Bending SS bow rail

[winfieldh]

Hi,

I am working of a 20' Sea Ox. The SS bow rail is bent down approx 5" at the absolute front, with the bend starting at the first set of stanchions on either side. I'm wondering if SS can be heated and bent back or if there are other techniques that would work to bend SS? Also, is SS rail the type of metal that will simply fracture if bent a second time? It looks like the rail is continuous from port to stb so how would this be replaced other than the whole piece?

Thanks,
Winfield

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Bending SS bow rail

Filling the rail with sand will help bend w/o kinking but needs to be done slowly.

 

[thatguy]

Re: Bending SS bow rail

I had a pretty sever bend in my bow rail. A tree branch had fallen on it before I had taken ownership of it. I used a propane torch and cherried the rail and worked it out 4 of the five bent areas are perfect, I have a little work
left though.

The stainless will be easy to distort to a shape not wanted if your not careful, so watch out and watch what you are doing. I removed the bow rail from the boat and worked it with my wife and a friend of ours using a set of trees as leverage

If you torch the SS, it will blue. The Stainless turns blue ans yellow. I fixed this with emery cloth, and 0000 steel wool, and metal polish.

use the emery cloth on the blues section until all of the bluing is gone. this will leave a brushed look 0000 steel wool and some metal polish will polish the brushed look away and leave a mirror like finish

good luck

 

[winfieldh]

Re: Bending SS bow rail

Thanks for replies.

I will try heat, leverage, and patience and see what happens.