Man Jon, we had them in the shop I started my boilermaker career in minneapolis back in 1973. LOL Only we had a portapower ram attached to it that we could jack up to put pressure onto the stiffner during fit up. Worked great if the sheets were clean. We used them to fit the stiffners on bardges.
Have a nice day
Mike
John,
Sledge and wedge will always have their place. We have boat loads of them that we cut from burn table drops.
When you think about it, there is a lot of technology today that attempts to improve on the past. Twist drills are a good example- you can coat them, make them out of better materials, use different lubes, make more precise machines- it still boils down to a drill bit that looks much the same as ones made a century+ ago.
The unit I am looking for will not provide a tremendous amount of force. But used on panels, you can save a lot of time instead of tacking and "untacking" the dogs. No clean-up required either.
Chet