Hi Bill: Funny you should mention it. I started the bending this morning. I have already done the notch at the very end and have decided to wait until after the bending to do the notch for the second-to-last.
I have to say that -- at least so far -- I've found the process to be more nerve-wracking than difficult. That's mostly due to the prospect of screwing up and having to pay for another 15-foot box to be shipped than anything else. But it certainly causes one to pay attention.
My vice, unfortunately, has a feature that allows it to swivel, so I initi8atlly had dificulty getting that particular feature disabled by clamping it down.
Rather than making an initial pass, I'm giving it a bend by hand (and a couple of blows with a mallet), taking it out, checking it against the template and -- if all is well-- going another 1/2" along and repeating the process.
I thought about making a pass, however that puts me in the situation where I'd end up having to put a curved portion of the longeron in a vice that is straight and would pressure the curved piece to straighten when clamped and I don't want to go there.
I got about halfway done and then had to go to work. It's, like I said, nervewracking. I haven't found great difficulty. I did turn the longeron upside down and put it on the garage floor to see if it violated the vertical plane, and of course it did so I just -- like the instructions say -- put turned it 90 degrees, put it back in the vice, and gave it a tug to bring it back flat (mostly).
I hope to complete the bend on the left longeron when I get home and then I'll work on the sharp downward bend. I have no clue how I'm going to do that.
So, not hard. But, man, I'll be glad when it's done.