with one edge having an exposed upward u201c male u201d lip 4 the opposite edge is provided with an inverted u201c u u201d shaped female lip 6 the individual panels are typically joined together to form a seam 7 by placing the female lip 6 over the male lip 4 and crimping the seam at periodic intervals a prior art method of crimping the seam comprises use of a crimping tool known as the 601 seam locker in which the user positions the jaws of the tool over the joint and by pulling the handles of the tool apart exerts a crimping force on the seam the jaws of the crimping tool close the seam 7 while the upset portion formed by the punch and die form an upset that adds some lateral resistance to the seam 7 referring to fig2 and 3 an illustrative embodiment of the present invention comprises a tool 10 comprising a frame 12 having a handle 14 adapted to be grasped by a user at about waist level so that the lower extreme of tool 10 is at about foot level the central section 16 of frame 12 comprises a rectangular frame constructed of hollow tubing which supports an upper extension 18 and a lower extension 20 upper extension 18 is constructed of a single piece of rectangular tubing welded to the upper surface 22 of central section 16 or alternatively upper extension 18 may be constructed of individual plates welded together to form a rectangular tube lower extension 20 is formed of two parallel plates welded to spacer.