Easiest/cheapest way/tool to bend small steel flat bar?

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That was acetylene!

The vise brake works well, after reshaping and smoothing the Chinese-made POS. It's a very sharp bend, just what I wanted. I also rounded one of the plungers/blades to roughly 0.125" semicircle.

I practiced on some 0.125" x 1.5" aluminum flat bar, one half the thickness and twice the width of the material to be used.

I figured the 0.25" flat bar to be used would be more difficult to bend. One can figure that by envisioning the material to be bent becoming thicker and narrower.

However... 0.25" x 0.75" (6061) aluminum flat bar just snaps when it gets to about 20°! The second attempt used a blade that was not rounded, but still sharp, same result.

So I will try 0.125" "low carbon" steel flat bar, although I would like something lighter.

Is stronger aluminum more brittle than 6061? But I'm not sure the vise brake is even compatible with aluminum, given the tight radius of the bend.

Low carbon steel it is (at least until something else is ordered).

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