How To Bend Aluminum Sheet With Heat

Put one end of the aluminum in a vise and use a piece of 1 4 black pipe or a 1 2 bolt to bend the aluminum around to achieve your angle without trying to force the metal into a sharp 90degree bend.

How to bend aluminum sheet with heat. Material thickness and inside bend radius just like all sheet metal aluminum work hardens during the forming process. Sheet aluminium can be cut without the need for a guillotine or tin snips which tend to deform the metal. Annealing them is a great way of having tube that s retained its strength. Highly formable and one of the best kinds of aluminum to bend.

Metal shops have brakes mounted at different angles with automated braking arms however it is possible to bend sheet metal at home without the use of a brake. When working with sheet metal one particularly useful piece of equipment is the brake. Press one edge of a wood board against the angle iron. Miserable to bend cracking is very common and cold bending will always weaken the metal.

With added copper magnesium silicon and zinc the aluminum becomes heat treatable. You need to use something as a guide to give your bend a small radius. Grain direction bend line should go across the grain for the best bend having said that a typical sharp 90 bend on a piece of 1 8 aluminum sheet should be a minimum 1 8 inside radius use either 3003 or 5052 ideally the bend line should go across the grain. With the aid of a straight edge and a sharp knife score both sides of the aluminium sheet.

Press toward the ground with both hands to bend the aluminium sheet. You can not bend a sharp 90 degree angle or the aluminum will crack and break heat will help but it will also weaken the metal. This weakens the aluminium and creates a fracture line. Proper bending can be done with annealing the aluminum first although it s not an ideal candidate for formed parts.

Clamp the metal to the table making sure the edge of the angle iron aligns with the edge of the table. Align the bend area of the aluminium sheet with the edge of the table. That is it gets stronger and harder by working bending it. This will give you a nice bend.

If you re making something structural with tubes you might want to flatten the ends so you can drill them to pass a bolt through securely. Heavy gauge aluminum bars or rods must be heat bent using an acetylene torch and vice. This is a highly technical and potentially dangerous process best left to a professional metalworker. Place the fracture line over the edge of a table and bend the overhang slightly downwards.

A brake is a device that allows you to bend a piece of sheet metal at a particular angle. Keep in mind that many kinds of fabricated metal have extremely high melting points and applying your torch injudiciously could cause damage or do harm to your sheet metal or equipment.