@alexmeadebikeworks · Alex Meade
Saved 2026-05-15 · Posted 2026-02-28 · Status: New
Stainless steel fork blades can be difficult to bend to a tight radius. Wood’s metal, a low melting temp alloy of bismuth, lead, tin and cadmium, can save the day and the $$ blades! - ask me how I learned this the hard way 🙄.
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Comments (14)
Please tell people about the toxicity, yes this is rad stuff but needs to be handled with better care.
Thanks… I also have a soup can and a tuna fish can for melting low temp metals (not joking at all).👍🏼
Another really good working Methode is melted sugar (caramel) it can be removed with water too and doesn’t leave any „different“ metal on the inside surface…if you gave to solder or heat up the bended thing again in the further process.
Sugar works much better than Sand and is much easier to remove that pitch …🤓✌️
Ooh! About 20 years ago I worked with a company that develops tooling for the Big Three automakers. They created this conveyor system that filled aluminum tubing with that stuff for a bending process that made the bumper structures for (I think) the Camaro (which was still a few years out at the time). Neat shit!
I have some weird bending plastic. I bought so much of it a long time ago. If you want to try it someday I can just send you some.
That large of a bend radius could be done with sand or maybe nothing at all.🤷🏼♂️
This guy is a great frame builder and a great guy. He answers questions for me all the time.
A matching flower die and more precise pull handle might help with the kinking on your bending setup to avoid using the metal filler. Great content !! 👏
Very nice process , but 1 question if any residue stays inside the tube can it mess up the tube when heated to red hot , as it would with none ferrous metals??
@cyclesgrandbois SUS solution?
Is the die cut to match the taper of the fork leg?
Alex, do you use an external heater for your parts cleaner?
Genius
Interesting, never heard of that. Is it any better than sand, or just different?