How To Straighten Aluminum Sheet Metal

Learn how to bend sheet metal so you.

How to straighten aluminum sheet metal.

Straightening tempered aluminum sheets key words. Its characteristics such as low density and corrosion resistance make it a popular and useful material. 18 gauge 0 050 in. Aluminum is highly malleable which makes it easy to work with but also easy to accidentally bend.

Put a nice matte finish on the piece but it wasn t flat anymore. Don t know about flattening but i found that sand or bead blasting one side of sheet aluminum will put a bow in the metal bowing toward the blasted side. In order to straighten it. In order to counteract this stretch you have to be able to shrink the metal back to its original position.

Aluminum sheet gauge numbers differ from steel sheet gauge numbers. Aluminum is also 100 percent recyclable and easily can be repaired. Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle. On a molecular level the increased heat causes the molecules of the sheet metal to become excited.

Stretching hot shrinking annealing metal finishing cold shrinking hot work planishing. 15 gauge and 0 063 in. Purchase a metal bending brake online or at your local hardware store. One involves using a blow dryer or a paint stripper which emits heat to warm the metal of the dent.

Weston bye author. With the right tools you can easily straighten aluminum yourself rather than spending money on a new piece of metal. The fabricator does not heat this metal to the point where the metal undergoes molecular changes. The reason for this is that metal tends to stretch when it is bent.

As with a steel part a good start is made by pushing or bumping out with the appropriately contoured tool. A bending brake is a specialized metalworking tool used to create precise linear bends and folds in light gauge sheet metals like the kind used to make flashing for doors windows and roofs. If you do inadvertently bend a piece of aluminum don t assume it is ruined and throw it away. Heat straightening does not symmetrically straighten the metal and is a gradual process.

The process of straightening metal is one that while seeming easy is actually a fairly difficult thing to do correctly. The vast majority of aluminum automobile bodies made before 1970 were of either 1100 or 3003 half hard h14 sheet in varying thicknesses of 0 040 in. Sheet metal isn t all that different from a car s bodywork so most methods which will remove dents from a car work for sheet metal. However hammering should be done.