Joseph Gwinn wrote:

... The fancy hinges are another matter.

In the US, I didn't find any patents assigned to Magnabend, but I bet
there are patents somewhere, starting with Australia. ...

The thread on the Practical Machinist forum about MagnaBends had a reply
from an Australian who had worked with the inventors of the brake and
hinges. He posted this link to the patent:
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=n3A2AAAAEBAJ

I still don't understand them. Building them would be totally out the
question for me.

But, I've been thinking about it. The hinge does offer the unique
ability to bend at the end of the brake. But the need to make such
bends is pretty limited, for me anyhow. Even the MagnaBend video only
shows one sequence of bends at the end, and many more along the clamp bar.

So, for me, the biggest advantage is the magnetic clamp, which could be
homemade fairly easily. And use traditional pin hinges at the ends.
The bending bar would have to be stiffer without the hinges in the
middle, but that's easy enough.

Bob