Originally Posted by
randyjawa
Oh my goodness, how many times have I used a taper punch to round out a damaged hole. There is, however, one problem...
Stretching a hole into shape can, and often does, stretch the diameter of the hole. It might be a good idea to measure the lower fit and the upper fit, them compare the two. Were I presented with the situation, I would have tried to massage the tube back into shape from the outside.
One of my mentors as a kid was a body man, he told me to remove a dent you take it back out the way it went in, if at all possible. Given the shape, depth and length of this dent ( it was a wedge that went clear up behind the head badge about an inch) working it from the outside before I got it back close to round might have collapsed the center inward. I decided the best way was to work it out from top to bottom a little at a time. Once I had it close I did work the 2 small bulges at the bottom edge while I had the socket driven in for support. Once I felt I was "there" I measured both ends of the tube when I was done, I got identical measurements and both ends are round within .0015". I just measured the undamaged frame, it's only round within .0025". I've been in QC for 40 years, a good part of it as a machine tool inspector so I'm pretty confident in those numbers.
