Technique for straightening aluminum wire

[bonsaifan]

Do you uncoil wire from your trees to remove it? Of course, I don't recommended removing wire that way but all of us have done it at one time or another. Have you ever started wiring, gotten three coils into it, and said "Drat!, that's not the direction I wanted to go"? Well here is a tip for straightening that now messy wire. Take one end in each hand, between your fingers and pull tight. Now, find the slightly rounded edge of a table, chair or other surface, preferably wooden and unpainted, and with sawing motion move the wire back and forth over that edge a few times. The pulling and the friction against that surface will straighten the wire. Don't do this on good furniture! The wire can and will cut into it. This also does not work for the heavy gauge wires unless perhaps you are strong enough. The wire can now be reused. Although I suggest saving it for use on less important wiring work now that it has been roughed up some.

 

[JudyB]

or at least drain screen or tree tie in wire, that's where I'm sure to re-use old wire... But I use it on branching as well, the lighter gauges are easy. The really heavy gauges, I mostly cut off the tree.

 

[Ang3lfir3]

usually we just use two pairs of pliers and a few strong tugs to snap the wire back into shape.... you can use a vise on the other end if you need to..... of course we often just work the wire by hand while contemplating the next branch that needs placement...

you would certainly be surprised at how much wire we reuse around here .... its not a cheapness thing either... thats just how we do it...

 

[Mike423]

usually we just use two pairs of pliers and a few strong tugs to snap the wire back into shape.... you can use a vise on the other end if you need to..... of course we often just work the wire by hand while contemplating the next branch that needs placement...

you would certainly be surprised at how much wire we reuse around here .... its not a cheapness thing either... thats just how we do it...

Haha, yeah a senior member shared his technique with this in one of our last MWBS meetings. He takes the piece of wire using two pliers grabbing each end of the wire with one hand or the other and simply gives it a hard tug and it pretty much straitens out. You could fine tune it with your hands if you wanted to after that.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

usually we just use two pairs of pliers and a few strong tugs to snap the wire back into shape.... you can use a vise on the other end if you need to.....

Way back when the world was young and I used to be in High School, I used to work summers in an Aluminum Mill. That's how we used to straighten long pieces of extruded aluminum - chalk trays, window trim, construction frames, etc. 2200 ton press, at 850 degrees (depending on what you were doing), and we would slap each end an a hydraulic vise and puuuuuuuuuull until it twanged Cooling table was about 50 yards long so you had to yell to the guy way on the other side of the table when you were loading and unloading the vise. Worked midnight shift because it was the only time the plant was consistently under 100 degrees Good money... bad conditions.

 

[gergwebber]

i always unwrap and reuse wire, often from branch to branch in succession on the same tree. I worked as an electrician for about four years out of high school and got pretty good at working with copper. subsequently I only wire with left over scraps of copper romex. I find that while the conductors with the insulation layer have less "hold", they rarely burn and allow a longer window of "wire on" time.

 

[edprocoat]

I always reuse all copper wire, I straighten it by hand then I anneal it again over the stove. once it has been annealed its like new again, its softer until re-bent.

ed