I've always known that the bail for the boom vang was a bit short so that the vang tension pushed the shackle up against the boom. I replaced the shackle with a flat metal one to minimize the damage but, upon taking the boom apart for repainting, I discovered a lot of wear and even some slight deformation in the boom extrusion. This is the most highly stressed part of the boom and the tension of forces lifting the end against the vang make any concentration of stress at this point a potentially dangerous weakness. A search of the Internet and catalogues failed to turn up a bail of the proper length and throat but there was a Schaefer bail at Hamilton that I must have picked up and looked at a dozen times in the last four years wincing at the $75.00 price tag. I went down and bought it hoping I could re-bend it 2 1/4" narrower to fit my boom. Putting it in a vice was very discouraging and promised to just bugger it up without achieving anything. After some thought, I put together this rig from all thread rods which did the job beautifully.
First, the rod through the eyes squeezed it down to the proper dimension. Next, the two rods in the 2 x 4 blocks squeezed it out of the oval shape it adopted. The key was using the nuts on the inside of the eyes to then overbend the ends outwards to to straighten the legs.
The bail finished showing the damage from the improperly sized bail that started this project. It started out 72 per cent wider.
First, the rod through the eyes squeezed it down to the proper dimension. Next, the two rods in the 2 x 4 blocks squeezed it out of the oval shape it adopted. The key was using the nuts on the inside of the eyes to then overbend the ends outwards to to straighten the legs.
The bail finished showing the damage from the improperly sized bail that started this project. It started out 72 per cent wider.
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