[TowerTalk] Loosening Al Tubing to Al Tubing

[Tom_N2SR]

A few years ago, I was refurbishing some antennas to eventually sell, I had two sections of Hy-gain boom that would not come apart.  
I decided to put one end in a vise and was prepared to use a torch (one that you use to sweat copper pipes), grease, PB blaster, and a pipe wrench.   Then I noticed that the vise had a curved "notch" below the jaws.  The 2" boom fit perfectly, and held it in place.  With a pipe wrench, I was easily able to rotate the boom section as I was "pulling" away and it easily came apart.  
Not being a machinist, my guess is that if you can get some sort of clamp or some sort of means to hold the tubing in a complete circle, you could insert that into a vise, and then use channel-lock pliers to hold the other end and "twist" the other piece of tubing off.  
My 0.02  
Tom, N2SR


      
  

-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of
Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2016 4:30 PM
To: StellarCAT <rxdesign at ssvecnet.com>; Towertalk <towertalk at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Loosening Al tubing to Al Tubing



On 6/12/2016 5:29 AM, StellarCAT wrote:
>> wouldn't budge. Heating I don't believe works - its near impossible 
>> to
> heat them independently - so they expand together... I tried WD-40, 
> and

> Gary
>

While reading this, I thought of this idea (that I haven't seen
before):  Heat up the tubing (both the inner and outer) and then squirt
water into the inner tubing to rapidly cool it.  For extra credit, apply
liquid nitrogen :-).  Has anyone tried this, at least with water?  Seems
plausible, especially if you get the tubing well above the boiling point of
the water.  You could maybe use salt water, which boils at a lower
temperature?

Rick N6RK
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