Advice for bending aluminum sheet metal

I need to make a straight bend in some aluminum sheet metal. Ideally I would use one of the brakes but the bend is ~36in long. Does anybody know the best way to do that? I already tried using the magnetic brake hoping that long finger would be enough to hold it down.

The aluminum is 16ga thick.

I think that this is a @Mrholthaus question…

Alloy, Material thickness and Temper? All impact formability. Minimum bend radius is generally 2T to avoid cracking, well likely get some Orange Peeling at minimum radii.

You should be able to do Aluminum on our brake unless it exceeds thickness.

The higher the Temper Number harder to form, typical Tempers: T0, T3 (which actually T4 but has been stress relieved by stretching),T4, T6, unlikely you’ll ever see T7 or T8, I’ve never seen T9 or T10. More than you want to know unless your alloy isn’t 2XXX, 4XXXX, 6XXX or 7XXX

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I don’t know specifically what type it is, and I’m still pretty new to working with metal so I just got what I found in the drops section at the metal supermarket in dallas.

As I mentioned above the thickness is 16 guage.

I didn’t think about it until after I left dms today but I do have some scrap I could use to try a smaller bend to see how well the it will come out

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Our metal brake isn’t the greatest but you are on the right track. We are looking for a better one but the magnetic one is all we got at the moment. As far as aluminum goes, 6061 is the most common alloy but it isn’t great for bending and shaping. 3003 H12 as me 5052 are used for shaping work. 3003 is really soft.

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