Hi Dave, one thing you have to make sure of with these, is that the offset jaw gaps are staggered and not opposite each other, otherwise they just wont work. It looks like your fettling did the trick.

Great tool you’ve Dave lovely addition to the garage. Have fun practising. Can’t wait to see you you create with that weapon!

Great little fix there Dave, that polishing really freed up it's movement. I have 2x smaller ones where one is mounted to the rotisserie with foot operated pedal . I'm going to give the polish the blocks a try as mine kind of binds when using it. Keep up the good work 👍

Good morning Dave from a chilly 🥶 Huddersfield 🤣 So nothing better with a brew watching you mess about in your man cave lol 😆 I don’t know what it is but I just love watching you mess about tinkering in the garage entertaining us all on KZfaq 👍🏻

Nice piece of kit Dave , I’m sure you’ll be giving that a good work out mate 👍

The one I just bought needed every bit of "fetteling" that you showed here. But it works now. Thank you for showing what to do.

I've got a bench just like yours, several actually. 'Stuff' behaves like a gas; it expands to fill the available space.

Thanks for sharing your findings and showing us how to make it work better 👍

I've had a smaller one for a couple of years, could never get it working, after watching this I attacked it with a sander, and got a saw blade between the teeth to clean and sharpen them and i finally shaped my first bit of metal. Well chuffed 👍

Fantastic tool for the workshop it will be even better with the foot pedal operation it's surprising how much power it has in comparison to hand operation 😀 👍

You shouldn't have to, but anyway, nice fettling! I think you'll find that tool is a game changer. Have you seen those domed compressed gas cylinder protection caps, they take up a lot less room than an english wheel and with a polished up dome and a panel beating hammer can begin to imitate the effects of an english wheel. Love the new intro - it showcases your brilliant skills!

Great video Dave, I’ve just bought one myself but the next size down from yours. Can’t wait to try it out.👍

A different video, very helpful and enjoyable

Great tip

looks a good tool now you've made it work properly,perhaps vevor should see your improvements and reward you for the upgrades.

Hi Dave, just ploughed through the comments, it certainly is bloody cold in Huddersfield at the moment! It amazes me how people can sell products that just were never going to work from day one. Full marks to you for sorting it out, but you really shouldn't have to. I would call that sort of price budget end, but definitely not cheap. If you have the space, lengthening the handle, even just by a small amount would probably give you more mechanical effort until you can sort out a foot pedal arrangement. I've often thought that you can get pneumatic rams pretty reasonably priced, it wouldn't be that hard to come up with a spring and ram design that you could operate with some sort of foot pedal valve perhaps? Or, maybe, I have actually gone insane!

thanks dave

Best way to go foot operated is to attach an air brake diaphragm unit with an air foot switch…. Saves those arms… if you need a link I can probably find the info you need etc…..Where are you from in Wales?…. My family are from the Valleys

Thank you Dave for the tips had the same problem with my tool👍 it will be getting the Dave's garage mod now 👌

If your planning on going live for the first time youtube needs 24 hours notice. Someone else I watch went to go live and they were all set up and clicked to go live and said they had to wait

I started using shrinker / stretchers in the 90's....then when i went on my own i bought a set..mine are the more common shallow depth ones and i bought the one base unit with both dies....most times your doing one operation ( shrink or stretch )..but sometimes you go back and forth... changing it is slow but the price was better so i took that option... mine are a much better quality than your setup... the dies are very hard and were perfect when bought...it worked as good as the name brand i used before i got mine ( can't recall that brand but mine was a knockoff...not sure if china or taiwan ? ) ..it is alot alike regardless to the more expensive brand .. it was under $400 cdn about 25 years ago..which was 50% cheaper...now similar ( but rougher looking ) ones are about $200 cdn on sale...i never really looked at them closely...but they look chinesium and. less refined for sure....you get what you pay in the end... they are rare used around here... bend some sheetmetal angles to practice on... they work great on less deep material... 3/4 " is my max depth... even 1.5" would be enough to give radius edges...on projects... i doubt the extreme depth on that unit will be as good as a English Wheel and pretty hard to work .... they sure are handy on metalwork..... keeping the teeth clean is about all i have to do on my unit...i use a satin finish metal that is great for staying rust free but can plug up the fine teeth on the dies... those dies were very rough finished..lol ..

Yours seems to have a much stronger frame than mine did straight out of the box. (Another copy of the same machine by a different manufacturer, probably.) I had the same problem with the top jaw and the hanger, but took a drastically different path to make it work. I have videos of the process on my channel. I've been watching through your Escort playlist over the last couple weeks. Cool cars we never got here in the US.

Ive just bought the exact same one off ebay. The stretcher works a treat im well pleased with that but the shrinker is useless. I was about to contact the seller to complain it does not do what its supposed to do but while searching for an answer i find this video. Tomorrow ill have the jaws in pieces and machine polish them to a mirror finish. Apart from that im well pleased with the results using it. If the shrinker works as well as the stretcher im going to be more than happy with it :)

Hello😊 My name is Thomas. I bought the same machine as you. I have problem with the shrinker. The lower jaws does not work when i put the metal in the shrinker. I have done the small fix to make it work but this is really a problem. Do you have any idea of a solution? Thomas⚒😎

Hi Dave, watching the action of the jaws it almost seems at some points it could do with a stronger compression spring to keep the jaws apart until the very last minute before it grips the metal, at the moment it seems to be closing the jaws together before getting purchase on the metal ? Great video as always, the wife has bought me the shallower depth version to this for Christmas so waiting to see when it arrives if I need to make the same modifications as yours ! Very interested to see a floor mounted stand with foot pedal made as I have the same idea for mine, it seems rather difficult to be able to pull enough force down on the handle while working it at the same time.

Found your video very helpful in getting the machine to work, cos out of the box it didn't... Is there any chance you could scan me a copy of the instructions? I've been in touch with the supplier and no joy. Mine didn't come with any. I would like to make stand, so the pictures would be helpful.. I could send you my email if you can help... Thanks so much for the video.