Just adjusted my own garage door springs and saved a ton! Strong and fit just right. Took me less than 15 minutes to tighten my springs. It can be a bit scary to do this yourself, but if you are a moderately advanced do-it-yourself homeowner, you can accomplish this task. These bars will also be great in the event my springs ever break and I need to replace.

I used these to save myself a $150 bill from a garage door company that wanted to rip me off by retightening my spring. My garage door would not go up and of course I messed with the cables and it must have loosened the spring. I got quotes from $75-150 to tighten the spring. I thought that was ridiculous and did research.

I used these winding bars and it went great. A friend who had done it before helped me and we fixed my garage door in about 15 minutes.

Good quality and it was a great fit. This is not a flimsy product. Some try to use a screw driver but in reality it's very dangerous to not use these winding bars. This $11 purchase saved me $100 to $150 dollars. Thanks again and if you need your springs tightened or adjusted, purchase this item immediately.

Recently used these bars to replace my garage torsion springs. I found that overall they performed as advertised and allowed me to safely relieve tension on my old springs and re-tension my new springs.
I removed one star mainly because I would have expected a litter better quality and design compared to competing models. For example, other models have a hexagonal handle and a tapered end for better fit.

All in all this was a usable tool and will find itself a permanent home in my tool box.

I used these last night to wind two springs on the garage door. I followed the advice to always work to the side, and to insert the rod to a winding hole to use as a guide to know each and every time that it is inserted to the full depth. If you wanted to get real fancy, you could paint the outer-most ends a red color after you put the tape on, then take the tape off. If red shows, the rod isn't in far enough. I did this after-the-fact just now in case there is a next time because it seems like a good idea. Took about 3 minutes to paint the 4 ends. These rods are sturdy enough, not bending, and only took about 8-10 pounds force pushing upwards at the end at the final 90 degree pushes. They were not too tight, and look about 1mm (0.040") diameter clearance to the winding holes. (I don't have calipers at home to measure that close). The winding process took about 4-5 minutes per side. I had locked a vice grip on the shaft to keep it from turning round and round unexpectedly. When I tightened the winding cone screws, the wrench started turning a bit downward as if the springs were trying to the lift the door. Seemed about right. The rods have a small estimated 1mm x 45 degree lead chamfer on both ends to help seat into the hole on the winding. I couldn't imagine not having good rods after doing this job that could be a major safety dilemma if you used the wrong tools.

The torsion bars did the trick and saved me hundreds from a service call. A 24" rod would have been better for more leverage/easier turning. I have a heavy hurricane Miami/Dade rated 2 car garage door with springs that probably need more tension than most. The other feature that would have beed nice if part of the bar was squared off/heagonal/octagonal to prevent rolling from the spot you are working. Concentrate on what you are doing, mark the end so you know the bar is inserted all the way properly and this 15 minute job will save you big $ and time wasted waiting on a service call.