Woodcraft rearset Bending Straightening

I crashed Two weekends in a row, One highside one lowside. I have about 6 Slightly bent woodcrft rearset Foot brackets (not cracked just tweaked) Anybody ever Bend these suckers Back? Or flatten them back out. If so How? I have a torch, A vise, A hammer.

I would realy like to figure this out, These dame brackets cost as much as the entry fees.

Any Wisdom to share?

 

hey, you can heat them a little bit and slooooly very, bend them back though watch out for stress cracks, though next time you crash they will most likely break, not bend. if you heat too much they will melt! good luck

 

quit crashing, its cheaper

 

If you can bend them back in a vise or press without causing any cracks, they will be fine. Strain hardening is a good thing in this case. Heating them up will make it easier to bend, but the aluminum will probably lose it's temper (meaning any heat treatment or artificial aging) and have less strength.

 

I've bent them back many times with a vice and torch. They're pretty damn tough.

 

Will Babb at Will's Rim Repair (864-787-1351) might be able to fix them for you for real cheap.

 

A machinist at work staightened mine using a hydraulic press. I would assume most machine shops are equipped to do the same thing.

 

:up:

 

depending on how far they are bent....I've had crashes where I heated them on the bike and slipped a 4 foot piece of pipe over the peg and was able to straighten them that way...I like perfect but lets face it after the first crash I get them functional and continue racing...

 

^ I've seen them straightened with a pipe even without heat at the track. They're tough. I would use a vise and go nice and slow though.

 

Heatin wtih a map type torch works well, i just did some recently. They are straiter now then they were before lol

Just get them very warm (like 10 minutes of direct heat) then bend slowly. use a nice hard hammer with lots of weight. Itll leave some small marks but will be functionally fine. I even spoke to someone at Woodcraft about it cause i was looking for a part and broke and they told me they can usually be straitened up some

 

Try to avoid the hammer technique. hammering will work harden aluminum REALLY fast, some heat is good and if you can gently press them back to shape it is much better for the bracket. Try putting it under a board or something and then put a jack over the board and jack a car up in a bind. A press works wonderfully. Having done this before I don't think the brackets are heat treated so they straighten quite nicely just go slow and smooth so as not to work harden.

 

from typical metal working experience I would say that the slow bending back to shape technique is better, but then a little work hardening hammering at the very end would be neccesary and good, because if the annealed metal isn't work hardened, it will stay softer for a long time and bend easily...

However, I'm not sure how hard the woodcraft brackets are supposed to be, they may be made to a certain strength to brake before they brake the frame. I'm looking for an expert opinion on this one becuase I've been waiting on bending my sets back.

Is work hardening them ok, or will it make them too hard and cause them to not bend appropriately under certain stresses and brake the frame tabs off more easily?

 

My (very) limited experience with CFM Woodcraft rearset brackets is that are not hardened much if any at all. I had a set that one peg was bent to nearly 45 degrees and when I went to straighten it (in a press) I was very surprised at how easy it straightened. I think maybe that is so that they CAN be straightened in the pits. With their thickness I think they are plenty strong even annealed. Straightening them even slowly without heat will work harden them and make them prone to cracking and hitting them will work harden them very quickly.

I work in aviation and it is amazing what happens when you drive a 2014 rivet. If you hit it with several very hard blows it will buck quite nicely if you hit it with twice that many softer blows it will harden before you get a proper sized head on it and no matter how hard you hit it now it will not deform anymore, it will only crack if you hit it hard enough. Should also be noted that different alloys work harden differently (some won't work harden, some won't heat treat) Strange material aluminum.

 

You can do the heating with a propane torch to 165C or so...not too hot and best to put in a press or vice to bend htem, but you can tap them with a deadblow hammer (hard plastic hammer will do). If they are really bent you can do this in two heat cycles.

If they DO crack, you can take them to the machine shop or a friends house and have the crack welded closed. Then just grind flat and go...Nice thing about Aluminum...

Matt