bending the tabs

The tabs on the tunnel from the last post couldn't be bent in the brake because the near 90° bend causes the adjacent side to not let the work piece under the fingers.  I couldn't put them in my vice because the vice wasn't deep enough.

My neighbor mentioned that you can grind a crease on the fold line then easily bend.  I have to admit that I wasn't wild about that at first. Carol Smith says you should never even scribe on a bend line, let along grind half the thickness away.

I thought about it a little more and remembered the high quality welds I got on .060 before by just pulling straight at a steady travel speed with .024 wire and decided to try it.  It seems reasonable to increase the cross section of some crumby 30ksi material with some 70 ksi material.

Grind about half thickness and bend easily with a BFH:

Weld.  Not awesome welds, but whatevs:

good penetration.  Just starting to sink.

Just to be sure I put this in the press and flattened it.  Looked the same only dead flat.  Then I put it in the vice and pounded it to 90° the other direction.  No cracking or necking:

Looks like a totally acceptable approach.