Liquidation Sale Pipe Bender

[Keith Outten]

Yesterday morning I went to a liquidation sale at a local machine shop that was going out of business and I was able to purchase a Northern Tools pipe bender (http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200365073_200365073) for 25 bucks. The machine is almost brand new, has a 12 ton hydraulic cylinder and lists for 180 bucks at Northern so the price was a steal. I have been wanting to purchase one of these benders, its the last one on my list of bending machines that I use for making sign hangers and an assortment of other projects.

I already own a tubing roller, flat bar roller and a whole set of scroll bending tools so now I can bend pipe up to 2" in diameter.

Now that I am retired I hope to be able to attend more auctions and commercial liquidation sales. I would like to finally get the chance to find some of these great deals that I see so often here :)
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[Leigh Betsch]

All you have to do is get into metal working and all your free time will be spent! It's a slow process. But you can spend money at auctions and Craigslist!
Believe me I know, horizontal mill, power hacksaw, 6x12 surface grinder, and now a pantograph in the last 9 months. Not including the machines and tools that I already have!
But I don't have a pipe bender. And I need to bend some metal......

[Bruce Page]

A friend of mine has the HF version that I have used a few times. At 25 bucks it makes me wonder what other deals he had. It's probably a good thing I wasn't there..

[Scott T Smith]

Nice score Keith! Any plans for a first project with it?

[Keith Outten]

Leigh, I have been metal working for over 30 years, not in a big way but I have owned a welder and a cheap horizontal band saw for that long. I used to own a SB 9 metal lathe but I had to sell it because I needed the floor space in the shop. I still have my Grizzly bench mill/drill that serves as my workshop drill press among other tasks and I have one of the Unimat metal lathes. My welding machine count is now one Bobcat 350, one very old Miller Thunderbolt buzz box and a small Hobart mig machine.

Bruce, you would have been sick! The machines were old but you could buy them at a fraction of the scrap value. It was a very small one to two man machine shop but they had all the machines you woud expect. I didn't stay very long but there was a Bridgeport Mill that I'll bet went for a penny on the dollar.

Scott, no plans just yet but now that I have the bender something will come to mind :) I keep about four thousand pounds of scrap steel in my barn for small projects, a pretty good assortment of pipe, angle, flat and round bar. I have a pulverizer for my tractor that is about 75% complete in the corner of shop ready for welding.....maybe I can do a little design change so I can try out the bender.