# Gardner Bender B2000 Cyclone Bender



## Bowtie (Feb 19, 2009)

Hello all- Does anyone have any experience with using one of these? It is an E series which was made in the 1998-2001 range. My boss is looking to pick one of these up and was wondering if it was a good unit. Any likes or dislikes? Does it hold up well? Any design flaws or failure points? Would 1500.00 used be a good deal or should he shy away or offer less? Thanks to all in advance!


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## 347sparky (May 14, 2012)

They work great if it has not been dropped or abused. I saw one guy moving one around, lift on the handle and pusing it, wheel hit something on the floor and the whole unit flips over (heavy). It bent the steel strap at the front of the shoe for the 2" conduit. Another thing is when returning the shoe to zero degrees you need to make sure the handle is out of the way. Guys not paying attention end up bending or breaking off the handle. The handle is also used when bending 1/2 to 1" conduit. First thing I would do before he buys it is take a peice of 2" EMT with him, stick it in the bender and bend a 90. If the rollers are misaligned it will leave a ridge on top and bottom of the pipe and flatten the 90. If the rollers look chewed up or worn out I've seen it actually kink the pipe. When all's well it's great for repeating degrees of bend. Kind of a pain in the ass when you need to release the pin to stand the unit up and try to get eveything level and plumb, like putting a kick on a 90 but the stub hits the floor.


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## union347sparky (Feb 29, 2012)

347sparky said:


> They work great if it has not been dropped or abused. I saw one guy moving one around, lift on the handle and pusing it, wheel hit something on the floor and the whole unit flips over (heavy). It bent the steel strap at the front of the shoe for the 2" conduit. Another thing is when returning the shoe to zero degrees you need to make sure the handle is out of the way. Guys not paying attention end up bending or breaking off the handle. The handle is also used when bending 1/2 to 1" conduit. First thing I would do before he buys it is take a peice of 2" EMT with him, stick it in the bender and bend a 90. If the rollers are misaligned it will leave a ridge on top and bottom of the pipe and flatten the 90. If the rollers look chewed up or worn out I've seen it actually kink the pipe. When all's well it's great for repeating degrees of bend. Kind of a pain in the ass when you need to release the pin to stand the unit up and try to get eveything level and plumb, like putting a kick on a 90 but the stub hits the floor.


Nailed it. ^^^^^

I'd go one step farther and say anything GB is junk. IMO


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