Rake Landscape Rake maintenance

[Mavrik02]

Ok...I've admit that I've used and abused my lanscape rake. I've used it to rake out the dirt to plant my new yard, freshen up my gravel driveway, cut down small mounds of top soil, and clear underbrush from about 5 acres of woods (the last two were the roughest on the rake). I have snagged it on more trees than I can count and have backed the tines into even more trees than that.

Now the tines are all bent at different angles. They don't sit flat so it is hard to do finishing work with it (however it still works perfectly for most jobs). Is there any way to bend/even out the tines again so they are all the same? Can you purchase a replacement set?

Any wisdom would be appreciated.

P.S. A picture is attached but it is very hard to see from it what I am talking about.

 

[wushaw]

Heat em up with a torch and straighten with channel locks.
Or buy new tines.

 

[HonourMe]

If you heat the tines to straighten them, you will take the temper out of the steel. Tines are made of spring steel and it doesn't take well to heat. I suggest that you either learn to live with it, or to order new tines from the manufacturer. It is a tool, and with use, it will get some damage. Think of the cost of a few new tines as normal maintenance. If you remove them, you might be able to twist them around with a pipe wrench holding the tine in the vise. Just be careful that it doesnt break and you wind up falling on your arse.

 

[MadReferee]

If your tines are the bolt on type (1 or 2 holes) then you can get new ones fairly inexpensively from Agri-Supply. Here is the catalog page.

Agri-Supply catalog

 

[gotrocks]

I get a pipe wrench and bend mine "cold" to get back in line. I suppose that after numerous bending the tines would weaken but I haven't had to do it too often so the rake should out last me since I get "bent out of shape" once in a while also. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[botaman2]

Never heat the tines,they not you,will lose there temper. I raise the rake up 2- 2 1/2' then slip a piece of pipe over the tine and get-err-done. If tine tines are easily removable,remove clamp in vise,and still use the pipe deal. I've bent and straightened the tines this way many times. Good luck!

 

[tcrider33d]

I have a Woods landscape rake. Do you suppose those Agri Supply tines would work in it? I get Woods parts from my dealer, but they are $9.00 a tine. I had a bunch break the other day when I put the rake down and started moving backwards.

 

[MadReferee]

If I am not mistaken, the Woods tines are either 1 or 2 bolt tines. If so, then the Agri-Supply tines will work. They are made in Italy which is where most, if not all, of the tines used by the various manufacturers come from.

 

[Highbeam]

I thought the rakes were designed to be used backwards. At least under limited load for something like smoothing soil over grass seed.

 

[andrewj]

excuse me fellas, but are you guys serious? If they are so damaged that they require replacement, then there's your answer. But each tine has it's own pent up stresses, pressures, and it is a fiction of marketing that they are strait when they are new. When you expose them to the stresses of work as the tool that they are, they react in different ways.

If bent tines on your landscape rake upsets your sense of the universe this much, I'll trade lives with you!