My "new" tools for angle-iron straightening

[hwy8]

I was thinking about Ron Stauffer's long-handled crescent wrenches and I went to the workshop and grabbed two of my Jorgenson glue clamps....They worked great! They have a big contact area, they're strong, the floating jaw can be adjusted to fit almost any position, and you can adjust the length of the pipe for a better cheater-bar effect. Oh, and I already had them!

If, after some use I find out the handle is in the way, I'll cut them off and put on a small water valve wheel, or maybe a hex nut for a ratchet.

[hedgerow]

That should work well. I have used C clamps with a heavy piece of angle iron to straight the tower angle iron out.

[JBarker]

Great idea, I will try that in the future

[Ron Stauffer]

I am always amazed how much you have to deflect steel to straighten. Late last year I had rolled one of pump hoist rigs. The head ache rack of the flatbed and and the pump hoist boom was a really good roll cage. But it bent the main boom and the stinger in two directions. To straighten the 4 x 8 tube of the main boom a half inch, I had to deflect it 3" past where it needed to come back to. Bertha, the big rig wasnt heavy enough on its own with the whole back of the truck hoist off the ground. I had to run the main line down and hook it to the crashed truck to have enough force to straighten

straightening.jpg

Ron Stauffer
Montrose CO

[hwy8]

Holy Cow, Ron! I'm fooling around with my glue clamps to get my job done and I'm amazed at the size and scope of the projects you do! The amount of deflection that tube straightening required was remarkable. Most of the time that I am straightening something out, it is on the press. Most of those times I have fun doing it, especially when there's that sweet spot that happens and it is as if the material remembers where it is supposed to be and then it finds its way home. Of course, there have been times when I've had to turn the part every which way and chase a bend or bulge the full length and back before it settles down.

[Wayne]

When you bend iron you stretch one side and you can't unstretch it. It seems to me!

[mtblah]

Heat & vibration will help "unbend " steel that is stretched .
Both make the molecule's behave and remember where home is .

[hedgerow]

I have a hyd tree saw for my skid loader that has a three foot one inch thick blade and I got it pinched bad in a big locust tree about six years ago. It took a 100 ton press to get it straight and I was surprised how far past center we had to bend it so it would stay straight after we let the press off. It still running today with no issues.