Picked something small for my first bend to avoid wasting too much sheet aluminum. As it turns out, I only made three to get my first good brake-bent part. I made a bellcrank support channel (6W6-10) from 6061-T6 .025" aluminum. With this practice, I think I now understand where to place the bend line in the brake to obtain optimal results. Hopefully my future "redos" will be limited. To get an idea of the savings in scratch building, this part from the factory is $8.10 (plus shipping). My cost of materials was 32 cents. On average, one can scratch build most parts from 15% to 20% of the factory cost.
