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Straightening bent aluminum

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Flyboy
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Re: Straightening bent aluminum

Postby Flyboy » Wed Mar 27, 2019 6:46 am

downunder wrote:
Wed Mar 27, 2019 4:59 am
But, does it make a huge difference when riding?

I mean, you could shim more your back wing if it does...
I don't know. I didn't notice a difference riding it after it happened. I suspect you just adjust your weighting to compensate.

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Re: Straightening bent aluminum

Postby downunder » Wed Mar 27, 2019 6:54 am

Than I would leave it.

Any clamps on iodised ALU will ruin it.

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Re: Straightening bent aluminum

Postby Peter_Frank » Wed Mar 27, 2019 11:16 am

I dont have any experience with these very alu foils.

But in general, I would be very very careful almost scared, to bend the precise bent spot back again, when talking about hardened aluminium.

Aluminium will harden when bend or local pressure points, and if bend several times it might simply weaken and break at next impact, or even break fully in two if bend a lot.

Of course it might need to be bend a lot more for real damage, and maybe no problem with a small re-adjustment.

But if you aim for the very precise spot, to get it "perfectly right", it might be a serious weakening, and a lot worse than just righting the full part roughly.

Dont know, but would be sceptical, unless some has bend one a lot back and forth and being able to test it has not been weakened when getting too hard (deformation hardening is the expression in our language)

8) Peter

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Re: Straightening bent aluminum

Postby TomW » Wed Mar 27, 2019 11:33 am

I would shim the wing

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Re: Straightening bent aluminum

Postby Flyboy » Wed Mar 27, 2019 5:15 pm

Peter_Frank wrote:
Wed Mar 27, 2019 11:16 am
I dont have any experience with these very alu foils.

But in general, I would be very very careful almost scared, to bend the precise bent spot back again, when talking about hardened aluminium.

Aluminium will harden when bend or local pressure points, and if bend several times it might simply weaken and break at next impact, or even break fully in two if bend a lot.

Of course it might need to be bend a lot more for real damage, and maybe no problem with a small re-adjustment.

But if you aim for the very precise spot, to get it "perfectly right", it might be a serious weakening, and a lot worse than just righting the full part roughly.

Dont know, but would be sceptical, unless some has bend one a lot back and forth and being able to test it has not been weakened when getting too hard (deformation hardening is the expression in our language)

8) Peter

I am assuming the guys at the metal fabricating shop will know what is & isn't feasible with hardened aluminum. If you look at the photograph you can see the "bend" - it is pretty minimal & occurs at the thinner part of the fuselage where the wing attaches.

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Re: Straightening bent aluminum

Postby Flyboy » Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:32 pm

Took the fuselage in to a local shop. They kindly agreed to straighten it out. I didn't see them do it, but I gather they did it clamps rather than a machine. Looks pretty much as new now. :thumb:

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Re: Straightening bent aluminum

Postby aleks » Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:57 pm

TomW wrote:
Wed Mar 27, 2019 11:33 am
I would shim the wing
This is the best idea I have seen here! I wish I thought of it when I had a problem with my Zeeko fuse - I straightened it but it bent right back after a few sessions :cry:

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Re: Straightening bent aluminum

Postby Flyboy » Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:46 am

aleks wrote:
Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:57 pm

This is the best idea I have seen here! I wish I thought of it when I had a problem with my Zeeko fuse - I straightened it but it bent right back after a few sessions :cry:
How bent was it? Why did it bend back - did you hit something again, or did water pressure from riding bend it back?

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Re: Straightening bent aluminum

Postby NYKiter » Thu Mar 28, 2019 1:44 am

It will never be the same....alum has to be heat treated for stiffness....once the structure changes your SOL

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Re: Straightening bent aluminum

Postby 3InletsWindsports » Thu Mar 28, 2019 2:47 am

An engineering shop with a press can sort out most bends but if the bend has already started stress fractures that are only visible to serious crack testing techniques then it will continue to bend crack and break.
It’s the luck of the draw if you save it or not but any extra time you get to use it is a bonus.

I’m 92kg and use two tight straps on my Pocket Air and Spitfire and have had more than a few sandbar impacts.
One where I hurt my feet from being yanked out of straps and when I turned back the board was stationary about a foot above water. Spitfire buried to mast in the sand.
But again it’s just luck to get away from impacts unscathed in the foil department.


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