1100 aluminum

[SavannahLion]

Anybody work with sheets of this stuff? I'm thinking of trying my hand at hammering a sheet into shape but I don't see a lot of talk about it outside of aircraft circles.

[Samstag]

Never worked with it but looking at the info it seems to be a pretty easy alloy to work with.

Almost all my experience is with 6061 and I've never played with sheet forming, but in my opinion aluminum is a really forgiving metal.

[SavannahLion]

According to http://www.anodizing.org/Reference/reference_guide.html 6061 anodizes well but if I recall, it work hardens like the 3003 and needs to be annealed? I don't have any welding or heat treating equipment which is why I'm thinking 1100 is a good option.

[geomartin]

For forming, 5052 is the preferred grade of sheet metal houses.  6061 is too hard and cracks easily when formed.  5052 is bound to be cheaper and more available than 1100 series.

[SavannahLion]

I can't tell if 5052 work hardens and needs to be annealed.

Probably would be better to find some place to get small samples from select series so I can get a better idea of how each series behaves. Kind of hard to work out the logistics just by reading about it.

[SavannahLion]

You know what? Let me do this. Here is what I want to form. (Ignore the blue band, It's intended to be one solid piece).

The width measures 25" at the widest point, 5 1/2" from top to bottom. The compound curves (the white portion) is based on a 4" radius which makes the corner pieces 8"D 1/8 spheres.

There are two identical finished pieces, one w/ the cutout and one without. The cutout is the "back" to a control panel. The hole is the mounting area and a way for the electronics to be threaded through into the cab.

Initially, I intended to have this be segmented into four pieces using a prefabricated aluminum bowl that was cut into 1/4's and simple bends in a sheet of aluminum. But after a lot of searching, I found that the bowl shape alone cost as much or more as the materials for the rest of the shape!!

If I go with the 1100 aluminum, it might be too soft. So the idea might be to "bond" a layer of shaped wood with a flexible adhesive so the CP and the acrylic (above and behind the blue band) has a place to attach to properly.