# Metal winding sticks



## LucasWoods (Oct 1, 2014)

Been searching and all I could find were 18" aluminum a from LV? I need it in the 30" range aluminum or any other metal will work.


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## felkadelic (Jun 12, 2011)

Get some aluminum angle iron at the hardware store.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Get a couple of 48" levels. Put them together edge to
edge in the store and if there's any gap one or both
of them isn't straight. The manufacturing is pretty 
accurate on them in general these days and they tend
to be quite straight though I bent one of my 78" 
levels a bit in a cross-country move.

36" levels are available but you may find 48" levels
cheaper.

Aluminum and steel angle tends to be pretty straight,
as mentioned above. Square steel tubing is real
straight and steel is pretty cheap at a metal dealer
(hardware stores are pricey on metal). A welding 
shop may sell you some. In general when I buy steel
angles and tubes I have to buy 20' lengths.


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## crank49 (Apr 7, 2010)

Extruded square aluminum tube is extremely straight.
I have a couple of 1 1/2" square by 6 ft long pieces I use as winding sticks, straight edges, for table saw assembly (to hold the wings flush to the top while I installed the bolts) etc.
For winding stick use I painted one black, the other white.


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## LucasWoods (Oct 1, 2014)

Great ideas thank you all!


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## Ghidrah (Jan 20, 2015)

what do you want it for?


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## LucasWoods (Oct 1, 2014)

Winding sticks is what I am looking for. Metal ones.


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## handsawgeek (Jul 31, 2014)

Winding sticks are nothing fancy and are also fairly cheap and easy to make out of a couple of good stable sticks of hardwood. Mine are made from nothing more than a couple of straight pieces of maple from the BORG, and they work just fine. Any of the suggestions above for aluminum or steel angle iron are just fine, as well. They are certainly not ultra-precision tools that one would need to lay out any big bucks for.

What really amazes me is that I have seen one or two sets of old wood winding sticks for sale at antique stores…. for exorbitant prices! It makes me smile to think that whoever they had originally belonged to probably made them out of some random pieces of scrap wood they had hanging around the workbench!


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