"Meanie" wrote in message
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In commercial press-brake work, springback is compensated by
overbending. If you have one of the fancy new CNC press brakes with
databases of materials and their springback properties, you can
program
it all in and you'll come quite close. Otherwise, you do it the
old-fashioned way: keep bending it a little more until you get the
bend
you want.

That's how I do it with my sheet-metal equipment: a very big vise,
some
angle iron, wooden forms, and some really big hammers. d8-)

Heat and 6061 are not a happy combination, because 6061 age-hardens
and
moves, and can drive you nuts. You'll also never quite recover the
pre-heating strength, unless you put it through a carefully
controlled
heat-treating cycle afterwards.


Does that mean I should taper the ends of my wooden form for
over-bending or simply do it by hand after I remove it?

How accurately circular does the curve need to be? If you adjust the
legs parallel and correctly spaced by hand the curve will deform.
-jsw