Bending alluminum for horseshoe shooter

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by Thunder910

We didn't bend aluminum. We used lexan that we curved around our shooter. If you'd like, you can add on some kind of traction-paper or paste to the curve to give it more spin than ours had, but ours works just fine smooth.
The lexan was backed by aluminum standoffs to prevent it from straightening out, and it worked perfectly.
Good luck!

+1
We did pretty much the same thing.

[HumblePie]

While this doesn't answer the original question, I'll share anyway.

We are fortunate to have access to a 3D printer, so when we had determined our favorite shooter radius (empirically), we modeled a template (in 3 interlocking sections to fit in the printer envelope) and printed the contour we wanted. The template was applied to a rough cut piece of plywood and run across a router table with a piloted trim bit. Voila! The finished piece was rigid, lightweight, and had a consistent radius. I must admit I went a little overboard with the stain and polyurethane, but it's GOT to look good, right?

[Pault]

Originally Posted by HumblePie

While this doesn't answer the original question, I'll share anyway.

We are fortunate to have access to a 3D printer, so when we had determined our favorite shooter radius (empirically), we modeled a template (in 3 interlocking sections to fit in the printer envelope) and printed the contour we wanted. The template was applied to a rough cut piece of plywood and run across a router table with a piloted trim bit. Voila! The finished piece was rigid, lightweight, and had a consistent radius. I must admit I went a little overboard with the stain and polyurethane, but it's GOT to look good, right?

I like this method, and I agree that you should consider other methods besides bending aluminum. My team used a bunch of 1/4in abs laser cut into the shape of the curve that we wanted, then stacked them on top of each other (we did this not only for the shooter, but for storing frisbees too). You can see it better in the attached thumbnail.