Thanks for this video!!! My son is building a trailer for his ag mechanics project and the frame rails bent after welding on the spring hangers. We tried your method, heating on the top of the rails and it worked perfectly.
I'm not a welder but found this video really interesting and I guess not so surprising you had 23 heat spots to combat 24 welds as it seems you have just balanced the heat stresses both sides :-)
There is a good moral hiding in this video. Buying cheep often costs more... lol. I did a welding and a fitting and turning appyship with my father and we used to use heat like this all the time, when we were in a rush we'd spray it with water after heating to accelerate the effect. i haven't done this in about 20 odd years.
Jay in't interesting you mention that as I'm currently trying to straighten mine. I was very disappointed to see that the manufacturer used a very sturdy I-beam for the lift itself but only attached two C-channels face to face for the rear pivot beam only stitch welding 5 points the length of them! (see pic's). Thank God center weld held otherwise may have lost box over the dump drop-off 10' down! The rear half fell away at each pivot hinge and when lowered most of it lined back up. But one side I'm having trouble getting aligned so I can clamp/bolt together long enough to raise body and run full welds and add support stringers forward. Currently have two 1/2" thick shackle plates with 5/8" bolts clamping and going to wrap chain with porta-power back to I-beam to assist pulling box into alignment before heating channel. I plan to use this vid's red-spot technique but would love any advice, especially gas pressures for no.1 tip. Here's pic's: photos.app.goo.gl/RuBfwExlhwkD3jqH2
This is so cool and amazing. I just bought (2) 2”x2”x48” 1/4” thick square tubing from the old stock section of a metal supplier ($20 compared to $80 if I bought new) and they too have this split. Not sure what it is but I just thought, oh, I’ll just weld this up and now I have a warped 2x2. Can’t wait till tomorrow to try this technique. Thank you!
Great Job on the heat shrinking Brian. Always has my interest in metallurgy like this. Wonder, do you have a video of doing this to round pipe as well.? Thanks for sharing.
Hello, thank you for the comment. Unfortunately I don't have a video of round pipe straightening. However it's basically the same technique as tube. Should I ever come across any material that needs straightened though I plan on using that opportunity to make a video demonstrating how to straighten it through.
Worked for Schuff Steel Co in Phoenix for almost twenty years and in most departments/positions including heat straightening and almost exclusively with a rosebud torch setup with compressed air and water chill so I’m just a little confused about your reasoning of not using that method (rosebud torch) of heat straightening steel. I was taught that method by some very knowledgeable “old timers” with much success in that way of straightening.
I've used a rosebud tins of times for heat straightening with great results myself. But for this particular tube, a rosebud wouldn't allow me to concentrate my heat in one little area. It's 11 gauge steel tubing. It'd damn near melt it.
Awesome video. I’m trying to fix distortion on some angle iron I welded recently, hence why I found this video. What would I do differently with angle iron?
I purchased new cold rolled steel plate 1200mm x 150mm and 10mm thickness for purpose to be ways for my diy metal lathe. But they in the shop catted that piece with big machine scissors, and it got distorted by length about 5mm on the middle. How to straighten this to be reliable for my purpose?
Thank you for a great video, and what an excellent result! But sometimes I'm a little thick and I'd really like to learn/understand this technique, so just to be clear... Did you start in the middle and work your way toward the ends, alternating sides each time you heated a spot?...or did you heat all the spots starting from the middle and work toward one end, before starting on the other end? Does it matter? And also, you said to let the heat spots cool before moving on... But did you let each individual heat spot cool before moving on to the next one, or did you do the complete series of heat spots each time, and then let them all cool at once? I'd appreciate any help you can give me on this, to make it a little clearer. Thanks.
Hello. Sorry for the late reply. I've now attached this account to my phone and I will be able to monitor it better. Having done this a lot through the years I usually know how much heat is required to do something like this. In this case I didn't have a clue it'd take this many heat spots. I like to give something this length three spots right off the bat. I have always started in the center and then one on the right and one on the left and it wouldn't matter which one you did first I wouldn't think. I say let it cool completely before adding more spots, because until it's cool, it's still working on straightening out. Assuming it's not going to move more before it cools completely, one may heat it more and move it too far. So I heat three spots usually, depending on how it's warped. If it needs more after it cools I typically give it a few more, wait and evaluate it again. I hope this helps.
I would say the longer the item to be straightened the more heat spots you will require, remembering that between every heat spot there will be a straight line... In this case 1 heat spot on the opposite side of each weld would make perfect sense as each weld caused a little shrinkage to cause the bend in the first place.
The reason metal warps when exposed to high temperature is due the fact that hot metal area surrounded by cold metal area cannot expand being held back by stronger metal bonds ,heated metal will get compressed and in the way cooling down it will shrink more than it has expanded .A observer will see a straight bar bending one way when heat applied locally and bend the other way more as it cools down ,sometimes the induced stress can cause metal to crack in high carbon steels .
I have a 4-in round tube with .120 wall and it's bent a little bit about a quarter inch in 3 ft. Had to sell my acetylene equipment when things got bad and I don't want to have to reinvest just to do this. I do have torches for plumbing which run map gas I know it's not as hot but do you think it'll work? Thank you
Great video Brian. I’m new to welding just done a couple little jobs before but have just started a sliding gate it’s the same length as this but obviously has a top and and bottom rail which have both bowed like this. How would you go about sorting that? Doing one rail at a time or both together?
I'd have to see it and how it's warped. We used to just put spots on the top of the pipe (top rail) of handrail and it would pull the whole piece straight. But I think it would depend on how many pickets you had in the gate.
This was interesting to see. I'm new to welding and welded a log arch (2x2 square tube 1/8" thickness) and after welding in the interior cross supports the legs that extend down to the axles/tires pulled in 1/2" on each side😤 after cooling. I don't have a torch but I do have a plumbers soldering torch or I can weld as someone else noted on the opposite sides to try to pull the legs back out? Thoughts?
Welded material acts as a reinforcement .. maybe some heat and some brute force , it takes a big enough torch to get the metal red hot, or welding plates of the same size on opposite sides .
I just did this yesterday. I put a weld on the opposite side and it straightened out a 2x2x48” 1/4 thick tubing. I’m going to try the plumbers torch on the 2nd 48” piece that I welded that crazy open seam.
I have a 10”x 2” rectangle tubing that Bent when I welded it. Would you put 2 heat spots one above the other on the 10” side to help shrink it back or 1 larger heat spot?
Great video! Perfectly addresses the job I am working on. Can't wait to try it. Maybe a dumb question, but why didn't you leave the string an it so you could see the results as you went along?
Same thing applies. Treat it just like the tube. We used to straighten lots of handrail after welding warped the crap out of it and the key is patience and letting it cool before you heat again (so you can touch it bare handed).
So I have 8”x2”tubing 3/16 wall and welded 2”x1/4 x10” long flat bar on the one side for stair stringers and it bent on me can I do the silver dollar trick or do I have to go to more of an oval?
What is the total amount of warpage? String it end to end. Also, how did you weld it? Hopefully with intermittent welds? Length and space between them?
I just recently bought a table with similar shaped iron for its leg and during the shipping it bended so that's all i have to do? Hmm... since this pandemic no one open their worshop on my town and i only have a gas power "jet" lighter let's see how long i can make it glowing red like that
Apply the same force that it had it twisted in the first place the opposite way and get it hot ,local heat like in the video is a stressed induced method that will weaken metal rigidity .
I always though the tube had to be constrained on the ends so that the metal plastic deforms and that's what causes the length to decrease. (tube can't expand in longitude so it becomes thicker... then when cooled, it has to be shorter). Your square tube seems to only be clamped at one end. Am I missing something?
from one of the replies above "The reason metal warps when exposed to high temperature is due the fact that hot metal area surrounded by cold metal area cannot expand being held back by stronger metal bonds ,heated metal will get compressed and in the way cooling down it will shrink more than it has expanded"
Douglas Alan solid materials are going to use different methods for straightening. Sometimes a wedge method can be used to achieve the straightness desired but I've found that restraining, heating and application of pressure is what is most effective for solid materials. Of course we have to be concerned in some cases about mechanical properties of out materials after all of this heat. Another thing to consider.
@@carlsagan3295 the only thing that I can think of is to weld a big round spot just like I did with the torch? I don't know if it would work or not.... And depending on the thickness of the tube you had better be pretty comfortable with the welding machine. Often times you can also bend smaller tube bey it's plasticity range by using leverage. Again you would need to be very careful to make sure that you do not bend it too far (that's what she said).
Hi. This procedure works for a stress bend too, but I have noticed that it helps apply pressure to the bend too after heating. If you aren't able to apply pressure, you will probably need more heat spots in that area. Don't do them all at once though. I should also note that the stress bends I've used this on have been minor.
Brian Barnes Last week I was repairing a bend in the third stage of an under reach for a tow truck. It was also a steel box half inch thick by 12"×6' it took all of 100 tons to get the kink out cold.
@@fattmouth7715 when working with something that size (half inch thick and 12" x 12", tubing I assume?), a silver dollar sized mark will not work. Something like what you are talking about, would need a spot (or spots) the size of a softball at least and more likely in the range of the diameter of a cereal bowl. I've found that for good kinks sometimes extending this heat spot into the radius of a square tube of this size can be beneficial as well. I wish I could have access to things like this like I used to when I was a full-time welder. I could make a small library of heat straightening videos on a large variety of different sizes and shapes. Until then all I can do is try to answer any questions.
Eh, no. Haha. Sometimes (usually) warpage like this happens from welding something that has taken lots of time to build. Stairways, handrail, I beams etc all warp from the heat of welding on one side. Can't throw em out if you're not talented enough to straighten them back out!
@@jamessmith1190 at flow rates of 5psi for acetylene and 50 psi for oxygen (which is pocket change) and the overall time it took to heat this thing up (approximately 15-20 minutes) I could not personally justify rebuilding something that had about an hours worth of time to build and weld with an estimated cost of material at about $120.00. Even if this didn't have a split seam, it would have still warped at the plates that were welded on which would still require straightening. Unfortunately if you were to grab more tubing each time you had something warp you'd never finish anything and spend an eternity rebuilding and a fortune purchasing the material over and over again. Think about if this were something that you had (or your boss) had thousands of dollars invested in and you wanted to just scrap it and throw it away? I'd fire that individual. I made this quick demonstration for the purpose of helping people out when something like this happens to them while fabricating something for the sole purpose of knowing that it can be fixed. This happens all the time on the job and knowing how to correct the problem makes one a well rounded fabricator.
Lol yes! It's actually a discount steel company that is set up in fort wayne indiana who sells metal from their sister company who sells the good steel. This place gets steel in and sells it to people at a pretty discounted rate because of its imperfections. I would say that something like this should be scrapped and never sold personally, and they'll probably get sued one day after a failure where someone gets hurt. I have bought steel from there myself in the past and there is some pretty high quality stuff there and things like this are not very common there. So they're just a supplier of steel that didn't make the cut for one reason or another.
Thanks for this video!!! My son is building a trailer for his ag mechanics project and the frame rails bent after welding on the spring hangers. We tried your method, heating on the top of the rails and it worked perfectly.
I'm not a welder but found this video really interesting and I guess not so surprising you had 23 heat spots to combat 24 welds as it seems you have just balanced the heat stresses both sides :-)
Thanks for creating and sharing, this is so exceptionally beneficial and truly, a lost art most are unaware of.
Good job, I've done some heat straightening/ clambering before. There is definitely an art too it.
There is a good moral hiding in this video. Buying cheep often costs more... lol. I did a welding and a fitting and turning appyship with my father and we used to use heat like this all the time, when we were in a rush we'd spray it with water after heating to accelerate the effect. i haven't done this in about 20 odd years.
Damn nice job! Thanks for the info.
I have to say, great video. The info was really helpful and clear and really shows how to work with the warp.
This is a great example. Thank for sharing and I see it was several years ago. I hope you are still well.
Doing good thanks. Hope you are too.
Well done. I deal with bent & racked rear frames on tipper trailers and am slowly getting the knack. Thanks for sharing your technique.
Jay in't interesting you mention that as I'm currently trying to straighten mine. I was very disappointed to see that the manufacturer used a very sturdy I-beam for the lift itself but only attached two C-channels face to face for the rear pivot beam only stitch welding 5 points the length of them! (see pic's). Thank God center weld held otherwise may have lost box over the dump drop-off 10' down! The rear half fell away at each pivot hinge and when lowered most of it lined back up. But one side I'm having trouble getting aligned so I can clamp/bolt together long enough to raise body and run full welds and add support stringers forward. Currently have two 1/2" thick shackle plates with 5/8" bolts clamping and going to wrap chain with porta-power back to I-beam to assist pulling box into alignment before heating channel. I plan to use this vid's red-spot technique but would love any advice, especially gas pressures for no.1 tip. Here's pic's:
photos.app.goo.gl/RuBfwExlhwkD3jqH2
This is so cool and amazing. I just bought (2) 2”x2”x48” 1/4” thick square tubing from the old stock section of a metal supplier ($20 compared to $80 if I bought new) and they too have this split.
Not sure what it is but I just thought, oh, I’ll just weld this up and now I have a warped 2x2.
Can’t wait till tomorrow to try this technique.
Thank you!
Very nicely done. It is amazing what a little heat can do that would take a very strong machine to do.
Excellent example of wisdom
Thanks! All the answers I needed
Thanks for posting this! Going to try this on a table top I built that warped a bit.
Good job!
Great video
Thanks for the info👍
Great Job on the heat shrinking Brian. Always has my interest in metallurgy like this. Wonder, do you have a video of doing this to round pipe as well.? Thanks for sharing.
Hello, thank you for the comment. Unfortunately I don't have a video of round pipe straightening. However it's basically the same technique as tube.
Should I ever come across any material that needs straightened though I plan on using that opportunity to make a video demonstrating how to straighten it through.
Worked for Schuff Steel Co in Phoenix for almost twenty years and in most departments/positions including heat straightening and almost exclusively with a rosebud torch setup with compressed air and water chill so I’m just a little confused about your reasoning of not using that method (rosebud torch) of heat straightening steel. I was taught that method by some very knowledgeable “old timers” with much success in that way of straightening.
I've used a rosebud tins of times for heat straightening with great results myself. But for this particular tube, a rosebud wouldn't allow me to concentrate my heat in one little area. It's 11 gauge steel tubing. It'd damn near melt it.
It feels like you gotta put an equal amount of heat to the opposing you welded on to keep it straight.
Awesome video. I’m trying to fix distortion on some angle iron I welded recently, hence why I found this video. What would I do differently with angle iron?
I purchased new cold rolled steel plate 1200mm x 150mm and 10mm thickness for purpose to be ways for my diy metal lathe. But they in the shop catted that piece with big machine scissors, and it got distorted by length about 5mm on the middle. How to straighten this to be reliable for my purpose?
We actually use welds to straighten in similar fashion
I've done that a few times too. Heat does amazing things to steel. I wish I could show how to straighten other things. This one just fell in my lap!
Thank you for a great video, and what an excellent result! But sometimes I'm a little thick and I'd really like to learn/understand this technique, so just to be clear... Did you start in the middle and work your way toward the ends, alternating sides each time you heated a spot?...or did you heat all the spots starting from the middle and work toward one end, before starting on the other end? Does it matter? And also, you said to let the heat spots cool before moving on... But did you let each individual heat spot cool before moving on to the next one, or did you do the complete series of heat spots each time, and then let them all cool at once? I'd appreciate any help you can give me on this, to make it a little clearer. Thanks.
Hello. Sorry for the late reply. I've now attached this account to my phone and I will be able to monitor it better.
Having done this a lot through the years I usually know how much heat is required to do something like this. In this case I didn't have a clue it'd take this many heat spots.
I like to give something this length three spots right off the bat. I have always started in the center and then one on the right and one on the left and it wouldn't matter which one you did first I wouldn't think.
I say let it cool completely before adding more spots, because until it's cool, it's still working on straightening out. Assuming it's not going to move more before it cools completely, one may heat it more and move it too far.
So I heat three spots usually, depending on how it's warped. If it needs more after it cools I typically give it a few more, wait and evaluate it again. I hope this helps.
I would say the longer the item to be straightened the more heat spots you will require, remembering that between every heat spot there will be a straight line... In this case 1 heat spot on the opposite side of each weld would make perfect sense as each weld caused a little shrinkage to cause the bend in the first place.
The reason metal warps when exposed to high temperature is due the fact that hot metal area surrounded by cold metal area cannot expand being held back by stronger metal bonds ,heated metal will get compressed and in the way cooling down it will shrink more than it has expanded .A observer will see a straight bar bending one way when heat applied locally and bend the other way more as it cools down ,sometimes the induced stress can cause metal to crack in high carbon steels .
this video linked really helpful in understanding the concept.czcams.com/video/IxzV9VeUpLY/video.html
had to do this on a job today wish I seen this video 1st lol
I have a 4-in round tube with .120 wall and it's bent a little bit about a quarter inch in 3 ft. Had to sell my acetylene equipment when things got bad and I don't want to have to reinvest just to do this. I do have torches for plumbing which run map gas I know it's not as hot but do you think it'll work? Thank you
Great video Brian. I’m new to welding just done a couple little jobs before but have just started a sliding gate it’s the same length as this but obviously has a top and and bottom rail which have both bowed like this. How would you go about sorting that? Doing one rail at a time or both together?
I'd have to see it and how it's warped. We used to just put spots on the top of the pipe (top rail) of handrail and it would pull the whole piece straight. But I think it would depend on how many pickets you had in the gate.
This was interesting to see. I'm new to welding and welded a log arch (2x2 square tube 1/8" thickness) and after welding in the interior cross supports the legs that extend down to the axles/tires pulled in 1/2" on each side😤 after cooling. I don't have a torch but I do have a plumbers soldering torch or I can weld as someone else noted on the opposite sides to try to pull the legs back out? Thoughts?
Welded material acts as a reinforcement .. maybe some heat and some brute force , it takes a big enough torch to get the metal red hot, or welding plates of the same size on opposite sides .
I just did this yesterday. I put a weld on the opposite side and it straightened out a 2x2x48” 1/4 thick tubing.
I’m going to try the plumbers torch on the 2nd 48” piece that I welded that crazy open seam.
I have a 10”x 2” rectangle tubing that Bent when I welded it. Would you put 2 heat spots one above the other on the 10” side to help shrink it back or 1 larger heat spot?
Great video! Perfectly addresses the job I am working on. Can't wait to try it.
Maybe a dumb question, but why didn't you leave the string an it so you could see the results as you went along?
He would have burned up his string line.
Great video, thank you. Any tips on round tube rather than square?
Same thing applies. Treat it just like the tube. We used to straighten lots of handrail after welding warped the crap out of it and the key is patience and letting it cool before you heat again (so you can touch it bare handed).
Yeah. I have a 12 ft. 4in tube colemn that's about 1 1/2 out in its center after a fire. Gonna try this.
Han the same problem with an axle , its way out , someone had welded box onto it.
So I have 8”x2”tubing 3/16 wall and welded 2”x1/4 x10” long flat bar on the one side for stair stringers and it bent on me can I do the silver dollar trick or do I have to go to more of an oval?
What is the total amount of warpage? String it end to end. Also, how did you weld it? Hopefully with intermittent welds? Length and space between them?
Why didnt you flip the tube 90 deg so that its own weight would then be helping it straighten?
It was only 11 gauge. Wouldn't have mattered I don't think.
I would certainly do that with something very heavy though. Like heat cambering an I beam.
I just recently bought a table with similar shaped iron for its leg and during the shipping it bended so that's all i have to do? Hmm... since this pandemic no one open their worshop on my town and i only have a gas power "jet" lighter let's see how long i can make it glowing red like that
Great job,
I have a kubota tractor backhoe that has a twist on the last 20 inches of the boom how can I take out the twist
Thanks
Apply the same force that it had it twisted in the first place the opposite way and get it hot ,local heat like in the video is a stressed induced method that will weaken metal rigidity .
I always though the tube had to be constrained on the ends so that the metal plastic deforms and that's what causes the length to decrease. (tube can't expand in longitude so it becomes thicker... then when cooled, it has to be shorter). Your square tube seems to only be clamped at one end. Am I missing something?
This technique works with the ends loose. Tbh I don't know exactly why I had the clamp on the end. Probably just to keep it from falling.
So you heat the opposite side of the direction that its bent?
if i had a few piece of steel like this that i wanted to get straightened, how would i go about finding a place to do this?
Would love to see this with angle iron lol...
Must have been Sugar steel chicago heights il.
Why does heating one side cause the member to bow in that direction? Wouldn't the steel on that side expand? I'm sure I'm thinking about this wrong
from one of the replies above
"The reason metal warps when exposed to high temperature is due the fact that hot metal area surrounded by cold metal area cannot expand being held back by stronger metal bonds ,heated metal will get compressed and in the way cooling down it will shrink more than it has expanded"
Teach the guy that welded it how to distribute them welds to make the heat even when welding so it dont bow like dat
What if it were solid and not a boxed tube ?
Douglas Alan solid materials are going to use different methods for straightening. Sometimes a wedge method can be used to achieve the straightness desired but I've found that restraining, heating and application of pressure is what is most effective for solid materials. Of course we have to be concerned in some cases about mechanical properties of out materials after all of this heat. Another thing to consider.
I have no oxyacetylene in my apartment, I have only a regular stick welding device... How can I straightening tubes in this case?!!
By going out and getting a torch I guess? Dunno about that. Might try a hammer or something!
@@brianbarnes4568 I tried a hammer already. Thank you! :)
@@carlsagan3295 the only thing that I can think of is to weld a big round spot just like I did with the torch? I don't know if it would work or not.... And depending on the thickness of the tube you had better be pretty comfortable with the welding machine.
Often times you can also bend smaller tube bey it's plasticity range by using leverage. Again you would need to be very careful to make sure that you do not bend it too far (that's what she said).
What if you have a stress bend?
Hi. This procedure works for a stress bend too, but I have noticed that it helps apply pressure to the bend too after heating. If you aren't able to apply pressure, you will probably need more heat spots in that area. Don't do them all at once though. I should also note that the stress bends I've used this on have been minor.
Brian Barnes Last week I was repairing a bend in the third stage of an under reach for a tow truck. It was also a steel box half inch thick by 12"×6' it took all of 100 tons to get the kink out cold.
@@fattmouth7715 when working with something that size (half inch thick and 12" x 12", tubing I assume?), a silver dollar sized mark will not work. Something like what you are talking about, would need a spot (or spots) the size of a softball at least and more likely in the range of the diameter of a cereal bowl. I've found that for good kinks sometimes extending this heat spot into the radius of a square tube of this size can be beneficial as well.
I wish I could have access to things like this like I used to when I was a full-time welder. I could make a small library of heat straightening videos on a large variety of different sizes and shapes. Until then all I can do is try to answer any questions.
Το πύρωμα είναι επιστήμη.
Indeed!
good content, terribale video recroding. I feel sick, literarily, after wathching this video
Too much soy!
Moral of the story just get more tubing
Eh, no. Haha.
Sometimes (usually) warpage like this happens from welding something that has taken lots of time to build. Stairways, handrail, I beams etc all warp from the heat of welding on one side. Can't throw em out if you're not talented enough to straighten them back out!
Brian Barnes the amount of gas used and time justified a new piece...
Brian Barnes nice video on straightening though
@@jamessmith1190 at flow rates of 5psi for acetylene and 50 psi for oxygen (which is pocket change) and the overall time it took to heat this thing up (approximately 15-20 minutes) I could not personally justify rebuilding something that had about an hours worth of time to build and weld with an estimated cost of material at about $120.00.
Even if this didn't have a split seam, it would have still warped at the plates that were welded on which would still require straightening. Unfortunately if you were to grab more tubing each time you had something warp you'd never finish anything and spend an eternity rebuilding and a fortune purchasing the material over and over again.
Think about if this were something that you had (or your boss) had thousands of dollars invested in and you wanted to just scrap it and throw it away? I'd fire that individual.
I made this quick demonstration for the purpose of helping people out when something like this happens to them while fabricating something for the sole purpose of knowing that it can be fixed. This happens all the time on the job and knowing how to correct the problem makes one a well rounded fabricator.
Material is still cracked 80 percent of piece
s s squaer pipa stad sida karne ka
And what is the name of the idiotic company that would use steel like that . Never get that company go build a thing for you .
Lol yes! It's actually a discount steel company that is set up in fort wayne indiana who sells metal from their sister company who sells the good steel. This place gets steel in and sells it to people at a pretty discounted rate because of its imperfections. I would say that something like this should be scrapped and never sold personally, and they'll probably get sued one day after a failure where someone gets hurt.
I have bought steel from there myself in the past and there is some pretty high quality stuff there and things like this are not very common there. So they're just a supplier of steel that didn't make the cut for one reason or another.