In article , mike
wrote:

I have an old MacBook aluminum laptop that got dropped on a corner.
I'd like to beat the dent out of it so the lid will close properly.
It's some kind of drawn aluminum can...I think...
Model number suggests it's not the titanium model.

Here's what it looks like.

http://i.imgur.com/ApOjfl4.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/yRQFVR1.jpg

Hope the image links work.

I can, with considerable difficulty, remove the guts and the
casting around the battery hole.
But there are still some brackets welded to the aluminum
on both sides of the corner.

I can fabricate some wooden forms to recreate the corner.
First question is, "should I try to press it into shape,
or ballistically deform it with a hammer?"

Other suggestions?

It's not worth spending any money to do this.
It's just a learning opportunity.

There is a standard way to fix such problems in hollowware (such as
silver bowls and pitchers) and to make hollowware called "chasing".

Basically, one hammers a blunt tool into the sheet metal, which is
resting on a bed of pitch. No special tooling is used.

In your case, the frame corner would be pushed by hand into warm pitch,
which would then be allowed to cool. Then, working from the inside of
the frame, the corner would be pushed out by hammering a rounded
hardwood dowel into the corner, stretching it back roughly into place.

I learned this in a course on making jewelry. The textbook was
"Metalwork for Craftsmen" by Emil Kronquist, Dover 1972.

Joe Gwinn