Bent my rake, now what??

[TSMART]

On the last swipe of the day, I backed into a small tree and bent my rake. If I remove all the tines and take this to a heavy equipment shop, could it possibly be bent back?

 

[SPIKER]

looks like you will need a torch & big pipe wrench with a BFH,.

mark

 

[Thomas]

I try heat large hammer/pipe wrench for bending,but if number tines are damage might be wise as you suggested.

 

[Bartcephus]

Ouch! Might take appart and put in a press. I have worked on angle like that before and get close to orig. specs. with a 20 ton hydraulic shop press. (You know, the ones that use the bottle jacks.) They work great to straigten out lower link arms, bent A frame members, and pressing in u-joint crosses!

Tons of uses..... (Pun intended.)

 

[Diamondpilot]

I second the press. Everything I have ever heated bends back.

Chris

 

[beenthere]

Or consider buying a piece of angle iron, and drill the holes to make a new piece. Local welder may be able to blow off the top bracket and weld it back on your new angle. Just another option you can toss around.

 

[studor]

I second the new piece of angle iron approach. Bending etc will get it close but never quite the same -- JMHO

 

[Rich Waugh]

I straighten angle iron cold all the time. Get yourself a couple of big old Stillson (monkey) wrenches and a couple lengths of pipe for cheater handles. Those wrenches will take a solid grab on the web and you can work one against the other or just one against the piece held in a solid vise. You'll probably need to overbend by about 10% to accommodate the "springback" effect but you can do it. Better to do it cold than hot since you're not softening the steel that way. The re-bending will actually work harden it a bit and make it tougher some times. With some care, you may not even have to remove more than one or two tines.

Rich

 

[TSMART]

I removed all the tines and took it to our local heavy machinery shop. They put it in a press.
Cost $25....but it's good as new.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I was pretty ticked off at myself for messing up, especially in the last 2 minutes of a long day on the 224. MUST get some kind of rear view mirror....

 

[Thomas]

$25.oo for repair and now ready for action..fair price indeed.

"messing up"
More than fair share of us been there,and will continue to makes oops years to come.

 

[RonMar]

Education costs money, sounds like you got off pretty cheap Wish I was so lucky, my "learning" usually puts a large dent in my wallett...

 

[Bartcephus]

Glad to see the press worked. I bought mine from Harbor Freight on sale. It has saved me $$$ and is a lot easier to work than having to don the heavy gloves and get out the acetylene torch and rosebud tip, 3 lbs. Engineer's hammer and anvil. It usually gets the job done.

Machine shop sounds just as handy without the investment of capital and having a place to put a press.

Best Regards,

Bart