I'm planning on buying a bender soon and have wondered if I'm better off with a horizontal bender(JD2, protools, JMR, etc) or a vertical style(probender, and I think got trikes)?

Whatever I buy it must be air/hydro or electric/hydro, the shop space I will have to use has infloor heat so I cannot drill any holes to anchor.

What I'm looking at is either a jd2 w/copperhead fab bracket and harbor freight cylinder or a probender that comes air/hydro.

Anybody use both styles and prefer one over the other?

Brewchief:D

I started out with a manual jd2. I used it for couple years in this form. Bending in a small shop always left me frustrated. I knew I wanted my bender in a mobile state due to space limitations. I decided to go with the HF air over cylinder. I also switched it to vertical. There are times I wish it was a horizontal style, but it works and works well. Vertical vs. Horizontal that's prolly more of a personal decision. Mobile vs. Fixed, that's worth its weight in gold.

I built my (vertical) air/hydro bender--similar to the gottrikes bender and with wheels. I've used both. There hasn't yet been an instance that I wished I had a horizontal bender...

I origionaly did the "bend-o-matic" horizontal hydro conversion, bent my frame arms. Then a friend made me some thicker arms on his cnc mill, then after looking at the got trikes copies, I went vertical. I love it it is much easier to use than the horizontal setup.

I made a gottrikes bender.

It rolls on casters, with wind down feet to level for bending. No holes in floor required.

Half the year here is "closed door, heat on" with a rig in the 20x24 shop, so there would not be room to swing a main hoop horizontal.

Vertical is easy to "level" vertically, and you don't have to support the material for most 2D bends.

The small bit of experience i had with a JD2 left the impression it wouldn't work in my shop. Too much swing room required.

Depends on how much room you have i guess is what it boils down to.