ENGINEER TV-40 Engineer Metal Bending Tool Pocket Bender Easy Bending

This is a really great idea, execution not so much. The jaws have a glossy mirror finish, which looks attractive but it means that the work piece tends to slide around so you don't get as crisp of a corner as you would want. The surfaces on mine were also pretty far out of planar, which also made the work piece slide around since there wasn't a lot of contact. Between those two issues I ended up scratching up the pretty mirror finish to get it flat and increase the holding friction, so... the manufacturer seems to have prioritized it looking pretty over function. On the plus side, it's ~1/8" thick steel and I didn't have problems with the tool itself flexing or bending.For my project I needed to make some precise bends of small pieces of metal in a spiral. and that was a problem because as I made multiple bends in the same work piece I found that the tool got in the way of making further bends. I ended up having to reshape and cut away the jaws to get the bends I needed, and if it works just as well without the the parts I cut away, why are they there in the first place?I was bending small pieces of copper and brass for jewelry and in the end I was able to get the precise, repeatable bends I wanted. But it took a lot of fussing and modification, and it seems like anyone using this tool would run into some of the same issues I did, so I think it could be better designed.

OK for light-duty hobby work - what limits their usefulness is that they are only 3 inches wide. For most jobs - a pair of Vise Grip sheet metal pliers costing $10 less - might be better suited to the task