David, Dural is a generic trade name for aluminium/copper alloy
Different specifications have different numbers. 6061 is practicall pure ali, 2024 is the common or garden variety, and 7075 is a harder more brittle alloy. More important is the temper of the meta designated by a dash number after the spec. -0 is fully soft, -T3 i half hard and will bend around small radius (most common on majority o aircraft and -T6 which will crack when bent. I need to fish out my aircraft engineering notes to be more specific (I've been out of the trade for a few years now.
Possibilities to obtain small amounts are if you have an aircraf maintenance facility nearby see if you can score some bits from thei offcuts bin (behind their metal guillotine), might cost you a couple o packets of choccy bickies for their tea room. Otherwise try a local scrap merchant who collects from such places. Th numbers and thickness are printed on the sheet. Heat treatment is a whole different ball game which I wouldn't want t generalise on without my notes, even though I used to be in charge of heat treatment salt bath doing ali stuff, it was about 25 years ago Suffice to say, at this stage, that pressed ribs etc, are formed out o ) and then heat treated to T3 to give strength. Hope this helps your understanding a bit, let's know if you need mor gen and I'll see what I can find. Neville.
L.A.M.E. (NZ) # 164
-- Kiw
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