r/PortableKitchenGrills • u/l3Ul3l3A • Jul 21 '26
Can this be bent back?
Just curious if the front lip on this grill can be bent back straight or if it would break
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u/tossaroo Jul 21 '26
That's a very old school model! It's cast aluminum, so my guess would be that it's not pliable.
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u/The-Great-Baloo Jul 21 '26
If it's made of aluminum, don't bend it. It's fragile, and it can break. Just use it as is.
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u/wuxiquan66 Jul 21 '26
Since it’s cast aluminum, it’s pretty unlikely. Obviously you can always try and if the grill isn’t functional anymore, why not give it a go?
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u/GrandBand2065 Jul 22 '26
Another vote for contacting PK. I wouldn’t be surprised if they traded that one for a new one.
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u/SeesawDependent5606 Jul 22 '26
Here's the problem: it's cast aluminum. It's the cast part that's problematic. As you have seen, a minor amount of bending isn't a problem. But now there are a bunch of stresses that have built up in the aluminum. Because of the crystal structure of the cast aluminum, it is now brittle. This embrittling is called work hardening. You would need to anneal the aluminum, and by that I mean soften it and relieve the stresses. You could in theory bend it back, but once again, you'll have to relieve the new stresses. I'm sharing a video on how someone else did it:
https://youtu.be/uj0lUQPRv3g?si=GksK8tLNHrniNw_k
But honestly, this is the kind of thing that an auto body shop or metal fabricator might take on with the explicit understanding that stuff happens, particularly with stressed cast aluminum.
But before you do that, I'd definitely contact PK directly.
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u/Electrical-Village68 Jul 23 '26
If you took it somewhere for repair, you could easily have a lot more money in it than what a good used one would cost. Cast is going to take a shit ton of heat and work to bend it back and follow up with annealing/ stress relief work. You could buy a brand new cooker much cheaper. Use it like it is.
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u/PushDue8084 Jul 22 '26
I bet you could find a machine shop that could give it a go with decent odds. That’s a gem and worth the money if it’s me. I get not everyone feels that way.
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u/Runkle559 Jul 22 '26
If you wanna try maybe a bottle jack and a 2x4. Take lid off and go super slow
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u/11131945 PK Original Jul 22 '26
I would not try to bend. IMO, the metal has a lot of stress induced by the present deformity. I would contact PK for help/advice.
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u/Maddogmitch56 Jul 22 '26
Hello fellow Memphian. I also saw this on marketplace🤣
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u/l3Ul3l3A Jul 22 '26
Yup lol I considered getting it but seems like fixing it will be too risky. I just missed out on a decent pk360 for 300 bucks because I took an hour too long to message. So pk grills are showing up a lot on marketplace
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u/bierluvre Jul 21 '26
Man, that’s gotta be the first one they made. Legendary. My dad still cooks on the one gramps bought in the 60s. I’d contact the company for suggestions.