Foregoing my earlier plan to build my own rail bender, I bought in to an Aristocraft dual rail bender (presently on sale at $119). http://www.aristocraft.com/ART11921-DUAL-RAIL-BENDER_p_422.html This massive chunk of metal arrived quickly, and I was soon at work re-curving the wobbly belly bends I had laid out the earlier month. Nice smooth action, and easily cleaned up my work on the AML Aluminum 332 track. I have no experience with other benders, but I am very happy with this tool. Note earlier discussion here: http://www.largescalecentral.com/LSCForums/viewtopic.php?id=10408

I always use my friends Aristo Railbender. It works great and does the trick. Better then using my homemade. bender.

I’ve had one for several years and it’s still works great!

Chuck Inlow said:
I've had one for several years and it's still works great!

They wear out??? Who knew? :P

Whats the minimum radius and minimum rail code that one could bend down to with one of these? Just curious …

Well, I had no trouble getting down to a two foot radius (four foot diameter) and it seemed like there was more room to spare in the tool, so it can get as small as you want, I guess.

Rail code, well, I’d ask them. The caphead screws barely clear the ties, so you may need to get a different tool or replace the screws with something flatter.

some people have ground the heads down a bit, Aristo recommended adding a cardboard spacer somewhere to help clearance. I did not finish reading the recommendation when I read cardboard.

Greg

Well, that may be a bit abrupt. One could shim the sliders with anything. Styrene, aluminum sheet, squished cookies. In any case, it’s working great for me.

you must work for Aristo ha ha! Squished cookies indeed.

Squished Cookies… that HAS to be an excellent name for a browser add-on!