The metal bender was missing the 2 parts I needed (right angle die and block die). I just went ahead and bought another full unit from Harbor freight. I put all the new dies on the old bender rack as well as the new handle and what is now a large set of extra pins and spacers. I left the new pedestal, old handle, and old dies off to the side in the metal shop. Someone could cobble together (most) of another bender from what’s leftover, or if anyone is in need of that kind of scrap, it might be interesting. The pedestal itself might be useful if nothing else. If it sits for a while and gathers dust I’ll dispose of it.
If anyone has any clever ideas about how to keep all the various bits from wandering off from the new bender setup, I’m all ears. I had considered a Tupperware that was cabled to the base or something.
The best way to keep parts like that from wandering off is to do some kind of container (Rubbermaid storage works; a cheap plastic toolbox may be better depending on how heavy the parts are) with a label including inventory of contents attached to it somewhere.
eg
METAL BENDER PARTS
1 right angle die
1 block die
4 5mm pins
2 2mm spacers
2 4mm spacers
This way anybody who uses the tool can see right away if there’s something missing, which (hopefully!) makes it easier to track down.
I don’t think you need to physically tie the parts to the machine; something like a toolbox is big enough to live on a shelf so long as there’s space in the general vicinity.
I’m getting a non functional fiber laser that needs some tlc soonish. We can start engraving metal parts to help with this problem in the future once it is running