Straightening 4130 Gear Legs
I bent the first pair on a rough sand bar landing, so have moved up to a higher wall thickness (.120" from .095"). Also, the first pair was only heat treated to RC42 instead of the requested RC48, because I sent them to a lousy heat treating company.

I went to a different heat treater (Braddock, in Anniston, AL) on the second set. One of these legs came back with nearly a 3/8" curve from the heat treating process.

I straightened the original .095 gear leg, and this remade second leg in a hydraulic press, as shown. I made 4 or 5 attempts at deflection to see how much was needed to get a permanent bend. Better to make several attempts at increasing deflection, than to go too far and bend permanently the other direction. Amazingly, I had to go to slightly more deflection than shown in order to get a permanent bend back to straight.

In reality, I could have lived with the 3/8" curve from the heat treater, and made up for it by shortening a leg, or something, to achieve a level stance on the ground. With this approach, it is important IMO to not have all the alignment and holes done before sending the legs to the heat treater, in order to have adjustment options when they come back with unpredictable curve.


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