by David Grason » Sat Nov 20, 2004 1:21 pm
I also really think you can bend it back. You haven't done the unforgivable here.
I'm also building my frame from 2x2x1/8. Mine is bowed slightly but not a whopping 3/4 inch up. I'm simply going to heat the entire length of the frame with the oxy/acetyline until I can coax it back. I've run into this before and it's a simple case of heating slowly and being patient. And I do mean PATIENT. This material is actually pretty forgiving. Before I panic, I'm going to flip the frame over and weld up the other side. I need to do 100% welds anyway. This will probably pull a lot of the distortion back out and then I'll only have a little to worry about. I have a heating attachment that replaces the cutting torch that throws a HUGE amount of heat. (Of course, it uses a lot of fuel, too.) Then I place the frame back into the jig and use a couple of come-alongs or weights while I slowly apply the heat. I'll let you know how it comes out.
In the future, I'm going to add more cross members to my jig and really clamp things down to avoid this. Also, I've already learned to weld just a little bit at a time. That's probably why my frame is not near as far out of alignment as 3/4 inch. I'd say that my frame is probably 1/8 of an inch. It's almost not even detectable but like I said, I've run into this problem before so I knew to be looking for it. I built a car carrier a couple of years ago and got a really noticable bow to it. But with the intended use that it would get, I just decided to live it on that trailer. It doesn't hurt anything. But with a project that starts out with metal working and then switches to wood working, I'd really like to have that frame is as darn near perfect as I can get it. Otherwise, I feel that this is the type of mistake that can amplify itself down the road. Lordy, I hope not!
With all the guys out there building their own frames, I'm really surprised that this hasn't been discussed earlier. You gotta know that others have run into this. So, did they just build their tears anyway and simply hide the distortion?
I am NOT a complete idiot! Some of the pieces are missing.