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• This tool is used to expand a rubber band stretched around its four pins. What you decide to put that band on is your own business.

• Wooden Glove Stretcher

• This reverse-plier (spreader) stretches out large areas of a shoe or boot that is too tight.

• This hydraulic spreader can open up with a lot of force: it’s rated for 12 tons of spreading force (24000 pounds or 11000kg). The mechanism is simple: a hydraulic cylinder drives a wedge between two jaws.

• The human equivalent of a snap ring, meant to keep things in place, is called skin. It too needs to be stretched apart if you want to get at the bits inside.

• These pliers have suction cups on both jaws, and a spring that pulls them closed. You put them around a cell phone, then squeeze the handles to pull the screen up and separate it from the case.

• This thing also opens when you squeeze the handles, but it’s not meant for gloves.

• I made this first-gen Macintosh case opener out of a door hinge. The handles are ¼” steel rod brazed on (because I didn’t have a welder).

• Hats also sometimes require stretching.

• These snap ring pliers have a clever internal mechanism that lets them work both ways: when you squeeze the handles together, the jaws either move together, or apart, depending on the position of the selector lever.

• These pliers gently open up steel surgical stables holding together healed cuts.

• Jaws Of Life Cutter

• These are finger stretchers for tight-fitting Victorian leather gloves—one made of wood and one of bone. The thin ends open up when you squeeze the handles.

• Similar in design to the hat stretcher, this exhaust pipe expander is inserted into the end of a pipe and then tightened with a wrench. The slightly expanded pipe can then be fit over another pipe to make it longer.

• The ultimate hydraulic spreaders, typically powered by a gasoline engine running a hydraulic pump, are these “jaws of life”. They are used to rescue people from the tangled remains of cars or collapsed buildings.

Do you have a better example of this kind of tool? Let me know by leaving a comment, and include a picture of it if you can so everyone can see!