Straightening bent aluminum

[OzBungy]

To an extent it doesn't matter what you do with a bent alloy fuselage. It's bent. You might as well bend it back and see what happens. It's stuffed now. If it breaks it will still be stuffed.

A mate bent his and had it straightened and reinforced. It broke the next time he used it.

We now both have J Shapes carbon foils. I have lost count of the number of times I have run mine into the sand. It just bounces off. A few times I have come in too close and ridden with the foil dragging along the sand. It makes a really loud squealing noise. A couple of times it has bounced off rocks. The worst required a little epoxy filler and some sanding. Good as new.

To be honest, you buy cheapshit alloy foils you get what you pay for. It's a little ironic that some of the high end alloy components are almost the same price as carbon.

[Flyboy]

To an extent it doesn't matter what you do with a bent alloy fuselage. It's bent. You might as well bend it back and see what happens. It's stuffed now. If it breaks it will still be stuffed.

A mate bent his and had it straightened and reinforced. It broke the next time he used it.

We now both have J Shapes carbon foils. I have lost count of the number of times I have run mine into the sand. It just bounces off. A few times I have come in too close and ridden with the foil dragging along the sand. It makes a really loud squealing noise. A couple of times it has bounced off rocks. The worst required a little epoxy filler and some sanding. Good as new.

To be honest, you buy cheapshit alloy foils you get what you pay for. It's a little ironic that some of the high end alloy components are almost the same price as carbon.

I assume bending the alloy back & forth would significantly further weaken it compared to a single bend ... but surely depends on the degree of bend? "Cheapshit"? It's a different material, with its own pluses & minuses - cheap and/or shit doesn't really enter into it. There are clearly different grades of aluminum, just as there are different grades of carbon fibre.

I haven't run my carbon foil into anything (yet). I can't imagine it would hold up too well - aside from the mast/fuselage, the carbon wing itself seems way more fragile. I guess carbon doesn't bend - it either breaks, or doesn't - although it might have fractures that are not readily seen.

[jumptheshark]

Well, I'm here to update as I said I would..... turns out you can't put much trust in a straightened alloy fuse. Mine snapped on me yesterday. It had been straightened from a very minor bend in its first season. Lasted another three years, and I was using a much bigger than stock (around 1200cm) wing when it cleanly snapped at the base of the wing while ripping around really powered up. My Stringy wing is now on the bottom of lake Ontario. Sad day....... Oh well, time to go carbon I guess.

[Flyboy]

Well, I'm here to update as I said I would..... turns out you can't put much trust in a straightened alloy fuse. Mine snapped on me yesterday. It had been straightened from a very minor bend in its first season. Lasted another three years, and I was using a much bigger than stock (around 1200cm) wing when it cleanly snapped at the base of the wing while ripping around really powered up. My Stringy wing is now on the bottom of lake Ontario. Sad day....... Oh well, time to go carbon I guess.

Too bad you lost the wing.

1200 cm wing is a huge wing for that fuselage/mast though. Were you using the original black & white stock mast & fuselage? At the time there was no idea that people would be foiling on 1200 cm wings, I suppose.

[jumptheshark]

Their first alloy fuse that's actually even a little weaker than their current one. For sure a big wing for that fuse.