Bending Aluminum Sheet 3 16

I have a piece of 8 5 wide 3 16 thick 5052 aluminium that needs several bends.

Bending aluminum sheet 3 16.

Say you re bending 0 25 in thick 6061 t6 aluminum to a 100 degree external angle 80 degree internal angle. Most frequently expensive sheet metal bending tools called brakes are used to bend sheet metal but you can also complete this task without one. The bend radius you select may not be available if the geometry of the part will not allow us to bend with the specific tooling required to achieve that radius. Part gets bent from 180 degrees to 140 degrees i just tried this on a small sheet metal type brake but it was trying to pry open the brake.

This is a highly technical and potentially dangerous process best left to a professional metalworker. The largest angle is only 40 degrees. You d probably air bend by using a 3 0 in. Use the minimum bend dimension values in the charts below for your minimum closeness of cutout to a bend.

When moving up to t4 and t6 tempers however bending ability tends to decrease. A bending brake will be best suited for shaping flat square sheets of light gauge aluminum. Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle. Material bend radii and minimum bend size charts please note.

To make this easier you d start with your 6061 material in the soft t 0 state. In the annealed condition it can be used for bending since the difference between yield and tensile strength is 10 ksi and elongation is up to 18. This is one of the most versatile of the heat treatable family of alloys.