I Need Help!!!

[99civichic]

HOW on EARTH do you guys bend aluminum rods?? I've asked several people in several threads without ever getting a straight answer. The ONLY thing left on the True Street stang is the turbo setup, I have several hours of work in it without having made any usable parts, and I'm about out of time. Tomorrow is my first final, and I can't work on this thing at all until finals are over. I want it DONE!!!! I've tried using big lead solder, but it dents and no glue I have will hold to it. Aluminum rod just dents or breaks. I've seen it done, I want to know how it's done.

[tonioseven]

Try heating (VERY CAREFULLY!!!) plastic sprue to get the shape you desire; detail it with aluminum paint afterwards.

[proosen]

Get some styrene tubes and put some kind of relatively soft metal rod inside it. In this way it want colapse in the bend and it will hold the shape once bent. Otherwise do as tonioseven said, for a cheaper way out of the problem.

Niclas

[99civichic]

I did the whole rollbar with styrene and it turned out pretty well.....I'm just worried because I have to do the setup in the car since space is such an issue.

[mike@af]

Aluminum in general is pissy. Its a pain to shape, weld, and as you can see, bend. What is usually neccesary is a mandrel bender, or packing it with sand.

[willimo]

Packing aluminum tube as thin as you are using with sand is almost impossible. An alternative is to jam som solder (or styrene rod, not tube) into the aluminum tube to prevent kinking. I just try to make very small angle bends, then use some flat jawed pliers to fix the kink a bit, then sand and polish it. Certainly not the best way to do it, but that's how I do it. I have some of those spring things that you put the tube into then bend it, and it prevents kinking, but I can NEVER get the tube back out. Total waste if you ask me, unless there's something I'm missing. You can only bend aluminum once, in me experience, before it tears from stress. And even that once, you can't bend it too much. Plastic will probably be your best bet. Try different paint techniques, and you'll get something nice. I like Testors Metallic Silver with Dullcote sprayed over it.

[99civichic]

Painting it isn't really the problem. This car...*sigh*...is the problem. Everything was great for the initial test fit, then when I put it together for the final test fit before gluing, it looked like an offroad Mustang with a 4" lift. What changed?? It's going to be packed up and worked on next week.

[dozman]

Just what GTMike said, you need a bender but it also depends on the quality, radius of the bend you want etc etc. You're probably better off using styrene!
I've bent aluminium for aircraft & the tighter the radius the more likely you going to get "wrinkles" on the inside of the bend.

[primera man]

Jam it full with sand or smaller lead solder

[mike@af]

Heres a tip, another one at least. Go to your local hardware store, and buy a tightly wrapped compressed spring (meaning that all the coils touch each other, and when you pull it, it stretches). Make sure the spring has and ID of the OD of the aluminum, so the aluminum fits inside the spring tightly. And then bend. Works for larger radii.