Hi there, John,
I wondered how you got such a clean bend in such a thick gauge of steel.
If I were to attempt a bend like that with angle iron and a hammer, the finished job would have a lot of half-crowns all over it!
Back in 1970, my wife and I moved into a new house. There was a lot to do, including building a garage and workshop and a friend gave me a builder's wheelbarrow. It was a bit ancient and the body was disintegrating. The firm I worked for then had a scheme where employees could buy material through the company stores at friendly prices so I asked for a quote for a suitably sized sheet of 18 SWG mild steel. The price quoted was SO FRIENDLY that I got over-enthusiastic and said 'in that case, I'll have it in 16 SWG.'.
I took it home and marked it out and cut it to shape with a Monodex hand-shear. When my hand, between my thumb and index finger, had healed (that's the one problem with the Monodex!!) I tried to bend it to shape.
I found that 16 SWG takes a lot more bending than 18 SWG!
In the end, we took it out to the road in front of the house and set it on the ground so the fold lines, one after another, were over the edge of the kerb. My wife stood on the footpath side of the bend line while I jumped on the other side (over the gutter). That started the folds where we wanted them after which we completed the folds and got the seams to close with a hammer and block.
We did eventually get it to a usable barrow shape but there was no other barrow quite like it!
