You have to heat it if you want a tight bend. You can
take a couple of pipes and tap a hole in each one for a
set screw, then clamp the pipes to your rod with
perhaps 3" of rod exposed in the middle. Heat it red hot
with a torch if you want a tight bend. If you want
less tight bend you can do it cold. Clamp a 3/4" pipe
upright in your vise and use it as a fulcrum to pull the
pipe handles towards you.
There are lots of ways to do it. If you try to do it without
handles you'll get a bulging affect near the bend. It
won't look like a straight rod with a clean bend in it.
If you need smaller radius thread the rod through two pieces of pipe, step on one and pull the other. With couple feet of leverage ½" rod will bend like butter (done that).
If you can't find a welder, a muffler should should be able to as well if you don't feel like cranking up a torch or even a BBQ pit with a little charcoal.
VA must have a ton of blacksmiths to handle the horse trade. if not, then I think time and a lot of MAAP gas with a vise will work (probably have to cool it from time to time so welder's gloves/grippers are in order as well).
Depending on the radius you require, a pipe bender as used by plumbers will do this. I have seen 1/2" re-bars bent to make ground anchors using one. I thought at the time there's no way that'll do that, but it did and I was amazed.
No heat required. Got a mate who's a plumber?
Do you need the bend toward the end of the bar? Put it in a trailer hitch of a car or truck and start pulling out toward the side of the car. I watched guys bending rebar like that for inside a concrete footing.
Merchant grade steel bars (the ones found in big box stores), are not good enough quality to bend without breaking. Dependind on how sharp a bend, you can heat it up before bending. Hot rolled steel (black) rods will bend better than cold rolled steel (shiny) rods.
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