I bent some 1" sch 40 in a 180 degree bend with 4" radius using a set of wooden dies in a small hyd press. I annealed the tubing in my barbeque for an hour on high, it was like butter but it workhardened up nicely after bending. If you are going to bend it more than 20-30 degree you will probably want to anneal it, the T6 condition may crack past that. You also want to go minimum 2x dia for a bend radius, but 4x would be better.
I would try a short length of material first and check for cracks and deformation. You should also be able to tell by the amount of pressure required to bend it. The 1" tubing I bent barely even registered on a
10t jack in the press. When I annealed the tubing in the barbeque the temp gage registered around 600 degree F. I put the tubing lengthwise on the BBQ and teh slot in the cover for the rotissery was just the right size to let the cover sit down fully. It might sit up a bit with the larger tubing but a bit of tinfoil wrapped around it should keep the heat in. I didn't notice any sag or distortion of the tubing, even after an hour.
If I had to do this, I would try to bend a sample bend on a spare bit of the same size stock before I would anneal anything, assuming a bender with appropriate dies was available. To anneal aluminum to near a dead soft condition, the cheap and dirty way is to soot the part with an oxy-acetylene torch flame, using just acetylene, then use the oxy-acet flame to heat the part until the soot buns off. You can quench it or not, it wont make much difference other than you will be able to handle it sooner if you quench it to cool it down.
No oxy-acet torch? Draw a bunch of squiggly lines with a Sharpie marker in the area you want to anneal. Heat area with a propane torch or other heat source until the marks disappear.
The heat treatment to get it back to a -T6 condition requires an accurate heat treating oven, but it will naturally age out to about a
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