To help me put several heavy pocket doors, I ordered the Viking Arm from Massca Products. Although it was a great tool, I was unsure about its utility. I was not unfounded in my skepticism. In the past few months, the Viking Arm has been used to move a 12-ft. sheet drywall, snap in LVP flooring and fine-tune the installation 7-ft. MDF prehung door doors. It has been very useful in my home. It has helped me balance a truck tire so I could align it with the lug nuts. I also use it to lift my lawnmower deck so I can spray it clean.
The Viking Arm stands out among its competitors due to a couple of features. The Viking Arm can lift 330 lb. which, in my opinion, seems to be a low weight. The controlled lowering feature is what really sold me on this tool. After you have lifted your workload, the one lever releases all tension and the second lowers the load by a fraction of inch. Similar tools have been used in the past. It has always seemed that I would lift my project too high, only to drop it back down again to start over. You can move the Viking Arm in small increments up or down until you reach perfection.
The Viking Arm is a good investment at $200. It’s also useful and well-built, making it worth the investment.
Mark Petersen, technical Editor Photo: courtesy Massca Products
Fine Homebuilding #308