Heat-Assisted Blade Straightening

8:34

23:55

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At 8:34 in

I broke the tractor! Let's do some "blacksmith work" And an Unexpected Setback!

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What happens here

Since hammering alone was insufficient, heat the bent section of the blade using a MAPP gas torch. Once the metal is sufficiently heated (glowing slightly), quickly place it back on the improvised anvil and strike it with the sledgehammer. Repeat this process of heating and hammering multiple times. While this method helps to further straighten the blade, it's acknowledged that heating the metal may weaken its temper, necessitating eventual replacement. The blade is straightened enough to be usable for the immediate mowing task, though not perfectly restored.

Goal: Straighten the blade further using heat and hammering.

Tools and materials

Bent Mower Blade Ventrac — The item being straightened
Hearing Protection 3M — Ear protection
Heat-Resistant Gloves Ironclad — Hand protection from heat and impacts
MAPP Gas Torch — Heating the blade to make it more pliable
Railroad Track — Providing a sturdy surface for hammering
Safety Glasses — Eye protection
Sledgehammer — Striking the heated blade

What they say

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really thick down the orchard don't make me lie to you I just went to my local hardware store my local farm store and asked the guys if I could go back in the back and put this on their vise and try to straighten it out a little bit I'm having my doubts about being able to straighten this this is a really really tough piece of metal it is a 5/8 stick 25 inch right hand sling blade I guess is what you would call it so that's straight and that's what we've got so far now we did straighten it out a little bit that's exactly perfectly straight right there we straightened it out just a little bit from what it was before the next step which they would not allow me to do with the vise is heating it up so I've got some map gas we're gonna heat this little section up right here and see if we can found this out I don't see any reason why we wouldn't be able to heat it up a little bit without damaging the blade for sure if we heat it up we're gonna replace this blade after this time mowing this is not the right thing to do so don't do as I do do as I say someone do this at home let's heat this guy up real quick map gas burns a little bit hotter than propane but unfortunately I don't have a settling torch here at the house we're just going to heat it up right here on the bend and then we're going to give it a good whack all right let's give her a little tap tappy tap once again Oh looks to me like it's not working at all oh yeah she working coming on out of there rough on the hands oh yeah not gonna go back perfect but it's straightening out the more I heat on it the more it straightens out and probably the weaker the middle gets heat it again he didn't mean it son thing working the tar out of me boy come on now straighten it on up a little bit I could just see that hammer jumping back and hit me in the forehead then we can all go to the hospital together look at that that's a it's what it's supposed to be and that's what it is whoa and that's hot through the glove it's hot I think this is where our mission stops so we're gonna we're gonna call that good enough to get the lawn mowed today and then we'll put the new blade on when it comes in from ventrac whoo we tried we can't say we didn't try

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