Tonight I made a pair of brackets which will hold two of the pulleys for activating the ailerons on my Bede BD-4C. These brackets are made from .063″ thick aluminum, which is two to three times thicker than anything I have had to bend before. As the metal gets thicker, it is more likely to crack or break if you bend it too tightly. The minimum recommended bend radius for .063″ 2024-T3 alloy aluminum is .22″ so I had to find something to “hold” that radius in the bending brake.
After scrounging around my shop, trying several things, the piece which worked the best was a scrap of 2″x2″x.063″ extruded aluminum angle. (As usual, click any picture to see a larger version.)
The result is a couple of very nice 90 degree bends in the bases of the brackets.
