I have an old spanner like this:
I would really like another, preferably a bit larger - that one opens to 2.5" and is only 7" long. But does anyone make such very useful things nowadays? I can't find any searching the Web.
Regards, Nick Maclaren.
They aren't very useful..
the jaws are too short to reach the flats once you start to open them up so you end up putting them on sloping and stripping the corners off the nuts. Modern ones like superjaws have jaws long enough to reach the flats when fully open.
I think you need to search for "Ford Wrench" or perhaps "Monkey Wrench" but that seems to find more Stilsons than anything else.
Not at all. I agree that longer jaws would be better for the very widest setting, but it is the only small spanner I have found that can reach around the plastic nuts used in plumbing, the ones that are used around the steering tube of bicycles etc. I often use them nearly parallel to the shaft, because very little force is needed (barely more than hand grip) on many such nuts. I will certainly look at superjaws, though - thanks for that.
Regards, Nick Maclaren.
That was my problem :-( You DON'T want to use a stilson on the sort of things I use it on, unless the nut's jammed on and you don't care if you destroy it getting it off.
Regards, Nick Maclaren.
Google Adjustable Auto Wrench
Example on Amazon
Thanks very much!
Regards, Nick Maclaren.
Anyone get the pricing policy on that?
£13 free delivery for one £70 + £4 delivery for two etc. Do people actually fall for it?
Or, more accurately, they're not quite as useful as you might think. At fully opened, it'll only usefully fit onto a square nut. Going by the picture, I guess it was made back in the day when square headed nuts and bolts were still in common use.
Are those the type where *both* jaws are wound in and out? I saw one like that in my local Plumb Centre store a few months back when I was trying to source a 1 1/2 inch AF open ended spanner to fit the valve body flats when I was looking to refurbish/replace the Honeywell 3 port mid position zone valve in our 30 odd years old CH/HW system.
I can't say I was particularly taken by the idea of spending circa 30 quid on a spanner that would likely see very little use so me and the XYL (who had opined very strongly that the little 2nd hand tool shop just a couple of miles from home had long since shut down) went off on an 11 mile jaunt to a half decent market where we knew of a tool trader most likely to be able to oblige (and failing that, there happened to be an Aldi store where I'd remembered seeing a jumbo sized spanner set on sale).
Unfortunately, both options were a washout (the tool trader wasn't there, mid week, and that jumbo sized spanner set wasn't quite jumbo sized enough). Checking out a B&Q store near the market had me looking at a short handled (only 300mm) adjustable, calibrated to 42mm jaw opening (I only needed a jaw opening of 38.3mm) which looked like it opened a further 3mm beyond the calibration marks.
I was half tempted to spend the 17 or 18 quid asking price but decided against on the basis that it broke the design rule of handle length to max jaw width ratio of 8.333:1 by quite a wide margin. In the end, I diverted to the address of that local 2nd hand tool shop on our return trip.
The shop was still very much a going concern, making a liar out of the XYL. Better still, within two minutes of entering the shop, I was able to pay the 4 quid asking price on a really decent 1 1/2 inch AF chrome vanadium steel spanner (after all the time and expense of a 20 odd mile round trip, it just seemed rather churlish to try and barter the price down).
I have one of an identical pattern to the one in that link that was my Father's and quite probably his Father before. Strangely I had to use it to tighten a large collet chuck on my CNC milling machine only yesterday as it was to only thing that would open widely enough. The contrast in age and technology struck me at the time !
Andrew
The other day I bought something from Amazon. Prices as below (approx. - they might have been a few pence out).
1 - £2.34 with free delivery 2 - £13.20 - this and all below subject to Amazon's £20 minimum for free postage 3 - £19.80 4 - £26.40 5 - £33.00 6 - £39.60 7 - £46.20 8 - £52.80 9 - £59.40 10 - £66.00
A few of the tools I use may date back to the 19th century! I am pretty certain that some are pre-war - er, Great War, that is :-) I know that some are pre-1935, because they came from my grandfather, who died in that year.
Regards, Nick Maclaren.
Just bought one of these;
For basin waste nuts. They do bigger ones.
Can't tell you what it's like, haven't picked it up yet!
dennis@home scribbled
About the only tool that can get on bathtap nuts.
It's a different seller rather than policy- the £13 quid one is sold by Amazon.
The multiple pack ones are sold by a Marketplace seller called Home Decorating. Presumably no one else lists those, so they are the ones that come up.
Bit of listing oddity I expect. Don't imagine they sell many though
-1cos of price, 2 becuase how many people buying on amazon want to buy more than one
Well I have seen similar pricing on a lot of items recently and they aren't all from Home Decorating. Something is going on, it may just be a bit of psychology to convince you that the cheap one is a good buy.
Get a chain wrench.
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