ats64mod
New member
The last two posts are very good additions to what I wrote, but I'd like to add a bit more...
I was just out looking over the Wallenstein Thumb on my BH75 - it's certainly a very elegant design and compact. However, compactness is its major downfall as the designer didn't give much thought to the forces being applied to his design... In order to make it fold up so small, they needed to curve the black top-link (making it far weaker than it might otherwise be when compared to the Bro-Tek unit).
Therefore, if one wishes to maintain the compact design, then the sketch I provided should work reasonably well (it doesn't solve the design flaw, but it does add more steel where it's needed - see updated design). If, however, one wants all-out strength, then a straight top-link will provide much more strength (as stated by wkasak) - thus creating the hybrid to which Tom_H alludes. In this stronger hybrid, the weak part of the design will now be the serrated jaws themselves. Unfortunately, after closely examining the unit, the top link on this hybrid design would have to be physically removed if one wishes to fold the unit when not in use.
Honestly, I'm not sure what to expect when I put mine to the test, but building the new unit could be fun...
I was just out looking over the Wallenstein Thumb on my BH75 - it's certainly a very elegant design and compact. However, compactness is its major downfall as the designer didn't give much thought to the forces being applied to his design... In order to make it fold up so small, they needed to curve the black top-link (making it far weaker than it might otherwise be when compared to the Bro-Tek unit).
Therefore, if one wishes to maintain the compact design, then the sketch I provided should work reasonably well (it doesn't solve the design flaw, but it does add more steel where it's needed - see updated design). If, however, one wants all-out strength, then a straight top-link will provide much more strength (as stated by wkasak) - thus creating the hybrid to which Tom_H alludes. In this stronger hybrid, the weak part of the design will now be the serrated jaws themselves. Unfortunately, after closely examining the unit, the top link on this hybrid design would have to be physically removed if one wishes to fold the unit when not in use.
Honestly, I'm not sure what to expect when I put mine to the test, but building the new unit could be fun...
