I took the dowel rod the same diameter as the inner diameter of the the aluminum tube..... driving it into the tube didn't straighten it.... I could see I was going to have to reverse bend it for it to stick.....

so I cut the dowed rod in 2 pieces... put one piece to where I wanted to bend from one side... and the other from the other side.... see 2 pictures....

it straightened out without kinking or dinging or deforming.... I put it on a 2by 4 with the bend at the edge... with the bend up... and then press down.....


Mark