Well, I made a little tri-pod stand today and welded an old 4inch vise I had on it (vise didn't have a base) and made some insert things on the Shrinker and the Stretcher that bolted to each one...this way I could quickly and easily switch the two without bolting and unbolting...just a few turns of the vise and I'm Shrinking, or vice-versa.

Anyway, set it up and went after the 16ga I had for the back panel of the '31 Dodge, worked like a charm...actually over "shrunk", so had to switch and "stretch" things back.

Super good tool(s), I don't know how long the jaws will last, so might buy another set or two, but it was money well spent.

I really think it'd do thicker material as well (rated at 16ga mild steel) since it shrunk and stretched the 16 ga with ease.

If you thought of buying them, just do it...also, you'd be suprised at how little force it take to manipulate the material.

 

I've often thought of getting one, just haven't done as much sheet metal fabrication in recent years...

I've also read that some guys get two and keep one set up for shrinking and the other for stretching so they don't have to change it over for each operation.

 

That's what came in my set...one shrinker and one strether, both in thier own "castings". I just didn't want to make two seperate stands..thought about mounting them both on the same stand, but figured eventually one would get in the way of the other eventually.