guys. Had a good discussion with shop but they could not justify a $1500 tool with limited capabilities. I figured I would ask anyways. Now the Burkey Bender......uh.....$5700.00?? It would be a frosty day in the Bahamas when I could get them to jump at that. Must be plated in gold??

The Burkey Bender seems like a fantastic idea for someone on massive scope commercial jobs.. But for the price of a way off lease GMC Sierra... I think I'd rather have the truck with my Ideal benders in the back

-Randy

The company I work for does large scale pipe jobs and we would not buy this either.

$5700.00 to bend 1/2" 3/4" & 1" EMT, no way!

The time saved would be more than offset by the time walking back and forth to this table or coming down off the scissor lift.

Have you sold any of these to ECs?

Bob

the large scale jobs we work on you would be laughed at if you used these benders for 1/2-1" pipe. but on the large scale jobs we do they include "large pipe". as for the chicago benders, they're excellent up to 1" rigid after that its time to start using a greenlee sidewinder, triple nickel or enerpac.

In the Uk we use benders nothing like yours , my favorite is the hilmor EL25. It fits in the boot of a car and with correct instruction can produce high nquality work.Its also got a built in pipe vice for sawing and threading.they are available new for about £400. The only thing i cant figure is that we have sent men to the moon and in england still thread by hand! In ireland electric dies are common but have never seen them here.