[TowerTalk] How do you separate aluminium tubes that are stuck together ?

[Cqtestk4xs at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/29/2006 4:09:01 P.M. Greenwich Standard Time,  
dhearn at air-pipe.com writes:

I  separated the sections of a stuck 3" boom by pulling on the two ends  as
follows:  There was a thru hole for a bolt on each end. I connected  a short
chain to a bolt thru the holes in each end. One chain went around a  tree and
the other to my small tractor. A gradually increasing pull on the  end did
the job. One could drill a bolt hole in each end if necessary. I  think a car
with a trailer hitch would do the job. This was done after  trying the lube
idea and manual pulling and twisting did not work. It came  apart easily


I did something similar with my 2 inch and 3 inch booms, except I used the  
existing boom truss mount near the ends of the boom.  Sometimes it worked,  
sometimes it didn't. My experience was, the twos were harder to get apart than  
the threes.  All boom joints had been treated with Penatrox before assembly  
and some of the booms had been together for fifteen years.
 
Bill K4XS/KH6