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straightening dead soft rolled copper

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 9:18 am
by bronctoad
Alright I read in here somewhere that using soft rolled in condensers/deflegs, or other straight uses is a pita :evil: . Along time ago a mentor of mine, we jokingly called him bfi (big f#$king indian) :lol: showed me a trick for running nice straight coppers lines using dead soft. Not only was he a mentor he was an idol. this is his "Indian Trick" :wave:
first you need two points that won't move with the strain of a chain fall/come alongs or whatever jou can pull with, a way to attach the copper between the points. I'm going to use a piece of square tube for a short piece of 1/2 od.

Re: straightening dead soft rolled copper

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 9:25 am
by bronctoad
all mounted
all mounted
once you get every thing held down, I flattened the ends to c-clamp them to the tube and the hook on the come-along,
crank it tight :wtf:

Re: straightening dead soft rolled copper

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 9:37 am
by bronctoad
just tighten till its straight an smooth running your hands down it. if your worried about using it with compression fitting just check the od and only pull it down .010 to 015 thousenths it will still work. there is some waste because of mounting/clamping. I've wrapped the end of the tubing around the hook twice before and that worked, just waste a bit more. it doesn't take a whole lot to stretch the dead soft but it does work harden it as it straightens so you'll need a bender to shape after your done.
straight as an arrow
straight as an arrow
I hope this helps someone :wave:

bronctoad

Re: straightening dead soft rolled copper

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 3:26 pm
by cob
vise grips do a good job of not wasting to much material.

if you weld a small chain link to the adjuster screw their perfect.

Re: straightening dead soft rolled copper

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 9:59 am
by MrBee
They make a tool for that but it is very pricy unless you were gonna use it a lot.
Looks to me like your method would work fine for anything I would need.

http://www.eastwood.com/tube-straightener.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow


MrBee