Anybody know what type of shop would have the equipment to bend flat stock metal (~1/2")?
Or has anybody ever seen something like this for sale anywhere? FYI: This is a shackle for a leafspring truck, but they cost about $45 a piece.




Heres a picture:

 

there looks like some heat discoloration on the bends so it looks like they heated it and then bent it over, but to bend 1/2inch plate you would probably use a large press and a block that has the correct angle cut into it, but i dk for sure.

 

a press brake like this:

 

there is a place that fixes/builds semi trailers. they have a brake bigger then the one pictured. try and find a place like that.

they charged me $15 to bend two 90* bends in a sheet of 1/8" 4"x8".

 

Surely it's going to cost you more to buy the press, that you might not use again anyway?

If its a 1 off, warm it up, put it in vice, hit it with hammer.

 

If you need to bend narrow pieces of 1/2" often, just make a bender to do it. It's easy as hell and you might use it for lots of other stuff if you work with think stock alot. I have a couple benders I made and they have saved the day over and over again.
Also many ironworkers come with small press break shoes that can bend stuff like 4" x 1/2" with ease if you can't find a regular pressbreak around.

 

I would cut and weld the angles I need

 

I've done this before, big heavy steel blocks with an angle cut in each side, sandwich the steel in there, and press down.

 

A set of 1/2" shackles? What axles are you going to run, rockwells?
Something like this may work for you, I dont have one but have heard good things about them:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=260394158059

 

Find a local place and pay the guy 20$ to do it for you, seems like the easiest thing.