I have had my 15 ton press longer than HF has been around me. Doesn't have to be brand new to work.
Totally agree. The majority of my tools now are late seventies/early eighties Snap-on stuff from my old man’s business. I have a bunch of Craftsman “professional” series tools from the early 2000’s I bought new when I was building my own collection, when that particular model range was still US made. And if I have time to plan for a job I’ll look for vintage specialty Snap On stuff if I don’t have it.
I walk in the local HF store once-twice a year and walk out as empty handed as I walked in ..
You know, the 3/8” ratchet I use 90% of the time is from HF. Because it works better than the equivalent vintage Snap On and craftsman professional ratchets I have. Been using it for well over a decade, still my first choice. And totally by accident, I bought it to go in my tool bag for PickNPull so I wouldn’t trash/lose my good tools wrenching in the gravel, only to find it was a better damn ratchet then the stuff I had that costs several (or even many) times more. I broke the Craftsman professional grade ratchet I bought in under 5 years, and the rebuilt one Sears gave me to replace it was a POS.
The HF ratchet literally sits in a drawer next to Snap On and Craftsman professional series ratchets and the HF one is the one I use.
And about burning bushings I set them out on the gravel drive, lay the bottle torch next to the bushing and let it do the work. The burning black marshmallow is a little nasty but it works.
I've been doing what I have been doing, how I've been doing it for years and it just flat out works for me.
I used to burn out bushings. Does it work? Sure. Does it make your job harder? Yes, it absolutely does.
It’s a last resort that’s a total pain in the ***. I learned years ago it’s the dumbest way to do it, unless for some reason the job is so FUBAR that nothing else works. I can probably do the entire R&R job on the LCA bushings in the time it takes me to just burn out the bushing and then clean the mess.
Maybe someday I'll make some fixtures to keep from squeezing the ears towards each other on the control arm but until then I'll do what has worked for me for many years.
There’s no “fixture” necessary. A short piece of 2” pipe is all you need. You should never attempt to press a UCA in a way where you’re compressing the ends of the arms together, that’s just wrong.