Hossfeld #1 pin size

[garyhlucas]

I posted this in Third Hand first, maybe here is better.

I have a Harbor Freight bender with 5/8" pins. Are Hossfeld #1 pins the same size?

[Old Hat]

Harbor Freight bender with 5/8" pins ............

From China? best first accurately measure your pins and holes,
5/8 as in .625 or, 5/8 as in somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4.

Made in Tiawan was a joke at first and rapidly improved.
When I'm forced to buy anythine from China I don't assume anything.
All this time and little improvement.

[Ries]

according to this catalog-
http://www.hossfeldbender.com/downlo...l1_Catalog.pdf
the main, center pin on a No. 1 hossfeld is 3/4" diameter, and the smaller swing pins are 5/8".

The No. 2 hossfeld uses bigger pins, 1" and 3/4", respectively.

So, yes, some of the hossfeld pins will fit your machine.

However, the chinese machines are a copy of the shop outfitters bender from 20 years ago- NOT a copy of a hossfeld.
Shop outfitters seems to fail to understand many of the basic principles of the hossfeld, and so their swinging frame pins have oddball victorian style balls on top, making them useless for top of the frame bending, one of the most commonly used formats on a real hossfeld. Hossfeld pins have small dimples (you can also just make a tiny weld bead) to keep them from falling all the way thru, but allowing 2" or so to stick up.
Same thing with the center pins.
Shop outfitters has their dingle ball, HF has goofy shackles and d rings.
You want the center pin, and the pins in both the swinging and fixed frames, to stick up an inch and a half or so- this enables you to freehand bend on top, and makes the machine much much more useful.