Bending aluminum?

[G]

Has anyone here tried bending 1/8" aluminum when building a chassis?

[Richard Ellis]

Hi ya..G.
Bending 1/8" Aluminum will fracture/crack if you bend it 90 degrees..It will be rendered very weak at that fold point.
It can of course be welded at that fissure, dressed up and such, but it will add to your time & effort....needless to say one must be skilled & have the right equipment to weld aluminum.
Uncommon Aluminum alloys may not fracture when bent that much but of course they will be VERY resistant to bending.
________________________________________Rick....

[G]

Originally posted by Richard Ellis
Hi ya..G.
Bending 1/8" Aluminum will fracture/crack if you bend it 90 degrees..It will be rendered very weak at that fold point.
It can of course be welded at that fissure, dressed up and such, but it will add to your time & effort....needless to say one must be skilled & have the right equipment to weld aluminum.
Uncommon Aluminum alloys may not fracture when bent that much but of course they will be VERY resistant to bending.
________________________________________Rick....

I was going to try and bend it over say a 3/4" radius. Do you think that is doable?

[Rob11966]

Hi Gavin,

1/8 inch is a little under 3.2mm thickness. I have had chassis made out of 3mm aluminum plate and bent at 90 degrees all over the place. So it can be done, albeit professionally. I have attached a photo. You can the 90 degree bend on the top shows no fracturing at all.

I did have an chassis made earlier out of the same material where there were very small 'stretch' lines along the bend but they were very superficial and from a structural (amp building) point of view irrelevant. They were invisible following electroplating which may give you an idea of how minimal they were.

Don't know if this helps any but perhaps gives you some confidence that it is not impossible!

Cheers,

Rob

[jlsem]

If you have a table saw, you can set a nonferrous-metal sawblade at 45 degrees and score the back of the bend with a vee-shaped groove about 1/3 of the way deep. You can then easily bend the plate at that point.

John

[Eli Duttman]

Originally posted by jlsem
If you have a table saw, you can set a nonferrous-metal sawblade at 45 degrees and score the back of the bend with a vee-shaped groove about 1/3 of the way deep. You can then easily bend the plate at that point.

John

John,

Would TIG welding or soldering the inside of the fold to increase the corner's strength make sense? Cosmetics would not be affected.

[Original Burnedfingers]

The tighter the radius the greater possibility for fracture. T6061 is probably one of the worst alloys to bend. It can be done how ever if one is willing to accept a larger radius bend. I would highly recommend taking it to a metal fab shop and giving them $5 to bend it using the proper top and bottom dies to eliminate stress fractures.

[G]

Thanks for all of the replies. I am going to find a sheetmetal fab shop in the area and have them do it.

[G]

Originally posted by Rob11966
Hi Gavin,

1/8 inch is a little under 3.2mm thickness. I have had chassis made out of 3mm aluminum plate and bent at 90 degrees all over the place. So it can be done, albeit professionally. I have attached a photo. You can the 90 degree bend on the top shows no fracturing at all.

I did have an chassis made earlier out of the same material where there were very small 'stretch' lines along the bend but they were very superficial and from a structural (amp building) point of view irrelevant. They were invisible following electroplating which may give you an idea of how minimal they were.

Don't know if this helps any but perhaps gives you some confidence that it is not impossible!

Cheers,

Rob

Nice chassis.

[jotom750]

Hi.
Bending 1/8" ali will not be a problem. Things to keep in mind:-
I assume your chassis will have bends of 12" length or greater,
as stated, these will be done probably in 'V' or 'form' tools, consider putting some thin plastic sheet in first to stop scratching.
3/4" rad is big and should present no problem of cracking, but ask the shop to bend a test piece of the same material first, they will not mind. If you like colour possibly use anodising grade material, the colours can be fantastic. The developed material length will depend on the final bend radius, and material stretch. (test piece could be used). You could probably do smaller lengths in a large vice but it's not easy to get dent free consistant results.
Hope this helps.