The Artisan tools adjustable pin-spanner works just as well as the VAR pin spanner, and it's sometimes available on ebay. It is a cheaper and simpler than the VAR spanner (I have one), it's just two flat piece of steel and the pins are barrel screws with allen-head indents on one end, and the pins on the other end, and the pivot is just a screw (like on a pair of scissors). It's something a machinist could make pretty easily from 2 pieces of flat steel plate.
Artisan Tools was a USA-based bicycle tools maker and their tools have an ADT logo with the A and D connected or overlapping.
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA, USA