Grippers For Crushdown

[GarytheDino]

Do you gain anything from doing these? It seems to be the easy part. I guess a tough bend could take all your energy and perhaps the crushdown needs to be the strongest part of the bend. What would be a good gripper to use, say in the G8-Red range?

[EricMilfeld]

Gary, I too once believed that the crushown would always be the easy part till I started bending cut-down Reds, FBB stocks, and even grade 8's. As an example, the first time I bent a Red I was surprised to discover that the crushdown was relatively easy. But on the other hand, with a sub 6" bend of the Red it is the exact opposite case. Getting the first ninety degrees on a 5 3/4" Red is a given, after that it's hit or miss for me. As a good rule of thumb it's hard to make any hard and fast rules concerning bending. There's just so many variables that come into play with steel varieties, lengths, and thicknesses.

A good stout #4 gripper should do the trick for practicing crushdowns. But my first choice is bending steel, perhaps even pre-kinked steel.

[SqeezeMasterFlash]

A #4 is definiitely the way to go for crushdown strength. Just rep the hell out of it. If you get really good at it you could always get a Pro or a WC.

[Clay Edgin]

I never really liked the feeling of heavy grippers for practicing the crush down on a nail. I prefer to take some harder stock than I can fully bend and kink it to about 50-60 degrees over a barbell or something, then crush it until it is finished. If I can do that, then I will try one from 40 degrees, then 35, 30, etc. I think this has done a lot to help my bending.