[Tye Rannosaurus]

Hey team! Last yet at Home Goods I managed to score half a set of skeleton arm serving utensils for $5 and want to repurpose it into a punch bowl ladle using a pewter cup I picked up off Ebay. Question is, I want to curve the fingers of the hand around the cup. They don't have to be super tight as I will use a separate material to secure the cup but I have heard aluminum has a tendency to shred at high temps...especially aluminum alloys. I have a small torch I was planning on using to just soften the metal a bit but thought I would ask the professionals before going too far down the rabbit hole. Any suggestions or ideas?

 

[J-Man]

Aluminum is a tricky material to bend. If it doesn't bend cold, chances are that heating it won't help. Without seeing what you have, I would think they are cast. If they are, they ain't gonna bend.

 

[lilibat]

Hard to say without knowing exactly what the alloy is. You can try to bend it some without heating it and see what happens but cheap alloys can have stuff in them that make them a bit brittle. Heating might or might not help the situation. I'd say just go slow whatever you do.

 

[Tye Rannosaurus]

Thank you both! Yeah, not sure I'm going to risk it after seeing what you both posted. Sigh. Oh well.