I will check,
However, I know I've purchased a cheap one at harbor frieght in the pass with more threads than the craftsman one. The harbor frieght one broke. The C clamp is easier to control than a vice grip (not a bench mounted vice), in my humble opinion. It would also seem that you can get an even pressure, can let go with out release pressure, this in order to eye ball what is going on with the part you're attempt to apply force to. I believe C clamps are readily available at all levels of quality and a varity of sizes.
To wit, I've never used one for frame repair. As for the concave surface, it's only needed for the frame side if you're concerned about proper grip, it would be easy to fabricate something that would work as a temporary fix for the situation. Perhaps take a small piece of bar stock and file a section with a small round file.. if it were needed.
I respectfully with draw from this, as not to create any disharmony with in the list. Merely a suggestion to fix a problem.
R/ William Karstens Spring Valley, CA
-----Original Message----- From: Bruce Krueger [mailto:bikebruce@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2003 9:48 AM To: Karstens, William Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR] drop out repair
However, would a c clamp work just as well if not
> better? You'd be
> able to apply preasure slowly and steadily with a
> much better view of the
> area to which you're correcting.
***
a (sufficiently finely) threaded press might work
(lord knows park's frame press generates more than
enough), but I don't know if most c-clamps have either
a fine enough thread or a rigid enough frame to
generate/sustain the required amount of force.
I believe vice
> grips with thier locking
> mechanism have a fulcrum point that may have a
> sudden spike in pressure.
***
no idea what you're talking about -- it's true that
the compound lever generates non-linear pressure, but
I'm not sure where the 'spike' idea comes from. it's
also true that the steel will make an excursion
through the plastic range before it deforms with each
successive clamping, and then return a bit as it's
released, but again, I'm not aware that this is a
problem (on the contrary, it allows for closer
approximations to the intended configuration with less
chance of over-shooting). also, the grooves in the
vice grip help keep the 'jaws' of the dropout in
plane, where the flat surfaces of a c-clamp (or worse,
a pivoting head) would allow them to skew.
I'll grant that a special threaded tool might work as well as or better than a vice grip, but good luck convincing park to undertake development and production -- I couldn't even convince them to put a floating tip with a concave surface (sort of like what's on the cotterless crank press, only an 'innie' instead of an 'outie'..) on their cottered crank pin press, even though it would improve it an simplify use (it's prevent the tip from mushrooming and walking off the pin). when they told me how many of the tools they sell a year, though, I could kind of see their point.
bruce krueger bikeworks urbana IL
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