Trying to bend 2" x .125" 6061 T6 aluminum bar stock

I want to bend a kink in a piece of 6061 T6 aluminum bar 2" x 0.125". I hear that it will crack or break before I reach an almost 90 deg. bend. I also read that I need to heat it up to around 700 Deg. F to anneal it from T6 into T0. All I have is a little propane torch. Will it work? The Red metal is what I am trying to fabricate. I can reduce it down to 1" wide if that will help. In a vise using a piece of small pipe with slots ground into it for a bending arm on the end of the aluminum.

I could also dismantle the base steel part (blue) and take it to a welding shop and have it extended.

Take a sharpie and draw a line where you want the bend to be, heat with the propane torch until the sharpie disappears, let cool slowly (don't quench) bend to your hearts content. 

Sharpie burns away at the annealing temperature.  I rarely do the acetylene soot thing on small parts , just sharpie and propane. 

In reply to Trent :

Thanks

I found this:

https://www.thefabricator.com/thefabricator/article/bending/strategies-for-bending-6061-t6-aluminum

Filling the tube with sand will help keep the tube from crushing while you bend it.

Yep, propane torch will reach those temps fine. At some point though I recommend investing in a MAPP gas torch though, tends to be a lot faster. Oxy/Acetylene is the best for this type of work...but tends to be very expensive.

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

How did this work out for you? I was annealing some 6061T6 in exactly the dimensions you were asking about this morning and thought about this thread

2"X0.125"

Heat until the sharpie fades, let cool naturally

Good clean bends. No cracking.

Without annealing the same material broke before it bent 90 degrees

You can repeat the sharpie/heat process and quench in water to bring the hardness back up with 6061 but it can be inconsistent.

Keep in mind that for aluminum, the heat is used to artificially age the part. You will go from T0 to T4 in under a week with 6061 just leaving it at room temp. Something like 5 hours in the oven at 350 is supposed to get you to T6, starting from scratch.

Thanks for that information and photos. Funny thing, after 2 months of laying on the couch, my doctor says that my toes is fused and I can now start walking. I only used the scooter twice for a trip to Walcrap and Menards. I am still going to modify the steering but I don't think that I can make the two tight bends that close together with just a vise. I am trying to figure out a way to accomplish the same thing with no bends but I can also just take it to a sheetmetal shop and have them do it. Unfortunately, I have found a few errors with my original measurements and also inaccuracies in the drawings caused by making 12 copies of the original drawing. I am in the process of correcting the drawings so that everything is perfect. After all of that couch work, I'm too lazy to do anything.

In reply to Trent :

The piece that broke was bent along the grain, big no no.  Annealing will help as will increasing the bend radius.