On Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:18:18 -0400, Jim Elbrecht
wrote:

-snip-
there is nothing made to do this. Bottle jacks dont work on their side,
C-clamps, and Pony clamps all tighten INWARD. Of all the tools onm the
market, there seems to be nothing made to move heavy objects OUTWARD.

I have a 3/4" hard bolt about 18" long that I've used more than once
to push things apart.

Jim

You wanna explain how to do this?

Ok, the head goes against one object. All you got on the other side is
the nut, and that dont leave much surface to push against anything.

I used to work for a flooring guy who had several half inch bolts, (or
5/8") from 2 inches to about 5 inches long. When he had to lift one of
those old heavy cast iron steam heating radiators, he found the closest
bolt that would fit under the radiator, and screw the nut to the end of
the threads to lift the radiator 1/4 inch to push new linoleum under the
legs. But that was only a quarter inch of lift, and more than once he
went beyond the threads and had the radiator fall off the bolt. Luckily
he never got his fingers smashed (that I know of).

I used to think "why dont they make a real short bottle jack for that
sort of thing"?