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New Bender Here, Humbled Greatly


VeGripper

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All I can say is, wow! Got my Benders Bag from FBBCO today and was thrilled to finally try a shot at twisting some steel. Let me say, I knew it would be tough, but not THIS tough! Heck, I thought, I'm fairly strong, do a lot of grip/wrist work, I should be able to do damage to a fair amount of the stuff in this bag. WRONG!

I managed to bend all lengths of the 3/16" stuff without trouble, even taped 2 of them together and did that without killing myself too badly. Did the longer square stock pretty well, shorter one gave me some trouble but it folded as well. As for the rest - I feel like I'm going to break my hands off before I'll get that damned 1/4" to budge - porbably put a 1 degree almost-invisible bow into it and that's all I've managed, but I'm going to try until I fold it as well. No idea if I'll ever get that 5/16" to budge, but I'm giving it the evil eye right now, waiting to try it down the road.

So, let me say that my respect has gone up by leaps and bounds for those of you who bend - I'm new to this and will undoubtedly have lots of questions, so bear with me as I seek out info on improving my technique!

VeGripper

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Congrats on your exploration of bending! You will get addicted quickly!! :)

Bend that 3/16" square in as high a volume as you can, and see if you can find some timber ties at the hardware store. These will help you close the gap on your way to the 1/4" round stock.

Keep grippin!

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Yep, do yourself a favor and buy a 30lb container of timer ties. High volume.

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Welcome aboard VeGripper! And feel free to ask all the questions you like. I might even be able to answer some of them.

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Thanks for the support on my entry into bending!

Just to ask, for the timber ties mentioned, are these the same as the big-ass timber spikes that I received in my bag? As in, the close to foot long 1/2" thick suckers that look rather intimidating? I haven't tried one yet, but are these easier to bend than they look? If so, any advice on where to grip these things for a bend? They're so freaking long I wasn't sure how to go about tackling one of them, so any info on this would be appreciated.

Also, didn't Bender from the board or someone else have a great page dedicated to this fine art? If so, any info on where it is would be a huge help.

Thanks again, everyone! I'll post periodically as I make new progress!

VeGripper

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Nice to have another bending "addict" on the board. :D You've come to the right place-there's a literal gold mind of information here to be found.

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Just to ask, for the timber ties mentioned, are these the same as the big-ass timber spikes that I received in my bag? As in, the close to foot long 1/2" thick suckers that look rather intimidating? I haven't tried one yet, but are these easier to bend than they look? If so, any advice on where to grip these things for a bend? They're so freaking long I wasn't sure how to go about tackling one of them, so any info on this would be appreciated.

Thanks again, everyone! I'll post periodically as I make new progress!

VeGripper

The timber ties mentioned by Chris are 1/4 X 6", and are spiraled. There are variations of these, but most are fairly easy in the grand scheme of things. For example, if an Iron Mind Blue nail is given a poundage rating of 260, then a timber tie as mentioned above would rate at roughly 200 pounds. Unless you are truly gifted with bending abilities, they are a great starting nail. I started on these myself six months ago.

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Great advice Eric and Chris.

I had some info to add though.

Make sure the timber ties you get are the ones with 8 twist in them.

Stay away from the 12 twist and the 5 twist ones for now.

The 12 twist is equal to the ironmind blue nail and the 5 twist is close to a grade 5 bolt from what I can tell.

Get the Griprite Brand from Lowe's hardware. It's 10 bucks for a 5 pound box of these jewels.

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