What's your favorite bender!

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My favorite bender is my Ericksen bender. Does 1/2", 3/4" and 1" all to the same 12" radius which makes for nice pipe racks. Take up is ~14".
And just to rile Don G., it makes it easier to push wires and perhaps pull also.
Benfield was bought out by Klein and has a yellow handle.
Ideal makes the ideal bender. They usually have blue handles but any make of handle will fit as well as plumbing pipe [1/2" or 3/4"]. *
Greenlee benders have a little tit that lines up with the degree marks so you can verify the angle of bend whilst standing up. They have green handles because they like the color green for some reason.
Benfield benders have red handles.
*It is best to get the manufactred handles because the end is swaged to be big enough to fit over the end of the conduit bend so you can tweak it back and forth to the exact degree. Also the open end is rounded, there is sometimes a chart and they are painted a pretty color. Plumbing pipe doesn't allow this. But one advantage of plumbing [or GRC] is that you can use a longer length for more leverage. But you can put a 12" pipe nipple & coupling between the handle and the head to have the best of both worlds.
I emphasise the importance of the color of the handles because it allows one to tell the dirrerence between the different sizes. For instance, my 1/2" is a Klein with a :smile: yellow handle, my 3/4" is a Greenlee with a blue ;) handle, my 1" is an Ideal with a green :D handle and my Eriksen has a red :mad: handle. I don't get confused anymore!
~Peter
 
All my benders are ideal. I had a GB several years ago, and I didn't like it much. It now bends only re-bar.

My ranking order would be Ideal, Greenlee, Klein and GB tied for last.
I really dislike the markings on Klein's benders, they just don't seem precise and are often hard to read.
 
We supply the benders because it got to be too much trouble with everyone bringing their own. Part of the problem is no names on the benders. One would be lost but fighting over who's it was. Someone would forget the bender in their car and would hare making things go too slow.

But really a bender is a hand tool IMO. What are they costing now a days, $20-30. I have not met a guy around here that worked for more than a few months that did not own their own bender even if the job had them. I would bring my own too before I would use an old funky bender. Maybe in some parts of the country they are a special order item but you can get them anywhere here.
 
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