Shrinker/stretcher

Did anyone try that 8' harbor freight shrinker stretcher unit. Really affordable with the foot operated stand, Just wondering?

 

worked for me

 

I actually was able to shrink some 18 ga. with mine. The standard American made one I have wouldn't move the metal. The only draw back is the base on the stand they provide you with is not big enough. It will try and tip over when you use it. The solution I did was to bolt the base to a 2' x 4' piece of aluminum diamond plate for stability.

 

I bolted mine to a big steel fabricating bench and use the supplied handle. It works better than I thought it would coming from HF.

The only drawback is you have to change the jaws back and forth, but it is worth the price. One tip is keep a can of brake clean and WD-40 handy and clean the jaws.

 

My dad has the one your referring to,Works awesome

 

The Eastwood and HF machines are nearly identical, I do believe the Eastwood dies and head are of a slightly better material. The HF units I have seen seem to flex more and the dies wear out fast.

Here is what I did to my Eastwood deep throat machine.

Overkill Shrinker/Stretcher

 

mine has been sitting out in the rain and snow for a year and still works great. but yea wd 40 or whatever gets it movin. but i do 16 guage on mine no wear and i use it alot.

 

Thanks for the replies. I ordered mine this AM. I'm building a 39 Pontiac coupe That will be a Custom Rod(much modified) probably not HAMB friendly,but definitely different, to my liking. Thanks Pat.

 

Well, got the HF unit and broke the shrinker top v block (cheap cast) on the 2nd piece of 20 gauge steel that i used. They're sending another but it'll take 6 to 8 weeks to arrive. Does anyone on the board do tooling fabrication? I think that the top v block would be easy to make from a piece of steel bar. It measures 1'x3/4"x1 &3/4"long. Should be easy to do on a mill.

 

Boy this board is busy. Post dropped to page2 in a few minutes.

 

If you are serious about metal shaping, you might want to ask a few members here how they like the MSS-16F.

http://www.baileighindustrial.com/blog/metal-shaping/

 

Why is it sitting out in the rain and snow?

 

Give these guys a call, GoGitZit they recondition dies by removing the serrations and adding a stippled finish. I am to understand they also provide new die sets also. This is something I wanted to do with my personal sets soon.

Otherwise, I build machines and am involved in design build and job shop type runs.

Here is a Lazze branded shrinker/stretcher like the one Shane is pushing but mounted on one of my stands.

 

And untill you've used one of Elpolacko's shinker stretcher stands, you honestly have never used a shinker stretcher...

 

Bingo!!!!!!!!!

I sooo love mine and can't wait for the other one to be done. I have tried alot of different stands and this one is by far the best and is very stable so it will not move around on you will you are working, plus it got wheels on it so its easy to move around the shop.

 

I just put them up in the E-store

Welded Unit

Knockdown Unit

 

how is the spring installed to lift the short arm that presses the dies down. I bought an out of box HF -parts missing ( only the little screw for the die holder) only one holder with both die sets for $ 30. I scrounged some 1/2 steel plate from our junk farm machinery pile and cut out a deep throat side plates, I took the yellow holder apart and used it to drill the holes for the arms and the spring ..the yellow one uses won't work for a deep throat/

 

You do know this thread is 3yrs old right?
Anyway, there isn't any supplied spring to lift that arm, at least on my 8" deep throat. I added springs because the weight of the foot pedal stuff would keep the dies closed.

 

Can you post on how your deep throat coversion went. Thinking of doing mine. Thanks