Where to find bendy aluminum?

The softest aluminum that you can get is probably a 1000 series with an O temper.  What does this mean?  Basically, pure aluminum that has not been heat treated (McMaster Carr, Grainger)

Repeated bending without cracking is a tougher nut to crack.  Metals stressed beyond their Yield Strength tend to work harden (get tougher but brittle).  The metal will form cracks and the raw metal will develop oxide layer (quickly) and this keeps the crack from “healing”.  Under vacuum, metals can “heal” themselves and re-bond together due to lack of gasses.

You can reduce the Yield Stress by selecting thin material.  Another thing that you can do is to periodically to anneal or heat treat the metal.  With aluminum, this means placing it in an oven for an hour or so, probably above 400 F.

In general, all metals will fail after repeated bending.  This is why hinges were invented.  It will help a great deal if you would expand upon your application.

If you are looking for aluminum sheets for making a windscreen, I purchased aluminum tooling (embossing)  foil from a local craft shop.  A roll 12″ x 10′ was less than $10.

This item on Amazon might be it:

Hope this helps,

Lance

Oh Dear – not enough details!

If you want to make a windshield which can be folded up, then starting with a very large disposable Al oven dish is good. Cheap, and lots of thin shim there.
The embossing foil is also worth looking at – pretty colours!
You could also start with a large windshield from Trail Designs.

But if you want more solid bendy material, like 1/4″ rod, it gets hard (sorry about the pun).

More details needed.
Cheers

I was thinking of the type of aluminum they use for wind screens on an MSR stove. You can fold it up again and again.

It is called aluminum tooling foil (#36 gauge).  How much do you need?

ha, I was thinking of the foil I got for my MSR windscreen.  But that would probably be expensive, especially if you can only buy it along with a stove.

http://www.cascadedesigns.com/msr/stoves/stove-accessories/heat-reflector-w/-windscreen/product

$15 for just the windscreen from MSR

the aluminum tooling foil that Jon suggested is the link that Lance gave – $10 for 12″ x 10′ – although currently out of stock

Michael’s might sell it

I was thinking of the type of aluminum they use for wind screens on an MSR stove. You can fold it up again and again.

Al baking dishes, 3 for a dollar at dollar store, or something along those lines.

Cheers

Aluminum flashing is available at Lowes:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_12535-205-66506_0__?productId=1008163

geoff

Aluminum flashing typically has a plastic enamel coating that can only be removed by sanding.  It chars when exposed to open flame and lets off a nasty chemical smell.  It’s my understanding this eventually stops once the area heated by your stove gets fully oxidized.

I don’t use the stuff for this reason.

It’s also much stiffer than the typical foldy alu. wind screens some stoves are sold with.  You won’t be folding a wind screen made from flashing – you’ll be rolling it as you would titanium foil, so it just fits inside your pot, assuming it’s shorter than your pot.

At least this has been my experience w/ several sources. YMMV.

The oven liners are probably the most readily available material, but I’ve had some of that stuff overheat with a mis-behaving stove and become thin and brittle in areas.  Shouldn’t be a problem w/ a well behaved stove, and it’s great for prototyping.  I’ve got it on my to-do list to replace my oven liner wind screen w/ Ti.

I ended up using a cut up grocery store cookie sheet. It’s not the bendy aluminum I was hoping for. The MSR screen was not tall enough for my purposes. To protect my lovely cookie sheet wind screen I will store it in a cut off smart water bottle. I would have preferred something I could fold flat but there’s not enough time to order anything now.

Embossing foil at the craft store. It will kill some time till Friday comes.

Ditto what Ken said.

Art Essentials in Santa Barbara has what you want in stock:

Essentially the same stuff as the MSR windscreen.  I’ve folded mine flat many dozens of times without a tear.  I tried the cooking sheet stuff and it was way too brittle creating breaks and sharp edges.

Hope this has been helpful.

Wow, I would have never thought of Art Essentials. I thought it was just paint and brushes kind of stuff. Never actually gone inside, just looked as I walked by. Thanks for the tip!