Can someone bend a 1 inch tube for me?

You won't be able to bend it to any sort of reasonably tight radius unless you anneal it first. T6 is the temper of the tubing you have, and that is the hardest possible state for 6061 aluminum. As you harden aluminum it becomes more brittle just like steel does when its hardened. Bending tubing requires that the heel (outside) of the bend stretches, and at a T6 temper its too brittle to stretch enough to make a tight bend. So, if you bend it in something like a Hossfeld or JD2 bender, it'll bend a ways and then it will begin to crack on the heel of the bend.

If you soften it with heat like I outlined in a previous post, you can bend it around your wood form without any problem. It'd be best to just soften the areas you want to bend as that will serve to confine the bend to the area where you want it and retain the full strength in the remainder of the tube. It does not have to be bent hot because it will remain soft in the heated area after it cools.

A mandrel bender wouldn't help you one bit on this. Once its softened, you can bend that tubing to a 3" radius in any sort of common bender like a JD2 without collapsing it. You can also bend it with your EMT bender if the radius is suitable for what you're trying to do.

I'd also second what Larry said about common muffler shops and mandrel benders. You can easily spend $100,000 or more on a mandrel bender and the tooling to bend a few sizes of tubing, and that's not the sort of investment any business makes just to have it sitting around to use every once in a while. People in all kinds of various internet forums mention mandrel benders as a readily available solution to all sorts of bending problems, but I'd wager 95% of those people have never laid eyes on a mandrel bender anywhere other than in a shop that's bending tubing on a production basis. And a production shop isn't going to tear down a setup and switch out tooling just to make a couple bends under any cir***stances.

 

I have a 'JD Squared' hydraulic bender. I use it to bend tubing for motorcycle frames, roll cages, ****** mounts etc. I can bend 1" tubing to a 3" radius. I've never tried aluminum though, especially that thin. If you want to send a sample down here, i'll give it a try.

 

metlmunchr - I can try the heat to the specific areas that need to bend. You mentioned the material would dictate the temperature. I just read a data sheet for 6061-T6 that says annealing at 775 degrees for 2-3 hours and then controlled cooling at 50 degree per hour. That sounds like you would need an oven. Is that information correct?

 

Sorry, but I hadn't looked back at this thread since my previous post. You wouldn't have to do a full anneal as described above to get it to where it can be bent. If you heat it to 550-600 degrees for 5 minutes or so, the hardness will drop like a rock. From that point, letting it cool in still air won't result in it rehardening to any measurable extent. At that point it should bend fairly easily.

 

Late to the party, but I have an aircraft Parker Hannifin bender that will bend that no problem. It's made for just that, bending aircraft hydraulic and fuel tubing. I have a 1 inch die, 6" diameter (3" radius). PM if you still need it done.
It's not a mandrel bender, but the shoe slides along with the tubing so it is held 360 degrees through the bend at all times. Spendy little bender and it works awesome for thin wall tubing.