Hossfeld style Vs Di-Acro #3, bender comparison

Hi all, I have a DiAcro #3 bender that I use and love, but I also wound up with a HF Hossfeld type bender.
in 4 years I haven't even unwrapped the stretch film around it, and im wondering if there is something the type is particularly suited for?
what can they do the DiAcro doesn't or isn't well suited to do? Thanks in advance for looking and responding, Cy

My cheap ass HF Hoss-type bender bent 5/8 diameter solid 303 round bar and made me some good money on a few orders. No idea if a Di-Acro would have done it better or faster, but def. not cheaper.

All I have ever used my Hossfeld for is roll cage tubing, but I have never used a DiAcro. I cannot find where the DiAcro will do 2" tube, but it certainly looks to be better suited for the smaller stuff, in terms of setup time.

The Harbor Freight chinese benders are only very superficially like a hossfeld.
A hossfeld is a hoss of a different color.
A di-acro is great for small diameter tubing, and for smallish round and square bar.
It is pretty precise. Virtually impossible to get dies for, if it didnt come with em.
A hossfeld is good for everything- up to 2" schedule 40 pipe, Angle Iron flange in or out, flat bar the hard way or the easy way, and its really great for pulling repeatable circles and arcs, up to 8' in diameter. Hossfeld stocks or will make literally hundreds of dies for you. Need to bend T bar the hard way? They have the dies.

Really, a Di-acro is a great benchtop bender for small parts.

A Hossfeld is a fab shop essential. I do things with mine like pull curves of 10' radius in 1 1/4" sq tubing for rafters on a curved roof. Or bend 3/8" x 2" stainless flat bar into 2' radius curves.
Or bend 3/16" x 2" flat bar the hard way.
I have bent 1 1/2" stainless round bar into circles, hot, on the hossfeld.
The hossfeld is much better for freehand bending odd shapes- scrolls, or faces, or stairsteps.

A good fab shop will have both.

Ries said:

The Harbor Freight chinese benders are only very superficially like a hossfeld.
A hossfeld is a hoss of a different color.
A di-acro is great for small diameter tubing, and for smallish round and square bar.
It is pretty precise. Virtually impossible to get dies for, if it didnt come with em.
A hossfeld is good for everything- up to 2" schedule 40 pipe, Angle Iron flange in or out, flat bar the hard way or the easy way, and its really great for pulling repeatable circles and arcs, up to 8' in diameter. Hossfeld stocks or will make literally hundreds of dies for you. Need to bend T bar the hard way? They have the dies.

Really, a Di-acro is a great benchtop bender for small parts.

A Hossfeld is a fab shop essential. I do things with mine like pull curves of 10' radius in 1 1/4" sq tubing for rafters on a curved roof. Or bend 3/8" x 2" stainless flat bar into 2' radius curves.
Or bend 3/16" x 2" flat bar the hard way.
I have bent 1 1/2" stainless round bar into circles, hot, on the hossfeld.
The hossfeld is much better for freehand bending odd shapes- scrolls, or faces, or stairsteps.

A good fab shop will have both.

Click to expand...

I second your statement, there is ABSOLUTELY NO comparison of the HF to the real deal Hossfeld.

I do not know your intended use but my DiAcro worked fine for bending 1.5" 0.093" wall 6061-T6 to build a frame. Make my own dies.

I can’t speak for the what the cheap hossfeld copy can do but I can show what a genuine hossfeld can do. Just watch these two videos.

this is exactly the info I was hoping to stir up!
Of course I never for a second was equating a HF and a real Hos. If I had a genuine Hossfeld, I wouldn’t even consider getting rid of it. I bought this from someone closing up shop and wanted to help them out.
I have a great guy I outsource to who does my heavier bending, shearing and fiber laser cutting, so I was really looking to educate myself.
I think there is a little “team spirit” going on here, “ my bender can do xxx by its self while I sleep (even tho it’s a manual)” haha!
For example, my #3 is no “bench top” unit, it kicks ass, but obviously there are differences, strengths and weaknesses.
Thanks and Keep it coming!

I haven't personally used a DiAcro bender, but they look like a pretty well made piece. Just from my experience with other benders, I would say the access to load/remove material from the machine and the visibility of what you're doing is a lot better than Hossfeld and similar benders where you have to pass the material through the frame to get it in the machine.

Here's a link to a very long thread on Garage Journal to a bicycle frame builder who uses a #4 DiAcro and shows how he makes tube bending dies for it: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/44-bikes-frame-shop.112578/page-37

That access comes at a cost...because all the pins, etc. are loaded in single shear/bending, everything has to be more stout for equivalent capacity. I'm not sure what the rated capacity of the big (#6?) DiAcro is, but I don't know that it's the same as a #2 Hossfeld.

I have both a JD Squared Model 4 and a Hossfeld #2. The reason I got the Hossfeld is the versatility that Ries talks about. Initially it was for flat bar to handle some stuff that would have been difficult to do without a very well equipped press brake. Since then, I've added quite a bit of tooling and upgraded to hydraulic operation. The selection of tube and pipe dies for a Hossfeld far exceeds other similarly priced machines, and lets you bend to tighter radii than JD Squared will. I've also gotten some of the large radius "feed-along" tooling, which lets you do similar things to a roll bender. Eventually I want to add the angle iron tooling.

Here's a photo of my setup...still needs paint.