Bending Upper Front Longerons 6-F-5-3

I am waiting on some aluminum to start on my fuselage, so in the mean time I am planning on tackling bending the upper front longerons.  Do you guys think I should wait until I have more of the fuselage done before I do this, or is it OK to tackle this right now?

Also, I have been hearing from some non-builder types that tell me that I could crack the longerons when doing this. Has anyone had this problem?

 

Also, does anyone have any tips or trick for me in bending the upper front longerons.

 

Furthermore, from watching the 650 building video, apparently the 650 longerons comes pre-bent. So I thought the 601 HDS longerons would be shipped pre-bent as well.  Unfortunatly, this it not the case L .  Did you guys have to bend yours as well?

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Comment by Marcel S. Mikulec on June 13, 2012 at 8:26pm

Thanks Tim.  I will look up Steven Ward's method.

Comment by Tim Smart on June 10, 2012 at 4:55am
Marcel,

Not disputing what Ian had to say but if you don't have access to a shrinker like Ian suggests there have been several plans builders with different methods of bending thier longerons that worked for them. Steven Ward has a pic and description on his page that uses a very simple jig. There some others who have bent around other jigs with clamps and/or rollers or both but I could not quickly find. I am not that far but when I get there since the angle is not very expensive I think I will try Steven Ward's method.
Comment by Marcel S. Mikulec on June 9, 2012 at 11:32pm

Thanks.  That is some really great information!

Comment by Ian McClelland on June 9, 2012 at 9:19pm

Hi I had to get mine bent for my 601XL (Plans built).

They won't crack as they are made of 6061 T6.

However to bend sucessfully it is necessary to  use a metal shrinker. If you try to bend without this tool you will find it tends to bend in two plains - guess how I know! I had to give mine to an aircraft metal skin shop shring the metal so that it was only bent in the horizontal plain.

And it is possible to damage the material with one of these tools and requires some operator expertise.

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