How to bend 6061 -t6511 Aluminum RMW Vlog - 134

If you are in need of bending any 6061 aluminum, this may be very helpful for you. You need to anneal the aluminum before you bend it or it will snap. I am building a custom safari rack for 4x4 Ford Van out of 6061-t6 1.25" x .125 wall tubing. It requires 8 90 degree bends and 2 45 degree bends. I use my tube bender that I built several years ago. I bought the plan from:
gottrikes.com/Tube_Bender.htm
It uses dies from :
pro-tools.com/

Update 2/21/23 We have since switched over to 6063 t52 pipe which will bend with out having to anneal. It is only made in pipe size, so if you need tubing size, then you are back to annealing before bending.

If you own a Baleigh RDB-250 bender(or any of their computer rotary draw benders), the dies are very aggressive and do not play nice with either aluminum.