ORIGINAL: azzman
Dustin: Use a different rod, you probably have some sort of high tensile or spring steel which is making it not easy to work with. G et some some mild steel or some stainless and go from there.
EDIT: Sorry Spentona, didnt mean to repeat you, posted at nearly same time! Flat bar makes sense to me too.
To be honest I looked at using aluminium flat bar because it would eliminate the need to weld it and also because its easy to bend (although that may cause a problem in itself).