I've had a 50' fish tape for close to 30 years. (It's been used lightly.) On my last use, as I was rolling it back up, it got to be really, really difficult to roll back into its case with about 10' to go. I unrolled it and noticed that it had a bunch of bends in it and those were making it tough to roll back up.
My first thought was to unbend it, but, sadly, there are a whole series of them. When laid out, there are no kinks – it looks like a bunch of waves. I think it got caught on a joint in conduit and my attempts to push past that wrinkled it with each shove. Poor technique on my part, I'm sure.
I plan to cut off the damaged bit and attempt to bend a curve back into the leading end as similar as possible to what's currently there.
This is a 1/8" x .060 steel tape, how can I get a tight bend into the end of the tape and have it stay (since spring steel has a tendency to, well, spring)?
For the record: GB Steel Tape. Catalog No. FTS-50B 50' x 1/8" x .060"
It's served me well and I'd hate to have to retire the ol' gal.
Best Answer
The original hook was probably cold formed, so try to do the same. you'll want to avoid sharp bends so use a rounded form to bend around
eg clamp the tape between a screwdriver shank and your workbench and bend the free end back over the screwdriver
When you let go it'll spring back somewhat so you'll probably need to finish with the tape and screwdriver in a vise, and overbend and allow it to spring back to the desired shape.