treemuncher
Senior Member
My machines kick up a lot of debris and folding of the radiator fins is an everyday occurrence as the dust/debris is blown at high velocity into the heat exchangers. As part of my regular maintenance to keep things cool enough, I do a complete washout of my radiators with hot high pressure water. Straightening of the fins is also part of my maintenance. This, along with other design changes, has kept my machines running cool on the hottest of days with constantly heavy loading.
I've got the combs for regular straight and wavy heat exchangers. Those are quick and easy to repair in most cases. But, the Vee shaped fins are a major problem and exactly what I have on my most used machines. The only method I've found for these, so far, has been long, thin micro needle nose pliers or, mostly used, a long straight pick.
Does anyone have any better tricks to straighten these Vee shaped fins fast and efficiently? I spent over 12 hours last year trying to straighten out one machine's fins. It was worth the time as well as it cools so much better now but there has to be a better way.
I added extra hardware cloth guarding to minimize large debris intake, which helped, but I am still having fold over of outer peripheral fins from debris impacts.
I've got the combs for regular straight and wavy heat exchangers. Those are quick and easy to repair in most cases. But, the Vee shaped fins are a major problem and exactly what I have on my most used machines. The only method I've found for these, so far, has been long, thin micro needle nose pliers or, mostly used, a long straight pick.
Does anyone have any better tricks to straighten these Vee shaped fins fast and efficiently? I spent over 12 hours last year trying to straighten out one machine's fins. It was worth the time as well as it cools so much better now but there has to be a better way.
I added extra hardware cloth guarding to minimize large debris intake, which helped, but I am still having fold over of outer peripheral fins from debris impacts.