Sometimes neat wire rods of not very long lengths are required. How to align them quickly and perfectly without using a hammer? For such a case, there is a ready-made solution, which will be discussed in this video tutorial.
To make this homemade device, which will free you from having to wrinkle the wire in your hands, trying to do the almost impossible, you will need a blank from the 70th corner, three bearings and bolts with nuts for attaching the bearings. Two bearing units are fixed, and one can change position. This bearing is used to press the wire to the other two during the pulling process. By changing the gap between the bearings, you can gradually narrow the space in which the wire will be in this process.
How alignment is done.
A wire is inserted into the device, clamped in a vice, one end of which is clamped with a screwdriver. By advancing the rotating wire between the rollers and gradually clamping it between them, it is drawn and aligned.
Discussion
Vladimir Skorobogatov
3 years ago
Alexander, I have been making fishing floats from the core of burdock for several years, they work great. For the river, it is better to put a wire on the keel, but it is difficult to straighten a thin vein from a steel cable, maybe you will advise something. If you are interested, you can see the floats in classmates in the group: “homemade float and more”.
Horwester
2 years ago
I watched the video coolly and immediately straightened all the wire, with such success it was faster to take it to the jeweler for broach. Since, to make your device, it will take much more time and money. I would call the video - "Wire Alignment Tool" well, no matter how - "how to quickly and easily align the wire." For without such a device, it is not quick and easy, but the essence of the video is in the device.
If you decide to make any product from any type of wire, you need to straighten it before starting work. To get an even material, do the following operations.
Ways to straighten wire at home
The first and most effective way: first, gently straighten the wire with your hands, put it on a flat and hard surface, for example, on a table, then put a metal bar or other even and hard object on it. Roll it on the table so that the wire moves, pressed against the bar. After several such passes, you can achieve a very good result.
To straighten a soft wire, insert one end of it into a vise and clamp it, and insert the other end into the chuck of a hand drill. Give the drill a few turns and the wire will quickly straighten out.
You can use a simple home-made device: drive a few nails into a small plank at such a distance that the wire passes through them with difficulty. Then pull the wire between the nails a few times. You will quickly get the desired effect.
Traditional method. Place short pieces of wire on a hard, preferably metal surface and tap on the folds with a hammer, and then pull the wire under it. Iron or aluminum wire must be straightened with a metal hammer, and softer wire, such as copper, with a mallet.
You can also try using the following method: tie one end of a long wire to the door handle, and then pull it hard with pliers. After that, cut off the desired, most straightened segment. Do not tie the wire to loosely fixed objects, such as a battery.
You can also take a fairly long tube, the diameter of which will be slightly larger than that of a piece of wire, and then gently pull through it. If a suitable tube is not at hand, drill a hole of the desired diameter in a thick piece of wood and pull the wire through it.
Sometimes, for household needs or in a workshop, it is required to use pieces of even wire for work. But the question immediately arises: how to straighten the wire? After all, it is made in factories immediately packed in round bays. This form is very convenient for storage and transportation. Therefore, in order to make a metal wire straight, it is necessary to expend not only certain efforts, but also to apply a number of simple devices.
In production, for straightening almost all types of metal wire, specialized correct cutting machines are used. The process is based on two main methods - these are:
- straightening by rolling through a system of 5-6 pairs of rollers, which are arranged in series in different planes so that each subsequent pair is perpendicular to the next;
- straightening by drawing through several specially made dies.
As a rule, such machines necessarily have a special device for automatic unwinding of wire from coils or coils.
To work with elastic grades of wire and alloyed steel rod, the production technology provides for heating and tempering of the steel structure of blanks using gas burners or high-frequency inductive heaters.
How the industrial straightening-cutting machine works can be seen in the video:
How to straighten wire without a machine
Unfortunately, at home, making a good roller machine capable of aligning wire with a diameter of more than 2 mm is quite expensive and time consuming. Especially if the need for a straight wire rod is one-time. An example of one of these devices can be seen in the photo.
Therefore, in order to align the metal wire from the coil, it is worth using the most common method of force stretching, for this you must be guided by the following sequence:
- First you need to firmly fix one end of the wire in something massive and solid. For this, you can wrap its end around the base of a power line pole or a strong tree with a trunk diameter of at least 25 centimeters.
- Next, manually unwind the bay on the ground and, if possible, stretch it as much as possible.
- At the second end of the unwound wire, we make a loop and fix it in a device capable of pulling it with force, that is, moving a certain distance.
- The straightening process itself consists in slowly stretching the metal wire with great effort until it turns into an ideal string in shape. To fix a rectilinear shape, you can leave it in such a taut state for some short time, from about 5 to 30 minutes.
A sufficiently wide range of devices can be used as a tensioning device, depending on the diameter of the metal wire. So, for wire 2-3 mm in diameter, steel scrap may be enough with the effort of two strong men or the use of a manual mechanical winch. But editing wire for a diameter of 5 mm or more will require much significant effort and for this you will need to use either the towbar of a personal car, or the dynamic force of a tractor or truck.
It should be borne in mind that straightening wire with a diameter of more than 5 mm, made of alloy steel, will require not just tension to the shape of the string, but stretching until the wire breaks. As a rule, the break occurs at the attachment point at one of the ends, while for safety reasons you should not be near the stretched wire.
How to align the wire with your own hands
If a wire rolled into coils can be considered conditionally even, then in order for it to become straight, we just need to get rid of the curvature of a large radius. But how to straighten the wire in the form of crumpled residues and poorly stored waste? They are not only turns, but various zigzags located in different directions from the axis. In this case, straightening the wire with the right approach to the state of an ideal straight bar is quite achievable.
There are several most effective ways to align the wire. Depending on the choice, they will have slightly different output quality results.
So, from simple to complex:
If you know your original way of how to align the wire with your own hands, then please share it with us in the comment block.
Device for leveling steel wire with a diameter of 6-10 mm and strip 20x3 30-4 mm with a manual drive. Serves for straightening galvanized steel wire with a diameter of 6-10 mm, as well as galvanized steel strip with a size of 20x3 mm, 30x4 mm. Round and flat conductors are supplied in coils of 40-50 kg.
In order to qualitatively perform the installation of a lightning protection "mesh" made of steel wire on a flat roof, it is necessary to lay the wire in holders and connect the nodes using terminals. The wire is laid in cells measuring 6x6 m, 10x10, 12x12 m. In order to evenly lay the "grid" conductor, it must be straightened out of the twisted state. Galvanized steel wire 8 and 10 mm is difficult to manually straighten, especially steel with a diameter of 10 mm, and in the straightened state there will be irregularities from uneven straightening.
For laying down conductors from lightning rods on the roof, chimneys and other structures of buildings and structures, installing conductors in holders, it is required to lay it as evenly as possible without distortion. The reason for this is the aesthetic appearance, as well as unevenness, as a result of which the wire can be released from the holders or the very fastening of the holder can be damaged.
For ease of installation, our company offers this device for straightening conductors from nine rollers, which will allow you to save time on installing lightning protection "grids", as well as mount down conductors in the shortest possible time without fear of dismantling uneven sections of wire and strip.
The design of the wire straightening machine allows you to install it at a height of 0.5 m from the roof or floor on any structure made of wood or metal, adjust the pressure of the rollers on the conductor and achieve evenness of the wire or steel strip.
For example:
Installation on wooden pallets - 5 minutes;
Driving screws into wood - 2 minutes;
Setting the pressure rollers for the conductor from 5 to 15 minutes;
Unwinding a standard coil 115 m 5-7 minutes
Cutting to required lengths from 5 to 20 minutes
In total, on average, up to 1 hour, you can unwind and prepare galvanized steel wire with a diameter of 8 mm for installation. For a building with a flat roof measuring 50x20 and 10 m high, approximately 3 coils of wire may be required, which means that in 3 hours you can prepare the conductor for laying on the roof and down conductors without spending a working day on it.
In the work associated with wire, flat wire is often required.
Hammering a few meters on a Flahuizen is a chore, and micro-rollers can help in this case.
Details :
Materials:
- a pair of identical bearings with an outer diameter of 2.5 to 4 cm;
- fixing pin (threaded rod), not less than 20 cm long;
- a piece of iron or steel pipe with a diameter equal to the bore diameter of the bearing or 0.1-0.2 mm larger;
- several identical nuts with a thread equal to the thread on the stud;
- a metal plate with dimensions from 40x40 mm.
Tools:
- drill;
- drill with a diameter of 3 or 3.5 mm;
- a drill with a diameter equal to the diameter of the stud or more by 0.5..1 mm;
- a hacksaw or "grinder" with a cutting disc for metal;
- vice;
- hammer;
- a wrench for existing nuts.
Training.
We take a suitable steel pipe. The diameter should be 0.1-0.2 mm larger than the diameter of the bearing bore or "very close" - then you may need to jam something, for example, a small piece of thin steel wire.
We saw off two segments from it, 50..60 mm long. It can be smaller, the device will be more compact, but it will be more difficult to drill.
I bought a kitchen railing, from which I cut off suitable pieces.
Since the railing was 2 mm larger in diameter than the bearing hole, I had to make a wide cut along the entire length and “roll it up” to the desired diameter. In the presence of a "grinder", the operation is quite easy, but with a manual hacksaw you will have to tinker.
We put bearings on the segments, setting them on the center of the segment. Bearings should be put on very tightly, up to stuffing them with a hammer or mallet.
If there is a workbench with a small hole (slightly larger than the axle diameter), then it is much more convenient to drive the axle into the bearing, and not vice versa.
We take a hairpin with a diameter of 6..8 mm and cut off two pieces 10..11 cm long from it.
We fix the axle with the bearing in a vise and drill two holes with a diameter of 0.5..1 mm larger than the diameter of the stud. Small diameter drills usually come in 0.5 increments - so there shouldn't be any problems.
To drill accurately, I recommend that you first punch the future hole with a core (a concrete nail or a regular screw is also suitable), then drill it with a thin drill (3 mm). Holding the drill vertically, it will be possible to immediately make a hole in the opposite part of the axis with the same drill.
When drilling, it is necessary to observe as accurately as possible
a) the parallelism of the holes to each other;
b) the same distance between the holes in both axes.
Why? Because if "a" is violated, then the studs will not stand in the same plane, which will prevent the installation of the second axis. And if "b" is violated, then the studs will not be parallel to each other and it will also be difficult to install the second axis.
I got caught on this and had to grind the hole in the right direction with a needle file.
We take a metal plate that will serve as a clamp, and drill holes in it. The distance between the holes should be as close as possible to the distance between the holes in the axle.
Everything, machine parts are ready.
assembly procedure.
1. A nut is screwed onto each stud up to 1/3 of the distance. This will be the stopper of the lower axle.
Which of your axes will be lower and which will be upper - it never matters if the rules "a" and "b" are followed.
If not observed, again, it doesn’t matter, because it simply won’t work to assemble the structure :)
2. The lower axle is put on the stud and secured with a second nut. The nut is tightened tightly, but it is not attracted "gritting your teeth from the strain" - otherwise you can push the axle. To keep it from loosening, a counter-nut is screwed on. I did not have nuts with reverse threads, I managed with the usual one.
3. The upper axle is put on the stud, after which the clamping nuts are screwed on. The most convenient would be to use wing nuts with a long shank, but these were not at hand. The hold-down nuts can be loosened until the wire is being worked on.
4. From the side of the lower axis, a clamping platform is put on the studs and screwed with nuts. Here are the nuts O tighten it tighter, but still without fanaticism, so as not to break the thread. By the way, you can put grow washers under them, but this is already from the area of \u200b\u200b"super-finishing".
Everything, the device is ready.
How to work with it:
- turn off the clamping nuts,
- raise the upper axle,
- we push the tail of the wire, about 2 centimeters,
- lower the upper axle onto the wire,
- tighten the clamping nuts by 2-3-4 "quarter turns",
- controlling the wire feed with the left hand, we pull it towards ourselves with the right hand using pliers, tongs or pliers; the wire will go harder the more you flatten it. If it doesn’t go at all, then it’s overkill, they pressed too hard.
- we stretch the entire required length of the wire, intercepting it with pliers if necessary (if necessary, close the sponges of the tool with soft material so as not to scar the wire).
For one "pull" you can pull out 20-30 cm of flat wire. With a certain skill in 5 minutes, you can "roll" about 3 m.
It is not very convenient for me personally to stretch yet, I have to control the feed at the same time as the pull, which limits the possibilities. To get rid of this, I will install "cheeks" on the studs (so that the wire cannot jump out of the way of the bearing), and / or make something like a mouth in the back that will guide the wire.
I hope this story about little tricks will help hand makers to enrich the workshop with a small but very useful tool!
Good luck in creativity and inspiration!