Bender: used it...once. Doesn't do what you think it will. this is a pipe bender, not a tube bender. flattens at the bend and puts dents where the dies press. Some fabricators have figured out how to use it and have it down to a science, but it is a lot of extra work for little payoff. Basically, one fabricator I know and respect is AJ at AJ's offroad armor who used to fill the tubing with sand and used one of those benders and did pretty well, but like I said, way too much work IMHO.
Horizontal Bandsaw: Now this I have used a lot. In fact, that $20 for insurance has paid for itself many times over. Each time you take one back you pay another $20 for insurance, but you basically can get 11 bandsaws for the price of 2, and I have gone through that many of those things in two years. For light work on your own stuff, not a bad little unit. For production, forget about it.
The chop saw: never used one, honestly thought about it, then thought about some of the other stuff I have used, and don't trust a blade that big moving at those RPM's in a machine from Harbor Freight. Pass on that one.
Some tools I will vouche for: The drill presses have done well, I have two, a small one that I got on sale for $40 that I have my slider pinch weld mount jig in, and my big one for everything else. Neither of those have let me down, and got them both on awesome sales, and paid less than $200 total for them. Troy doesn't like the big drill press, but that's because I won't pay him the $.25 per hole he keeps asking for.
The little blue 4.5" angle grinders you can usually get at the first weekend of the month sidwalk sales for less than $10 each, I stock up on those, and I can get 9 of them for the price of a Dewault, and as hard as I am on them, I would have to buy 3 dewaults to get the same life expectancy out of 9 of those cheapo grinders, so they have done well and saved me quite a bit of money and when they die it doesn't tick me off whereas everytime I destroy a dewault I am pretty upset about throwing $90 in the trash, so I quit buying the dewault. The most impressive and most useful thing I have gotten from there is the 7" grinder.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=46237 print this out and take it in with you, because the store sells them for $49.99 up to $79.99 for the same part number, but they will match their online prices. That $40 was the best investment I have ever made on anything in my life. After 3 years, 80 rear bumpers and god knows how many sets of sliders and front cherokee bumpers, it finally died last week. With that grinder and (1) 7" 60 grit flap disc, I would have to go through 9 4.5" 60 grit flap discs to do the same work and wouldn't look anything as clean as that 7". I hardly use the 4.5" anymore except for the wire brush for cleaning welds for paint prep or getting into really tight spots.
Hope that helps. If there is a tool you want to use and start a business, ask me, I will probably have used it, because it is how I started out, and looking back, I can tell you some things I would have loved to do differently.
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