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Ok. I know this is weird. But there is a big pool of smart on TR.

I have an ourdoor chair (part of a set) and one of the legs has bent nearly to breaking point. It is decorative hollow, relatively thin and ductile aluminum cylinder (like super-thin-walled pipe). A 10 year-old could bend the legs using only their arms and a little leverage.

I was thinking there might be something like a 2-part (each part a "half pipe x inches long") that could go around the weakened area and then screwed together.

I have no experience with things like this. Many of the legs have bent slightly, and I've just put a large cardboard packing tube (or irrigation PVC pipe) a few feet long on the leg, and gently (using the lever) bended them back to straight. Instead of being like 15 degrees askew, this one bent like 50 or 60 degrees from vertical.

The set of furniture is matched (about 25 pieces, including tables, chairs, "3-chair couch thingie", etc. etc. and it is not made anymore.

So I can't get a replacement. Assuming I don't want to throw it out, it was somewhat expensive, I won't be bothered if it doesn't look perfect or anything, and I'd like to salvage it, anyone know my options?

I can bend the leg/pipe back into the right shape, but say the leg is 2" in diameter, even if I bend it back to straight, it will have a sharp "dent" (where the bend occured) about 1.5" deep. Meaning it would be severely weakened (like someone that cut a horizontal "V" into a tree, to cut the tree down). For the sake of argument, let's also assume the leg is a consistent diameter from top to bottom, and is cylindrical.

Thoughts?

A pic or two would be much more enlightening.

Your best bet is to actually break it, then splint it from the inside with something much more rigid.

What captain ned said. Goto home depot and find a piece of steel pipe or rod that will fit inside the leg snugly. Put a 3-4" piece in the leg, drill a hole through both the leg and the rod above and below the break. Then put a machine screw and nut through those holes. Voila! El fixo!

Better that a screw and nut, use some self-tapping metal screws. Ask about them while you are at the home improvement store.

Cut the leg at the bend, re-expand into a tube, then use a wood dowel instead to slide inside of the tube. Run two machine screws all the way through on either side of the cut. Dealing with a steel rod can be tough, and wood is lighter, cheaper, easier, and almost as strong.

-Mark

Another vote for break-and-dowel, plus machine screws. But since this is an outdoor application, do use stainless steel hardware if you don't want ugly rust streaks forming. You might also want to dress the joint with a small amount of clear RTV silicone to keep water from getting in and rotting the wood.

ludi wrote:

Another vote for break-and-dowel, plus machine screws. But since this is an outdoor application, do use stainless steel hardware if you don't want ugly rust streaks forming. You might also want to dress the joint with a small amount of clear RTV silicone to keep water from getting in and rotting the wood.

...and to keep people from slicing their leg open on the sharp metal edges.

Depending on the diameter of the leg, you might be able to find a dowel from a metal shop that will fit inside the leg instead if a wooden dowel. That would strengthen it a lot more.

Its hopeless. Any fix you make will then break again right where the stiff part ends. These chairs are made cheap and sold spendy and will simply fail.

About the only fix I can think of is cut off the legs and replace with thicker stronger metal tubes that you then paint to match.

Thanks for the comments. I'm going to try the approach you guys laid out.

Will let you know how it goes.

Okay so these posts are rather old, but thank the administrator for keeping them up for idiots like me who do stupid things and then have to fix them.
So I bought 2 gazebos, spent days getting them up exactly as I wanted, moving, changing things, resetting the mesh net, blah blah blah and it was finally perfect 2 hrs ago.
Then I decided to reward myself by not cooking dinner and running to Subway and grabbing sandwiches for everyone.
So I get the errand finished, pull into my circular driveway, very tight now that I have the two adjoining gazebos set up and connected and (well you probably have figured out the rest...) I hit it, and now I have (ergo the title of the discussion) a very bent aluminum pole (not leg, unless you want to call it that) at the height of my bumper.
I can't tell you how mad I am... I am not a rich person, I went way out on a limb spending $600 of these gazebos and basically ruined one of them. It probably would have given when I hit it but because I live in the Ozarks and in Branson all our 'land' is really dirty rock, hard solid rock, with less than 1/4-1/2 inch of real dirt on any given part. So, because I love construction when I was younger, I thought since every one of the anchors was bending after I tried to put them in (within an inch) I'd use CONCRETE NAILS. So yes, they were FIRMLY ATTACHED to the rock under the 1/4 inch dirt & weeds. So no give, it bent. Can we stop here and just say STUPID IDIOT WOMAN DRIVER...????

But I do want to thank each of you who has contributed to this old post because I figured I'd have to find some kind of aluminum sheeting and wrap it around the outside (after I figure out how to straighten it out now that its well installed into the rock under the dirt - hoping a couple of well placed channel lock wrenches (please god give me a break and let that work)... but I see now that it would be smart to repair it at first from the inside (once I straighten out the pole/leg, assuming I can straighten out the leg/pole in place).

So I am thinking the steel rod does make sense, but the tapping into it through thin aluminum doesn't - so nix that. The wood dowel seems to be fitting (and yes I do think it will def rot over time but that will hopefully give me a year or two to either get tired of the gazebo or figure out a better fix). I had like the idea of the self-tapping screws, but don't think that works for wood, so I need to figure out a stainless steel 'thing' that will go through both aluminum and set into the wood dowel (maybe a wood screw that goes through a soon-to-be drilled hole).

But a valid point was brought up, almost in passing without much emphasis - the 'wreckage' on the outside. I can so see everyone who enters that fricken gazebo somehow tearing themselves on that pole/leg (or the mesh netting for that matter) so I still need to wrap the outside in some kind of casing that will not look too horrible, but will protect both the would be accident victim and maybe the wood dowel inside.

Any ideas of what could be wrapped on the outside of the injured pole/leg (oh by the way, not round but kind rectangular - of course, can I ever get a break?) ?

If someone has an idea, if they could message me personally, I would so appreciate it. My email is [email protected] - Thank you, and believe me, you can't 'talk ****' about me any more than I am myself right now. I feel like the stupidest, biggest idiot. Had I not done the work, known it was there, being it was dark when I got home, might have considered..... well you know..... idiot woman driver.

Thanks

Would like to see the damage. Tough to recommend a fix without knowing exactly what we're dealing with.

I’ll take one tomorrow morning and then see if I can figure out how to post it on here. Technology often leaves me in the dark.

Thx
Gayle

If all four corners are firmly anchored and you're only worried about a single leg rather than a bent frame I'm guessing this is a slot together type rather than a screwed together folding model.

If that's the case then instead of fixing it you might want to give some consideration to redesigning it. It's a fair assumption that what happens on the first attempt could happen frequently. It might be worth swapping the broken one for a cranked leg, or leaving that leg off and tying the corner of the roof to a post on the other side of your driveway.

I have several pix but not sure how to put them on here. Btw concrete nail very impressive - sadly because if it had been one of the cheap anchors that wouldn’t have done but maybe an inch into the groun I think the gazebo leg would have ‘given’ and I would be freaking out and so pissed at myself,

How do I put the pix on here?

Gayle

gayleannherron wrote:

How do I put the pix on here?

You can't put it on directly. You'll need to find an online place to store it, then use the Img tags to link to its location. Basic Dropbox accounts are free, so that's always a good choice.

Oh, and try fixing an aluminum sailboat mast that hit a drawbridge. I didn't cause the damage, but I got stuck trying to fix it.

Pics would be great. You could try to straighten the leg if not “too” bent, and if it still functions (pole still holds up gazebo) you are done. There will likely be a residual small bend. What you need: A piece of square steel tubing, preferably about one foot shorter than the pole. Next, get some twine, a roll is very inexpensive. Wrap around steel tube and pole around twenty times around on both top and bottom, the more the better. Measure distance from bend to square steel tube. Borrow a large C clamp big enough to span this distance. Place tarp or leather on pole to avoid marring surface. Tighten slowly. If bend is too great, borrow a rubber headed mallet and have at it until you can get the clamp around it. Optional to heat the pole beforehand ( theoretically makes metal more malleable, but heat (I.e. flame from propane torch may damage finish). If going the whole nine yards, when it is close to straight, place steel tube on opposite side (need to loosen everything and then wrap (lash) one end only. Place small piece of wood, like a one foot long 2 x 4 at the bend, lash together. Now take C clamp to free end to “reverse bend”, also known as a three point bend. Of course, the metal may crack, but hey, it is already damaged. If this is too much work, hacksaw top and bottom and slide new replacement tube over the stubs and paint to match. See old thread for additional screw fixation tips. GL

hmmm..... not sure what a 'basic dropbox' is, glad to hear they would be free, but even so, not sure how I'd get them from my iphone to the dropbox to the TR forum site here, much less specifically to this discussion.

Can I just email or facebook message the pix to someone here and then they do the complicated inset to this discussion part?

I know that is pretty ballsy for me to ask, but I'm already struggling with the guilty, the hateful negative affirmations I am sending myself in my head, and trying to figure out how to fix not make it worse for the Halloween plans I had (did I mention this all began because I was trying to make a cool neighborhood Halloween thing?) and now if I have to learn how to find and use a 'dropbox' I may just go out and run over the whole gazebo again a few more times and call it quits (kidding, really kidding).

Gayle

Oh forgot, if someone wanted to take me up on the send pix to them part, my facebook is Gayle A Herron (with a profile pix of my son with Pistol Pete at OSU (where he's a first semester freshman in the HONORS COLLEGE (yes so proud) and if he were here he'd be able to do this for me as he always did - we live 6 hrs from OSU). Also my email is [email protected] (yes I lack imagination). I don't mind sharing it because at my age (64) no one is going to harass or stalk me, lol

gayleannherron wrote:

hmmm..... not sure what a 'basic dropbox' is, glad to hear they would be free, but even so, not sure how I'd get them from my iphone to the dropbox to the TR forum site here, much less specifically to this discussion.

Check your private messages.