Mr Steve Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Hello, I have a few 600s, two of which have been knocked in a previous life. They work, but their yokes are bent to some extent. Their stiffening arms were straightened out (the U shaped metal plates that support the head's frame) but the pan tube is not level. I have removed the head, arm looms and yoke support, and am left with the base and pan tube. Removing the pan tube with a view to straightening something....somewhere, looks to be an even more involved task than stripping the top half of the fixture off the base. Has anyone attempted to straighten out the pan on a bent MAC before? Any advice (other than these things are old, throw them out)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gyro_gearloose Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Your best bet would be to find a stripped chassis on ebay. Its unlikely that the tubes themselves are bent. The plates they attach to will bend long before the tube will. Keep in mind though that all the force required to bend your Mac in the first place will have been transmitted through the pan bearings. They won't have taken kindly to this treatment, and if your fixture is old anyway then replacement bearings might well be needed. Add to that the fact that straightening metal that has been bent, and therefore stretched, is quite hard to do well, then it is going to be easier to find a stripped unit and use it as a parts donor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave m Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Any chance of a picture?Showing what you have and want to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pscandrett Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 I've had to rebuild/fix a Mac 250+ that was kicked off a stage, and a bent (single) arm of a Mini Mac in the past. In both instances I basically stripped the fixture (as much as felt necessary) and then with a bit of brute force and ignorance bent the arm(s) back into shape. Sometimes it took a couple of goes to ensure clearances of covers etc, but fortunately that worked for me so I didn't go much further. Sorry I can't give much more of a tip, really. I seem to recall using a vice to hold the arm of the mini mac, but it was several years ago! If you can't get everything aligned (relatively) easily I'd agree with the previous poster who advises trying to get hold of a new, correctly aligned, frame part. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Allen Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 I had a 150W RGBW LED profile that was damaged in shipping. I stripped everything off the yoke, then put the yoke into a hydraulic press which straightened the yoke perfectly. Could not have achieved a successful outcome just trying to do it in a vice or use a hammer and metal blocks to try and straighten it. It would have been a write off otherwise. It was time consuming, took lots of photos for reassembly as no service manual was available. Some of the screws had to be drilled out and re-tapped for new screws as the heads were damaged trying to get them out. They were a bit hit and miss as to which screws had thread lock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Steve Posted May 18, 2015 Author Share Posted May 18, 2015 Thanks for your replies - someone offered to have a look at them and straightened one of them up a little for me, and gave me a couple of stiffening arms, so I'm putting that back together today. A BR member has also offered me a base chassis for to fix the other casualty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan02liverpool Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 I may have 2 old retired mac 600s for sale in liverpool if your interested for parts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmx512 Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 Hi I had a couple of macs bent from a tripod being knocked over managed to bend them straight by clamping down the base and pulling gently in the right direction on the head because the bearing is mounted on aluminium they went back quiet easily Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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