How would you straighten this?

   / How would you straighten this? #51  
Been there, done that:eek:! The guy who taught me how to heat shrink, use to pull his hair out when he was teaching me:laughing:. He worked in the crew that did the beams for the Seattle Space Needle.

Were those beams on the ground or sky high during installation? Were the upper portions welded?
 
   / How would you straighten this? #52  
Were those beams on the ground or sky high during installation? Were the upper portions welded?
I don't remember Kirk talking too much about how the beams were done. Other than by heat and water. Now this was in the 1970s:confused2:. If I remember correctly they were done at Todd ship yard on Harbor Island.
 
   / How would you straighten this? #53  
Any muffler shop, nowadays, operates a tubing bender for off the wall car exhaust system tube bends not
in stock at the warehouse.

Custom bending is big money for exotic or performance cars.
 
   / How would you straighten this? #54  
Darn! Can't remember instructions either. Maybe I'll try it and see what happens. Darn!
Jim

It sure seams to me that, if we have a 50% chance of choosing the correct answer, we will be wrong 70% of the time.
 
   / How would you straighten this? #55  
It sure seams to me that, if we have a 50% chance of choosing the correct answer, we will be wrong 70% of the time.
This comes from not recognizing why the correct answer is correct.
 
   / How would you straighten this? #56  
So why doesn't something metal just return to it's original size/length when it cools (after heating)? Do the molecules simply allign?
 
   / How would you straighten this? #57  
This comes from not recognizing why the correct answer is correct.

We are guessing the answer. Now we have to make up a reason for our guess? That would be worse than a multiple guess question.
 
   / How would you straighten this? #58  
We are guessing the answer. Now we have to make up a reason for our guess? That would be worse than a multiple guess question.
Of course. Things work for a reason; not at random. The reason is not "made up" but constructed from related knowledge to keep it from being an outright guess.
 
   / How would you straighten this? #59  
So why doesn't something metal just return to it's original size/length when it cools (after heating)? Do the molecules simply allign?
With even heating it would, pretty much -- but intense heating is used here; a propane torch would not likely work.

... When you heat up the outward side intensely the metal there expands and softens. The cooler metal around it does not expand as much and hence restricts the hot portion so much that the hot area is slightly crushed. Thus, when cooling, the intensely heated and ~crushed area returns to a smaller size than before it was heated. This pulls the bend straighter.

It would be even more effective to clamp the bent pipe to a flat surface with bend up, clamps away from the area to be heated. It would straighten in fewer iterations.
 
   / How would you straighten this? #60  
Of course. Things work for a reason; not at random. The reason is not "made up" but constructed from related knowledge to keep it from being an outright guess.

Oh my gosh, I made a lighthearted comment about bad luck, trying to get a chuckle from our tractor buddies and you went and got all serious on me.
 
 
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