Bending old metal?

[JakePhelps]

Does anyone know of a way to bend old copper, tin, aluminum, etc... without breaking it? I have heard of heating the bend lightly...Also how can you stop it from breaking if its on the verge of snapping at the bend? Any help would be great, im sure we all have a few relics like that

[weldermark]

coppers not going to break, nor tin, depends on what type aluminum you want to bend,and what for
most types will bend,the only hard ones to bend would be an intricate extrusion.
what do you have in mind?



HH Mark

[JakePhelps]

I have found alot of old brittle pieces of copper and i can say sadly that they do bend and they do break I think your thinking of modern copper maybe?

[jeff of pa]

It's VERY hard To do Jake, & I don't think there Is a Perfect Plan Of Attack.

I do Know That Rushing Has Been My worst Enemy at Doing it.

The LAST TIME I had something I had to Straighten, I Bent it a Very Little bit.

Then I sat it Down & walked away For Several Hours.

Then Went Back & Did The Same.

I continued this Process For Several days & was Able To Straighten It.

I Don't Know For a Fact it Would Have Broken IF I did it all at Once.

But, I don't Know it Wouldn't Have Either.

Tuff Call.

? ? ? ? ? GOOD LUCK !

? ? ? ? ? ?Jeff

[JakePhelps]

True, and sometimes you have to make the call to try and bend it or not, you gotta think if its gonna break or not if you try and bend it. Specially old copper stuff.

[Matejko]

Hi !!

Try to heat it till it gets red, then gently straighten it.

Patina goes to hell, but it cracks anyway. Even if you do cold straightening.
So, after that you will have to clean the whole object properly.

If something brakes, you can always weld it with silver. Hard to do, but not impossible.

Pozdrawiam Matejko

That's the way I do, if I find extremely bended spoon of fork.