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Built the strongback to the full 20 feet on a concrete floor. Then put it on horses about 30 minutes later to get ready for forms. Then I cut it to length. Put it on horses and It is not straight. It has a curve at the one end and is off by about 1/2 inch. I am a perfectionist so now I am trying to reshape with weights and clamps.
Am I being a perfectionist and am I okay if it is slightly off. If off now won't the strips exagerrate the curve int he strongback
1 reply:
RE: Strongback is not straight
» Submitted by hspira - Sun, 5/4/14 » 8:38 PM
a couple ideas/thoughts.
first, you want the strongback as straight as possible to start the project. a little off won't kill you...but if you are already 1/2 inch off, i would try to bring it closer to true.
- first, i would put two nails on each end, one centered on the top and one on the side about a half inch from the bottom and pull a tight kite string so you can get a sense of where your problem is.
- for sag (straight but bending down), you can add additional saw horse or reposition the existing sawhorses to get rid of sag.
- for bent side to side, when you set it up on the saw horses, you can create a little cradle on the saw horses to hold the strong back. now with the the sawhorse gripping the strongback, you can now twist the sawhorses to get small amount of bend out of the strongback.
i kept the lines on the strong back until i had the first several strips on each side. after that, the strips on each side kind of lock you in.
hope that helps
howard