Gee, thanks, Denny.
The bend you are showing here would be pretty close to the amount of bend I need. Yes, of course I would have to do the bend before drilling the holes, otherwise the material would separate where the holes are, and thanks for your awareness about those sorts of things, I just hope I don't end up with a crack when I try to bend the bar that much. I have heard about, "thermal forming," and I imagine that means, "heat," like heating up the bending area with a torch that would help keep the material from cracking where the bend is, but different or done with machinery. Wish I had bending machinery at my finger tips, but I will have to get those things, just like what I need that's in your diagram. That rounded edge that you put on the top block is exactly what should be used in order to get a more gradual bend instead of a sudden bend. Ingenious on your part, my friend.
I haven't tried bending the bar that much, but I guess I'll find out what needs to be done by simply doing it. Still don't know if it's possible or practical where metal works are concerned. Your diagram is a good example of approach. Only instead of wood, I think maybe two pieces of metal plating would be better to use because of heating up the bar at the bend area. Yeah, the block needs to be about an inch thick, as you have shown here.
So again, thanks, Denny. You have given me new confidence in this project.
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I see a two step bending process here beyond the prototype. In a short run production set up an H-frame hydraulic press to bend the large radius, and you can make the dies with tube/pipe with reinforcement to prevent them from collapsing. For the hard way bend. a couple of round bars spaced for the bottom die and a single round bar for the top punch/die to press the desired angle (end view would be a triangle pattern). You could also do a similar setup for the large radius by spacing the bottom rounds wides enough to allow the top punch/die to pass through with clearances for the 1/4" bar. You could also drill the holes before forming if you divise a way to clamp the bar when forming the large radius. If you're doing only one or two, denny502's suggestions are spot on. In regard to bending rectangular shapes, the forming operation is referred to as easy way or hard way, which would apply to the amount of stretching or compression required when forming the piece with minimum distortion.