MolaKule
Staff member
Wrenching It Just Right.
Wrenching it Right
- Thread starter MolaKule
- Start date
Ha! Gotta love the C wrench! I like the metric sizes the best hahahaha!
My father and cousin were engineers with Porsche rebuilding talent. I was taught that real mechanics wouldn't allow those dumb wrenches in their shop.
They do have a purpose. On some of the pullers where you use an awkwardly large wrench to use it, they are usually shorter and easier to work with. That being said I don't have any in my toolbox.
Impressive. He sprung for both SAE and Metric.
I have a couple. For larger fasteners, they are shorter than the corresponding combination wrench. I really like this one:
http://www.lobtex.co.jp/english/products/tabid/153/pdid/E-UM/catid/82/Default.aspx
The 200mm (8”, give or take) is about $30 on Amazon and works surprisingly well.
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2021
- Messages
- 807
This is so funny! Not for cars, but great for general plumbing around the house. I have two in my kit, an 8 and 10 inch.
I have some they are handy for keeping in the camper, someone in a campground might need one.
I have them more just to have a set of USA made ones.
Crescent USA made 4 inch to 24 inch.
I have them more just to have a set of USA made ones.
Crescent USA made 4 inch to 24 inch.
The USAF CTK (composite tool kits) didn't have them and was told the same thing @ tech school.
Fixing a car, the nut or bolt is accessed maybe 3 times over the life of the vehicle; the USAF nuts and bolts might be accessed thousands of times over the life of the plane
Agree... but I have a very-heavy/wide-jaw adjustable wrench (wide- and heavy for its length/size) adjustable wrench that works very well. Undid a tubing gland nut the other day on my Honda fuel system... as I did not have the proper tubing wrench size for it... But yes, I agree...
I found once I made sure to always use the adjustable wrench the right way they work pretty good in not rounding stuff off, and once the fasteners get big it helps too. I use them on my tractor implements because the seem to be a mix of metric and inch, in some sizes larger than I have wrenches for, and that's how "real" farmers wrench! Sometimes I use a pipe wrench too... 
On car size hardware and torques though, the adjustable doesn't get used as its always metric and only a couple sizes for most jobs...
On car size hardware and torques though, the adjustable doesn't get used as its always metric and only a couple sizes for most jobs...
I do farm equipment maintenance also and I am the same. Adjustable wrenches are handy to have around. I tend to pick them up when I know they will get the job done and I am "lazy" for one reason or another. Lazy might mean I'm exhausted and want to get-er-done quickly. Or, I don't want to lug half the tool set out to the field. I must have about a dozen of them.I found once I made sure to always use the adjustable wrench the right way they work pretty good in not rounding stuff off, and once the fasteners get big it helps too. I use them on my tractor implements because the seem to be a mix of metric and inch, in some sizes larger than I have wrenches for, and that's how "real" farmers wrench! Sometimes I use a pipe wrench too...
On car size hardware and torques though, the adjustable doesn't get used as its always metric and only a couple sizes for most jobs...
This ^^^^^^^^^^^
I have several adjustable wrenches in all sizes and lengths. They can't be beat for plumbing, and general work around the house.
When disassembling that WWII Lancaster, quite often there is a lot of corrosion, sometimes the protruding bolt ends have been beaten (to make sure they never comes apart), and no known wrench fits the nut or bolt very well (and we have full sets of English, metric and Whitworth wrenches). You do what you have to to get things apart. Unless bolts are pristine we will replace with new.
Yesterday morning I took apart 3 high strength bolts: 2 with a cold chisel and punch, 1 (after grinding off the protruding bolt end) with a vice on the bolt head and vice grips on the nut. Fortunately the rivets were coming out easily.
Yesterday morning I took apart 3 high strength bolts: 2 with a cold chisel and punch, 1 (after grinding off the protruding bolt end) with a vice on the bolt head and vice grips on the nut. Fortunately the rivets were coming out easily.
I overreacted when I said never in a shop. I should have said they should be in the bottom of a toolbox and only used as a last resort.
But they all had a “Ford” wrench
