> I recently read a few posts on TT re: the difficulty of working with
> copperweld antenna wire. I thought I'd pass along a trick that I learned
> from the 1975 edition of ARRL "Hints and Kinks" book (page 40). This tip
> came from Charles H. Gould, W4LZO.
>
> The trick is to build a straightening dye as shown in the article.
>
> 1. Drive (8) 4 inch nails into a plank, so that the nails hold the spool
in
> place. (4 nails guide the inside of the spool and 4 guide the outside.)
I
> used a 2X8 that's approx. 5 feet long, so that it's heavy enough to
prevent the
> board from sliding when you pull the wire through the dye. It also helps
to hold one
> foot on the end of the board, when pulling the wire.
>
> 2. Drive 3 additional nails into the plank so that the wire coming off the
> spool is fed through the 3 nails in an "S" pattern. The first nail is 4
> inches from the end of the spool. The second nail is 1 and 7/8 inches
from
> the first, and offset 3/8 inches. The third nail is 3 and 3/4 inches from
> the first nail, and in line with the first nail (offset from the second
nail).
>
> 3. Hold one end of the wire firmly and steadily pull the wire from the
coil
> through the nail pattern. This resulting straight wire is a pleasure to
> work with. I've been using this method for years and it works great.
>
> A sketch is worth a thousand words. I don't have a scanner or
> I'd attach the sketch. If someone can post the sketch on a website, I'd
be
> happy to mail a copy of the article to them to scan.
>
> 73,
>
> Tom, NU7J
>
>
>
>
>
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