I found a clean piece of steel the thickness of the channel and put that in the vise to sit the channel on for final flattening .... still not easy, and it helps to have a second pair of hands as back up
"When we tug a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world" ~ John Muir "When we tug a single thing on an old truck, we find it falls off" ~ me Some TF series details & TF heater pics