Getting ready to replace some springs and re-upholstery an old Cherry rocker for a customer. Haven't done one with webbing spring support before so needed a webbing stretcher(according to tutorials I have found ) to tighten the supporting webbing. The original springs were mounted on three metal rails attached to the underneath of the chair seat frame. Four of seven springs were broken and the rails were also in bad shape so decided to use web support for new springs but did not have all the tools required for that.
Looking online, eBay, I noted that Osborne #253 style stretchers ranged from $24 new/used to $50+new. Decide that was too much for possible only a one time use so I thought "I can make one of those" and what follows is my attempt at it.
I had a relatively new 4" paint roller that I had not cleaned up from a small shop paint job I did a couple "years" back. It had been wrapped in plastic bag for all that time so dug it out and remove the old roller and roller support. The handle was a little twisted and broke off when I tried to straighten it leaving just the steel frame. I wire brushed the frame to remove any dried on paint and tossed all the rest of the "junk".
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Also had 9-10" glue-up of some maple used for "something" in the past, forget what but it was about 1.5" thick and 2.5" wide. Cut a piece of it the length of the bottom of the paint roller frame and drilled & slotted it to accept the frame.
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Ripped the resulting piece intwo, dirilled some pilot holes for #9 1.5" deck screws to use as the sharp pins.
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Continued in the next post.