Hey, you know when you need some wire to wind yet another coil, but all the wire you have is used and mangled up. So, in the interest of frugality I wanted to recycle some old magnet wire to wind another coil. So I unwound an old toroidal choke which happened to have the right gauge wire. So this one was not really badly mangled but not straight enough to use on a new coil.
I took a shop towel and put it in the vise so as to make a channel lengthwise in the vice jaw. Then layed the wire in lengthwise, and tightened the jaws of the vice tight but not clamped. Then I grabbed the end of the wire with a lineman's pliers and pulled the wire through the vice. The result is not perfectly straight like new wire, but good enough for scrapyard ingenuity...
Thanks Z.monkey, that is a good tip to remember. I straighten my chainsaw bar in the vise using similar method but between two pieces of 2x4's. If your chain comes off and you bend the teeth up on the guard using 2 pieces of 1/4 inch pieces of steel or iron you can bend them back also using the same technique. Cutting rocks and having trees go in the opposite way you want them to fall is never a good idea. :)
The Bench Vise is such a handy thing. I wonder why it's called it a "vice"...
Life isn't nice
In the grips of a vice.
Whether drinking or drugs
Or cavorting with thugs.
It's good to be straight
before it's too late.
By removing the kinks
With towel that shrinks
In the jaws of a vise
Now that's surely nise.
B
That is profound Bob...
Bench Top Philosophy...
Hi all,
There is a better way if you put one end of the wire in the vice and clamped it tightly.
After that take a broomstick or hammershaft and make a wind (one of two) from the wire on it. Grab the stick with two hand and pull it away from the vice. If the friction between the wire and the stick is good it results the wire perfectly straight.
Kacor
I'll give that a try...
Quote from: z.monkey on January 18, 2009, 10:42:25 AM
Then layed the wire in lengthwise, and tightened the jaws of the vice tight but not clamped. Then I grabbed the end of the wire with a lineman's pliers and pulled the wire through the vice....
Don't forget that the wire is covered in an insulating layer of lacquer (enammel) and you may
have scraped this off. Connect one end to a meter, and test thoroughly along its length.
You may want to paint a new layer on.
Paul.
The shop towel I used is a microfiber towel. It is real nice to the wire. No insulation damage. Checked it with the continuity meter...