Curved Structure Inquery

[Dailyweekend]

Hey there, I have a question about a project I'm going to be working on next week.

Just for the full story, the thing I will be building is a false proscenium for a theatre. The structure will be in 4 parts, 1 leg on either side and an over-arching center piece split in the middle, built using 16 gauge 1x1 box, MIG welded.

Here's an extremely rough mock-up, made in good ole Paint, so you can have a better idea as to what it is. The red lines show where the structure as a whole will be split. The blue lines show where different radii are so those indicate separate sticks that will be welded together. The yellow is just to indicate how the framing will be oriented. The piece will eventually be a "box" that connects with the other half and the leg.

My question pertains to parts 'C' and 'D' in the image provided. Parts 'A' and 'B' have been bent using our bender since they are such extreme curves, C and D though have not, for reasons I'm not sure, and have simply been forced into a jig from straight sticks. I will be the one welding this together and my question is that, once the top and bottom sections of C and D are welded together with a support piece every ~2 feet, when it is taken out of the jig will it actually hold its shape or are they going to straighten back out since they are only connected to each other? I'm not worried about the structure as a whole since it will be bolted to the floor and supported from the grid with aircraft cable.

Note: This was done by my superior for reasons unknown to me but I will be welding it so I figured I'd seek more opinions.

I hope this all made sense. If not I can absolutely answer any questions to help clear things up.

Thanks,
Daily

 

[Wendelspanswick]

You should be alright, the heat from the weld should relieve the stress imposed when it was forced into the jig, you might find you will have to tweak it to get it to stay square though but as its such a lightweight affair that shouldn't prove to be too difficult.