Straightening Metal

Nov 19, 2011 4 Replies
S

I have a metal bracket that is rusted and bent. I will need to restore it by first straightening it out and then sanding and either painting or powder coating it.



But it's the straightening part that will be difficult. The bracket is used to secure a 1/4" thick plexiglass marquee, and therefore is shaped to "cup" the bottom of the marquee and hold it in place.



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I'd appreciate any ideas on how to best accomplish straightening it out. (Would heating it be necessary?).



Thanks.



Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.


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J

Straightening one of nearly a dozen storm-damaged corrugated roofing panels:

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I used mostly a rubber hammer to shape it to the pipe underneath, then an auto-body planishing hammer to flatten the sharper wrinkles. A steel hammer thins, expands and distorts the sheetmetal so use it as little as possible. A steel plate clamped upright in a vise makes a good anvil stake to straighten thin angle. If you shape one to fit the "cup" it should be undersized to allow for springback. I was taught to work out the damage gradually all over rather than trying to complete one section at a time.

The tools are simple, the tricky part is learning where and how hard to hit.

jsw

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L

What about shrinking where the damned thing stretched when it bent, Jim? I've seen body men shrink with a torch and cool wet cloth and I've seen physical shrinking machines which look like 2 pair of vise jaws which come together (or apart for stretching).

I think it would be easier (and not much more expensive) to replace the thing than to attempt derusting and then sand/fill/primer/repair it. Darren would have many fewer headaches that way.

-- Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power. -- Seneca

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J

If Darren can find it.

My 1970's metal shed took a good hit from a falling tree top and there's no way I can buy replacement sections, so I had to reframe it with wood and straighten and reinforce the crumpled doors. I didn't take pix of hammering the door edge channel back to shape around a home-made dolly milled to the channel's inside shape.

The 29 ga Lowe's & HD roofing was bent or crinkled, not stretched. It seems to tear rather than stretch much. The one area that was scrunched together cracked along the tightest creases when I bent it out flat, so it's been moved to an overhang. The roofing is stiff and brittle and doesn't shape as well as auto body or tin can steel.

jsw

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L

Isn't this RCM? Um, I was thinking he could make one if he couldn't buy one. He could even build a brake if necessary. Or one of the local gutter or roofing guys could bend it for him.

-- The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw

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