Ernie Leimkuhler wrote in
rec.crafts.metalworking on Sat, 01 Jan 2011 02:20:54 -0800:

I would love to set up a wire straightener so I could convert all the
spools of fancy wire I have into TIG rods.

I did that once at work from advice I got from RCM. It was a lot
easier that I thought.

At work we have several swiss lathes. They have bar feeders that take
12ft. bars and feed and support them. The entire bar rotates in use.

We had a job that was to be made out of 1/8"dia. OFHC. The copper
took a long time to come in so we had the lathe set up for another
job. The due date was fast approaching. When we opened the cardboard
tube that the copper came in, we found that the copper bars were bent.
Some in several places. It would take too long to re-order more
stock. Then I remembered what someone on RCM said about how piano
wire is straightened. Since we had nothing to lose, I took a piece of
10" X 3/4" PTFE (teflon) and drilled a 3/16" hole through the length.
With a few scraps of wood blocks I clamped the teflon in a vise with
two blocks on the ends and one in the middle(opisit the other two).
Clamping down on the vise bends the teflon. The copper is lubed
lightly and fed through the hole in the teflon. From the other side
the copper is chucked in a hand drill. As other people hold the bar
lightly in their hands the bar is drawn through the teflon as it
spins. The bend in the teflon needs to be enough to bring the bar to
its yield point. As the bar passes the bend, it is bent and then
un-bent.
Worked great! The bars came out as straight as you could ask.

I'm sure the same thing would work for straightening your MIG wires
for use as TIG rods.
--

Dan H.
northshore MA.

"dan" wrote in message
...
Ernie Leimkuhler wrote in
rec.crafts.metalworking on Sat, 01 Jan 2011 02:20:54 -0800:

I would love to set up a wire straightener so I could convert all the
spools of fancy wire I have into TIG rods.


At work we have a machine to measure, strip, and cut wires, which we use to
make harnesses for our products. On the input side there is a straightener
made from 3 vertical rollers over 4, followed by 3 horizontal rollers beside
another 4. Each set has an adjusting screw to set the amount of deflection
and resistance for different sized wires. Bending the wire past the yield
point back and forth a few times leaves it straight and equalizes/relaxes
internal stresses so it stays straight - they use the same setup with
multiple wide rollers to straighten sheet metal after pulling it off of a
large coil. If you just bend it in one direction the correct amount you can
make it straight but the internal stresses aren't relieved, so if it is
sheet metal and you do any cutting or machining it will curl back up. The
rollers are ball bearings but with a groove in the outside of the outer
race, about 1" OD. You can see a decent picture if you enlarge the first
pic of ebay item 360330494274. The two larger rollers are an idler and
encoder, not part of the straightener. Not sure where you could find the
rollers but every now and then I've seen just the straightener on ebay as
parts, or you could maybe find a junk machine local to you to strip.

-----
Regards,
Carl Ijames

On Sat, 1 Jan 2011 11:37:16 -0500, "Carl Ijames" wrote:

"dan" wrote in message
...
Ernie Leimkuhler wrote in
rec.crafts.metalworking on Sat, 01 Jan 2011 02:20:54 -0800:

I would love to set up a wire straightener so I could convert all the
spools of fancy wire I have into TIG rods.


At work we have a machine to measure, strip, and cut wires, which we use to
make harnesses for our products. On the input side there is a straightener
made from 3 vertical rollers over 4, followed by 3 horizontal rollers beside
another 4. Each set has an adjusting screw to set the amount of deflection
and resistance for different sized wires. Bending the wire past the yield
point back and forth a few times leaves it straight and equalizes/relaxes
internal stresses so it stays straight - they use the same setup with
multiple wide rollers to straighten sheet metal after pulling it off of a
large coil. If you just bend it in one direction the correct amount you can
make it straight but the internal stresses aren't relieved, so if it is
sheet metal and you do any cutting or machining it will curl back up. The
rollers are ball bearings but with a groove in the outside of the outer
race, about 1" OD. You can see a decent picture if you enlarge the first
pic of ebay item 360330494274. The two larger rollers are an idler and
encoder, not part of the straightener. Not sure where you could find the
rollers but every now and then I've seen just the straightener on ebay as
parts, or you could maybe find a junk machine local to you to strip.

Two ball bearings clamped together form a groove where they meet.

I've purchased straighteners from Sjogren for various jobs. Too
expensive for a one-off project, but it wouldn't be difficult to throw
together a quick and dirty straightener based on the photos he
http://www.sjogren.com/products/stra.../is/index.html

--
Ned Simmons

"Ned Simmons" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 1 Jan 2011 11:37:16 -0500, "Carl Ijames" wrote:

"dan" wrote in message
...
Ernie Leimkuhler wrote in
rec.crafts.metalworking on Sat, 01 Jan 2011 02:20:54 -0800:

I would love to set up a wire straightener so I could convert all the
spools of fancy wire I have into TIG rods.


At work we have a machine to measure, strip, and cut wires, which we use
to
make harnesses for our products. On the input side there is a
straightener
made from 3 vertical rollers over 4, followed by 3 horizontal rollers
beside
another 4. Each set has an adjusting screw to set the amount of
deflection
and resistance for different sized wires. Bending the wire past the yield
point back and forth a few times leaves it straight and equalizes/relaxes
internal stresses so it stays straight - they use the same setup with
multiple wide rollers to straighten sheet metal after pulling it off of a
large coil. If you just bend it in one direction the correct amount you
can
make it straight but the internal stresses aren't relieved, so if it is
sheet metal and you do any cutting or machining it will curl back up. The
rollers are ball bearings but with a groove in the outside of the outer
race, about 1" OD. You can see a decent picture if you enlarge the first
pic of ebay item 360330494274. The two larger rollers are an idler and
encoder, not part of the straightener. Not sure where you could find the
rollers but every now and then I've seen just the straightener on ebay as
parts, or you could maybe find a junk machine local to you to strip.

Two ball bearings clamped together form a groove where they meet.

I've purchased straighteners from Sjogren for various jobs. Too
expensive for a one-off project, but it wouldn't be difficult to throw
together a quick and dirty straightener based on the photos he
http://www.sjogren.com/products/stra.../is/index.html

--
Ned Simmons

And that looks amazingly like the Eubanks one I linked to, except the
Sjogren has individual adjusters for each ball bearing instead of one
adjuster, and uses 4 bearings over 4 instead of 3 over 4 in each plane.
They even have the grooves on the OD of the outer race, like the Eubanks.

-----
Regards,
Carl Ijames

I did not have good luck with the sticking wire between 2- 2x4 method as it didn't take cast out of wire. I broke down and bought a wire straightener from a company called TAK 5 years ago (I think they have been sold and are Novo Precision now). Here is a link to the one I got at Novo Precision but I'm pretty sure you can get from other companies and they are the same. I liked this one because they vgroove the bearings so not to damage or scuff the wire.