On Sun, 24 Jul 2011 10:16:21 +0100, john thompson wrote:

An aluminium saucepan was dropped on the kitchen floor and now the lid
will not fit on, due to a fairly small flattening of one side.

Is it flat or is the pan now oval? Draw around the pan, rotate it
90deg about its centre and draw around again. If the two drawn lines
stay ontop of each other excpet where the "flat" is then the pan is
still circular.

If it's now oval the flat will be on the narrow oval dimension. Try
pushing(*) on the wider oval dimension ie across the side at 90 deg
to where the flat is.

(*) Pushing may mean *gently* standing on the edge of the pan. Use
bits of scrap wood to protect the pan and the floor.

--
Cheers
Dave.