Originally Posted by
scarlson
Whoa. Torrington bearings!!
That is the most over-engineered frame spreader I have ever seen. Most of the time I just use a length of 2x4, but once I used a cut section of banister, complete with a wood screw at the end (for zombies). If I'm committing real blasphemy and spreading a Vitus 979, I do it completely by hand. Quality tubing though sometimes requires a scissor jack!
Over-engineered is a good word for it, that's a photo of version 3, the Torrington bearings add a lot of "feel" to the tool and the spherical washers reduce the amount of bending the tool sees when you use it, the thumb and wing nuts on the outer ends of the tool allow you to "save" your last adjustment point and to control the stop point so you don't over spread, this speeds the process up and reduces error.
Version 4 will get big steel wing nuts and a handle for the center nut, so no wrenches required!!! Lets call that thing a prototype.
: Mike