Straightener Tool Takes Bends Out Of Auger Flighting

Straightener Tool Takes Bends Out Of Auger Flighting AUGERS Augers (29B) 25-4-38 Rocks can put some impressive bends in the flighting on combine header augers. There aren't many effective ways of straightening them out unless you count hammers, vice grips, adjustable wrenches, or even pipe wrenches. But bent flighting isn't much of a problem for Montana grain farmer Bob Lassila since he came up with a simple straightener tool. "I started with a 4-ft. length of used 7/8-in. square bar stock. It's high tensile steel from an old rod weeder, so it makes a good lever because it won't bend," he explains. "I used the bar stock because I had it on hand, but you could make a lever from any kind bar, rod or pipe, as long as it won't bend." Lassila simply cut a hole in a 4-in. length of 3 1/2-in. angle iron so that it slides up and down the bar. To use, he simply sets the bar on the side of the flighting away from the bend and slides the angle iron piece down over the flighting. "The bar is long enough that it gives me plenty of leverage to straighten the bend easily," he says. "We keep the tool in our truck when we're combining so it's right there if we need it. When we have to run the header low to the ground, we use it a lot," he says. The straightener works on any size flighting. "It's just a simple thing, but it works great. Several times, we've been able to straighten out a bend that might have otherwise required us to replace an auger," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bob Lassila, Plains Grains, 149 Bickford Road, Great Falls, Montana 59405 (ph 406 727-8235).

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