Spiked Ratchet Pulls Wood Together

Spiked Ratchet Pulls Wood Together WOODLOT EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 34-1-38 Frame walls out of line? Ready to grab a mall or pry bar to bring them back? Contractor Keith Kennedy was tired of pounding on walls, and the only wall puller tool on the market required at least three hands to work. So, he designed his own tool. "I developed the WoodRatchet so I could let go of it to reach for the nail gun," he explains. "I made the ends out of flat plate with a spike in it and attached them to a ratcheting binder." To pull in a stud wall, for example, he hammers the spike of one end to the plate and spikes the other end to the floor. Then he ratchets the wall in place, nails it down and removes the tool with his hammer claw. "After I started using it I found many other uses for it," he says. Instead of requiring three people to move diagonal braces to level walls, he can do it himself. "There are holes in each corner of the ends to add a nail or two to if you have a really stubborn pull or a vertical pull," Kennedy says. "But most of the time you don't need nails. You can also flip the ends around and push with it." He used the WoodRatchet for four years - lending it frequently to other carpenters - before he patented and started selling the tool out of his shop. The ends are made of 1/4-in. steel with 3/16-in. sharpened shark tooth-like spikes. The tool can pull or push up to 3 in. "As soon as builders see it, they say it's a good idea, and they wish they had thought of it," Kennedy says. He sells WoodRatchet for $69.95 plus shipping through his website, which includes videos of the tool in use. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Keith Kennedy, Kennedy Mfg. LLC, 174 Monroe Lake Shores, E. Stroudsburg, Penn. 18302 (ph 570 223-0527; www.woodratchet.com).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.