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History of the FenderBender.

ausf

Master at Arms
In response to the Latest Ac thread and a new bender (and the search to uncover the thread), I'm not sure there was a thread or if it was an allusion to something I was working on in a PM with Mike. Either way, it was an offhand remark, but I figured I could fill you guys in on the whole deal.

Pull up a chair, here's the full, official history of the FenderBender.

Ted and I were forum mates (just like you guys) from back in good FSM days and then the early days of the LEM. He was part of a core group of goof offs (myself included) who liked to laugh, talk models and occasionally build something. Besides an excellent modeler, Ted was a gifted engineer and would apply that to anything he needed in modeling. If the DML Jagdtiger barrel was too short, he'd machine an insert out of aluminum, etc. He worked for a large company in Virginia and had access to a world of high tech equipment and basically the run of the place. Stuff most of us could only dream of.

In modeling, he would buy a tool, hate it and create a better one. Best example was the Grabhandler. He loved the idea, hated the execution so he built his own. He used it for years, never said anything about it until I saw it one day. I asked how hard would it be to produce. He found a laser cutting operation that was happy to do it on their off hours, we supply the steel and no time frame, they'd do it as they could. Fine with us, Ted would drop off sheets of 304 stainless, pick it up whenever it was done, $1.75 per piece. Since I had an online retail business, I's add it to the lineup. Ted named it the Bendicator and we went ahead with it. After working out some teething troubles with how they were they were handled, Ted would acid dip them to clean imperfections from the way the cutter handled them, stack and ship them to me, I'd package and sell. I can't remember, but I think we sold them for like $10 at first. Sounds like a big markup, but I by the time it was sold, it only netted about $4 that we'd split. Keep in mind I'd make more than that on a single MIG pigment or set of Voyager clamps, but more on that later.

One day he was complaining that all the available PE folders were too short to do a 1/35 armor fender. Plus, the design of using a razor blade is dumb. I asked why a PE folder can't bend like a sheet metal brake. Him, being an engineer, immediately saw the issues with that but was also up to a challenge. Me, being the jerk, kept shooting down all of his designs, "nope, smaller", "nope, more portable", even though they all work beautifully and I am completely ignorant of all the problems involved. Finally, He shows me the FenderBender. A brilliant design made possible by an equally brilliant solution that even after it was out and being used, a bunch of people online kept saying can't work. One guy said he tried for years to do it and we were lying about it. He finally relented when he approached us at AMPS and had one in his hand.

And we're off...

These required a lot more of an effort on Ted's part. Two different cutting services, hand assembly, etc. I supplied the packaging and labeling, sold/shipped them, Ted did the rest, it was his baby. We sent some samples out for review, set it up for preorder and got going on the first production run not knowing what to expect. I'll never forget the first day I got the crate of them and then going to post office with 75 International Priority Mail envelopes (back when customs forms had to be filled out by hand), they themselves small miracle in packaging since they were meant for flat objects and had to be wrangled into a twisted shaped with no staples or additional tape except to one strip on top or they'd be rejected.

In short time, all sold out of everything.

Now remember, Ted is a professional lead engineer, making a lot of scratch in his day job. The net split from the first run was less per unit than what I made off of one T-shirt (which is a heck of a lot easier to deal with). There is no way Ted is going to spend his free time assembling these things (me either). He finds a machinist that will do it: materials, cutting, assembly and first packaging (I'd still inspect/label/ship). Of course the price has to be raised to reflect. We do, order a run (huge outlay of cash, think buying a car), second run sells out quickly too.

In the meantime, the second run of Bendicators ran into a snag. Instead of $1.75, the same place, same machine, same guy, same deal was now $8 per unit. WTF? Ted gets the low down, they looked up the name, decided they wanted more of the cut. Again, price raise, order a run, sells quickly.

On the third production run of the FenderBender, the machinist hit the same wall, all the suppliers suddenly raised his prices, he raised our price, we had to raise retail, again. And again, keep in mind, one T-shirt in a bag was more profitable. I started to hate opening up the day's orders and seeing a FB in the mix. Needless to say, no more runs. Unless we were going to raise the price to $200 or more, it just wasn't worth it. I doubt Ted would want to even at that.

This was all in the early 2000s, the economy was humming, you couldn't get a manufacturer to look at you without waving cash in front of their face so that may have been a part of it, but it was a frustrating ordeal to say the least. Voyager offered to make it for us, but Ted was adamant about keeping it in the US and I wasn't looking forward to sending that type of money overseas and importing. Getting a 50 lbs box of PE every few weeks is one thing, a few pallets or quarter container of FBs through customs was way more than I was interested in dealing with.

In time, Ted pursued other hobbies, I was concentrating on figures, the LEM declined and we fell out of touch. I hope he's well but I doubt the world will see a new Fenderbender anytime soon.

Now, onto the idea of a new one. I was messing around with the 3D printer and an idea. After a few designs, I prototyped a small version of the original, still a brake, but more designed for making boxes, clamps, etc. It worked well, I ordered hardware, made a jig for production, made the molds, bought specific high strength resin, etc. Named it the V2. Then I took a good hard look at the whole process. At the end of the day, even though the flex and tensile strength of this would be higher than ABS and my protos can bend any PE I have as well as unetched brass stock, it's still 'plastic'. I can't possibly see asking more that $45-50 for it and considering the involved process of molding, cleaning and assembly, if I pour a bunch of figures and heads, it will yield much more product with much less hassle. Then I thought about farming out the parts and I'd assemble, but I got nauseous just thinking about it.

Funniest part of the whole thing was most people we met at shows thought the Ausfwerks FenderBender was designed and made by a bunch of labcoat wearing Germans overseas, not a self described good ole boy engineer from Virginia and a typical obnoxious New Yorker. If I had a dollar for everyone who picked it up and said "gotta love German engineering'. it may have been more profitable. :D


Anyway, moral of the story is: Kids (I don't mean you guys, I mean actual kids), put down your phone and go make something. Before you have a family, mortgage, etc. take an idea and make it work. People out there have handfuls of cash to throw at you if you have an idea and the energy and time.
 
Very interesting. Thanks for clearing this all up Jeff. I can get back to eating lunch now I don't have to save up.
 
The V2 project is what I recall, although I didn't remember the specifics. Regardless what it's made of, if it works, $45-50 isn't that much for a good tool. The question is, is that something you'd want to do? If it takes away from family or modeling, then sell the idea and designs?

Thanks for the history lesson. :good:
 
While familiar with the full history of the Fender Bender (and Bendicator), I was unaware of the V2.

Thanks for the background information.

Regards,
 
I don't think there were many specifics when I mentioned it. I tend to discuss ideas in the development process, but clam up when the ball gets rolling.

It's not that it would take time away, it's that I can run my regular resin every hour on the hour and get a lot more molds going in the same space. And I don't have to assemble anything or worry about operating instructions or end users damaging it since a figure is a figure, you either like it or not. I don't sell casts that even have the tiniest bubble so I have never had a return. The high strength stuff requires overnight to cure and is brutal on molds.

I thought about just offering the files on Shapeways, etc and let the end user assemble, etc, but there is a quirk in the design that enables it to work. I know what it is, but it's Ted's brainchild and I'd have to disclose it.

And if I farm out the parts, I'm at the whim of someone else. I like the total control of casting. I don't push molds so detail suffers, I discard bad pours, etc and I know the price of materials and time. If something's bad, it's on me. You get a bubble, you get a new piece. It's also my only protection from recasters, if you buy them, you get what you deserve.

Oddly enough, our Dr Steinman was a victim of the exact thing I'm afraid of when I put my name of a product. He received an early Bendicator whose surface was marred by the way the cutter handled them (he threw them in a pile off the machine before boxing). I was receiving the goods packaged. That episode prompted the acid dipping and me taking over inspection/packaging in house.
 
Saul, I was going to ask your opinion on both the design and market once I had prototyped it, but then I talked myself out the whole idea. If I went ahead, I guarantee you would have been the first reviewer.
 
Saul, I was going to ask your opinion on both the design and market once I had prototyped it, but then I talked myself out the whole idea.

No worries at all. I thought I was senile since Mike mentioned a more recent conversation than the one I linked!

Regards,
 
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