At some point in its history, the left rail holding the wood perch on our industrial-strength “squirrel proof” seed feeder took a hit, most likely from being dropped:
I finally got a Round Tuit and un-bent the poor thing:
Because the bend happened at the base of the vertical strut holding the shutter, I clamped a Genuine Vise-Grip sheet metal pliers along the straight section. The Craftsman knock-off Vise-Grip then applied torque at the bend, rather than just making things worse, and some two-axis tweakage lined up the rail pretty well.
With the bend taken care of, I clamped the rail in the bench vise with some scrap wood around the strut:
A percussive adjustment jam session flattened the top flange, leaving both sections as flat as they’re gonna get.
While I was at it, I turned a pair of stepped aluminum washers for the new wood rod:
Which looked about like you’d expect, including a little chatter from the cut off tool:
Yeah, I drilled the wood rod on the lathe, too; I loves me some simple lathe action.
Reassemble in reverse order and it’s all good:
We’re supposed to bleach the feeder every week to kill off the bacteria causing House Finch Eye Disease and, while I can’t promise a weekly schedule, we’ll (try to) reduce the amount of crud on the feeder this year.
If you’ve got a feeder, sign up for Project Feederwatch and do some citizen science!
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 