Bending 6061 Aluminum Sheet

[Cartierusm]

I have a quick question. I need to bend some 1/8" and 3/16" 6061 Aluminum at a about 10% angle. I think it's 6061 as that's what most my suppliers carry, I just had it lying around. I don't have a press brake so I'd be bolting it my welding table and bending it down.

So the question is should I heat it up first and then bend or bend cold. I know some aluminum can be quenched after heating to make it very soft, but I just need to make some slight bends, whats the best way so that it doesn't get cracks or that crazing look that sometimes happens when you bend aluminum.

[lancut]

Bend it cold, keeping in mind the inside radius bigger always the better. You only bending 10 deg so there should be no issues with the material cracking. You can get out way with very small or almost no radius with material "T0", condition "T6" requires biggest inside radius. Rule of thumb: bigger angle , thicker material, higher T-condition requires bigger radius. Hope this helps.