[Bob Andersen]

I spent Black Friday morning driving to several Harbor Freight locations only to learn that there are no presses within 100 miles. Also, they would not sell me the floor model and had no date when they might restock.

Well, I wasn't going to drop $140 to have one shipped to me so I went back to plan A and got a bigger hammer.

I also heated the frame with a propane torch. With the frame supported by a couple strategically placed concrete pavers I went to work.

I used some sacrificial metric sockets carefully centered. The first few hits didn't do much. The pole appeared to be mushroomed - either when it was made or from my earlier attempts.

I was about to give up when I realized the pole had moved a tiny bit. That encouraged me to whack it even harder and finally it got passed the mushroomed end. Then it was just a couple light taps to get it fully out.

The pole seemed about as hot as the frame so I'm not sure it made any difference. However, when I go to reassemble, I will put the pole in the freezer and heat the frame.

Not exactly how I thought I'd be spending my day off, but I'm glad it's done

[Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/5170...24a0_c.jpg]