craftsman.jpg

Figure 8 Wrench

Posted by 141drew Posted onJul 25, 2012 at 10:34 AM and filed under Reviews & Features
Updated onUpdated on May 28, 2021 at 11:37 AM


Forgive me if these wrenches are old news, but I had never seen them. Typically, I’m not a fan of “gimmick” tools in the least, but recently saw one of these in action and was intrigued. Headed home from work the other day I saw a young man on the side of the road with a broken down early Knucklehead Harley. I stopped to see if he needed any assistance, but he had the task well at hand. While he was adjusting his pushrods, I couldn’t help but peak into his unrolled tool roll that lay beside him. In it was one of these Figure-8 wrenches from Craftsman. It seems to be a pretty great little space saver for such a use and the rider claimed it was built well.

In any case, details here. It’s available in metric as well.


See Comments on the forum.

View thread (35 replies)
T

The Frisco Kid

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 20, 2012
Messages
645
Location
Central Texas
Might be cool for a bike or moped... doesn't really fit my needs very well.

Would work VERY well in a small watertight tool roll for PWC if available in metric!
 
T

tribbles

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 23, 2012
Messages
290
Location
Las Cruces, NM
Not as bulky as a dogbone. I could have used one when I was twelve, something was always working its way loose on my BMX bike, but nowadays not so much.
 
S

Stephenw

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
1,911
Location
Utah
A couple of individual box end wrenches would be better and not take any extra space.
 
J

Jarhead0408

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 1, 2012
Messages
5,733
Location
Who knows?
Not a fan myself.
Wonder how much torque the joint could actually take given that there is two not one moving pieces between the fork? But, it would be better than nothing in a pinch.
If nothing else maybe you could use it on the nut while you tightened a bolt if you didn't have a socket set on you. Might eliminate the need for carrying two of every wrench.
Don't think you'll be catching one in my box/roll/truck/car though. Unless someone gave it to me as a gift. Seems like the more features a product has the more likely it is to fail. Alot of options, but none of them built real well.
 
B

BFBOB

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 20, 2011
Messages
5,073
Looks to me like it has the same flaw as every gimmick wrench or socket I've seen: bulk.
Minimum bulk would be high quality DBE wrenches. I prefer DOE's for space saving because you can't always us a box end.
 
C

carhunter

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 8, 2010
Messages
793
Location
southern Ohio
If the folks at Craftsman are reading this, please stop making one-size fits all novelty wrenches and return to selling quality tools that a guy can make a living with.

I know stuff like this sells great at the holidays to kids who don't know what to get the Dad who has everything. But take a look at the 50's and 60's catalogs when Sears was a proud company with heirloom quality products, and re-think your Mission Statement.

End rant.
 
M

Michael Bryce Winnick

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 25, 2010
Messages
112
Not every job is torquing a head. Some of you guys would jab yourselves in the sack with a fork rather than say smething good about Craftsman. My dogbone wrenches are bulky, but I do not work on pianos or mirco-processors. This figure 8 is cool. I beat my Craftman tools with no regard for breakage and yet they RARELY...RARELY break. When they do, I get a new one over the counter. Some of you guys talk about Snap On tools like they have *** with you. Snap On is good stuff, but the prices are higher than giraffe's nuts and I have yet to justify the price. Danahar does me right with Craftman and NAPA USA tools. Back to the post...this tool looks good. IF any of you have one you do not want, let me know.
 
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!
D

Doozer

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 31, 2009
Messages
73
I agree. These dog bone style wrenches are only good for oil changes. One wrench for any drain plug.
 
T

ToddW

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 18, 2009
Messages
229
Location
In the snow
Chadwilliam1 said:
looks useless to me. too big to fit in most places.
Click to expand...

I agree.

I think of that with all these combo / rotating wrenches.

It may work a few times or half year then there's that one time you need a standard sized aka normal wrench and have to go buy one or find it anyway :thumbup:
 
M

MarkH

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 19, 2005
Messages
1,353
Location
Kansas
Growing up my dad and uncle were suckers for all of the gimmick tools to try to cut down the amount of tools in the machinery tool boxes. They all failed from the adjustabox, the dog bone, what ever they called the precursor of this thing and a few more. I keep many more tools in the boxes than they did but have a much less downtime when something breaks.

The bad ideas just keep repeating. Among with the good tools at high prices compared to today's prices there was some strange things even in the old Craftsman catalogs.
 
C

carhunter

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 8, 2010
Messages
793
Location
southern Ohio
Michael Bryce Winnick said:
Not every job is torquing a head. Some of you guys would jab yourselves in the sack with a fork rather than say smething good about Craftsman. My dogbone wrenches are bulky, but I do not work on pianos or mirco-processors. This figure 8 is cool. I beat my Craftman tools with no regard for breakage and yet they RARELY...RARELY break. When they do, I get a new one over the counter. Some of you guys talk about Snap On tools like they have *** with you. Snap On is good stuff, but the prices are higher than giraffe's nuts and I have yet to justify the price. Danahar does me right with Craftman and NAPA USA tools. Back to the post...this tool looks good. IF any of you have one you do not want, let me know.
Click to expand...

I'm not afraid of new stuff, nor do I consider myself a tool snob, but some things don't need to be changed.

Snap-on isn't the final word by any means, and craftsman was a leader for years. But somewhere they dropped the ball and you'll play hell trying to convince any professional mechanic to use them.

Its mostly marketing, with some cost cutting involved. Kids coming out of the tech schools are spending 50k on roll cabs, tool sets, diagnostics...C-man could carve a nice chunk of that income if they tried. But they'd rather go after the weekend warrior/Father's day market.

How much are those wrenches, maybe I'll try one for the heck of it :bounce:
 
S

ScubaSteve

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 14, 2011
Messages
79
Location
New Bern, NC
I know it's not the "right" tool for the job, but I keep coming back to the good ol' Crescent wrench. Infinitely adjustable within an inch or so. I hang one on the pegboard above my toolbox, and I rarely have to get into my sockets.
 
J

Jim C.

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 8, 2010
Messages
2,598
Michael Bryce Winnick said:
Not every job is torquing a head. Some of you guys would jab yourselves in the sack with a fork rather than say smething good about Craftsman. My dogbone wrenches are bulky, but I do not work on pianos or mirco-processors. This figure 8 is cool. I beat my Craftman tools with no regard for breakage and yet they RARELY...RARELY break. When they do, I get a new one over the counter. Some of you guys talk about Snap On tools like they have *** with you. Snap On is good stuff, but the prices are higher than giraffe's nuts and I have yet to justify the price. Danahar does me right with Craftman and NAPA USA tools. Back to the post...this tool looks good. IF any of you have one you do not want, let me know.
Click to expand...

I agree with a lot of what you say, particularly about the Craftsman bashing, and the price of snap-on. I've had very good results with Craftsman hand tools over the years. Most of my hand tools are Craftsman. Still, that wrench looks entirely like a gimmick item that was probably made in china. It's really not the type of tool that I want to see with the Craftsman name on it. It's not something I'd buy. If I get one as a gift, it will most likely end up in my small road box along with some other "gifts" to include my robo-grip pliers, the dog bone wrench, and the adjustable pocket socket wrench with the red rubber grip.

Jim C.
 
M

Michael Bryce Winnick

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 25, 2010
Messages
112
Funny about gimmicks. I pulled a "palm ratchet" out of a tool bin. For YEARS it sat. I now have my engine up so high to the hood that I cannot put a cool wing nut on the air cleaner, just a 7/16 nut. My palm rachet has a dedicated to the cause 7/16 socket on it (JB welded on) and it rides in the bag I keep by the shifter. The tool was a gimmick, but found a home.
 
J

johnnie5

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 20, 2012
Messages
58
I saw one of these on a recent trip to the USA and almost bought it as it claims to work on rounded bolts etc

1 problem is the metric version does not have a 13mm which is a very common size

it does have 11 but i cannot remember the last time i saw a 11mm bolt

so how about changing 11 for 13 and it would be something worth having in the tool kit
 
B

Bull

Super Moderator
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Messages
16,189
Location
MA
Michael Bryce Winnick said:
Not every job is torquing a head. Some of you guys would jab yourselves in the sack with a fork rather than say smething good about Craftsman. My dogbone wrenches are bulky, but I do not work on pianos or mirco-processors. This figure 8 is cool. I beat my Craftman tools with no regard for breakage and yet they RARELY...RARELY break. When they do, I get a new one over the counter. Some of you guys talk about Snap On tools like they have *** with you. Snap On is good stuff, but the prices are higher than giraffe's nuts and I have yet to justify the price. Danahar does me right with Craftman and NAPA USA tools. Back to the post...this tool looks good. IF any of you have one you do not want, let me know.
Click to expand...

I bolded the parts of this post that made me laugh good and hard at my computer screen. That's classic material.
 
S

ServiceWithIntegrity

Banned
Joined
Oct 13, 2010
Messages
163
Location
Houston, TX
Ryan said:
craftsman.jpg


Forgive me if these wrenches are old news, but I had never seen them. Typically, I'm not a fan of "gimmick" tools in the least, but recently saw one of these in action ...
To read the rest of this blog entry from The Garage Journal, click here.
Click to expand...

Screw the wrench, I'd rather see a picture of that Harley Knucklehead
 
F

Falcon67

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 11, 2009
Messages
18,371
Location
Merkel, TX
I looked it over today when I was at Sears. I thought I'd get very little use out of it because of it's bulk and clearance required around a bolt to use it. I passed.
 
W

Woodhack

New member
Joined
Jul 30, 2012
Messages
2
New guy with a question

Howdy, fellas. I'm a displaced furniture maker who is
lucky enough to be back in school. The only things I
make now are replicas of historical artifacts, which is
a lot more fun (to me).
I have a Craftsman Accra-Arm 10" that has a problem
with the centrifugal switch. The motor runs fine, but
it keeps tripping the built in circuit breaker. A friend
told me it is not changing to high speed voltage like
it should. Do any of you know how to fine tune this?
Nothing got fried, I just had the cooling fan crumble
apart, and replaced it from a salvaged motor, and now
I can't get the adjustments back where they need to
be.
P.S. I like the photo tag for Mtwater's post; it must be
aimed at the would-be gun banners.
 
M

Motorhead Extraordinaire

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 21, 2009
Messages
372
Location
Chelmsford, MA
That is a novelty item in my eyes. Its not for real work and especially when broken down on the side of the road. I'll stick with a few regular wrenches, thank you. They fit just nicely in my tool pouch that rides in my saddlebags.

I'll save the bones for my dog Max.
 

Attachments

  • Max-0003.jpg
    Max-0003.jpg
    140 KB · Views: 5
O

otis66

Well-known member
Joined
May 28, 2010
Messages
1,875
I would never buy one. ( I do not buy Craftsman Tools made in China). But if someone gave one to me I would us it for a paper weight. It would look nice next to the other paper weight on my tool box the "RoboGrip Pliers.
 
F

Fordman7795

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
2,370
Location
Bay City, MI
otis66 said:
I would never buy one. ( I do not buy Craftsman Tools made in China). But if someone gave one to me I would us it for a paper weight. It would look nice next to the other paper weight on my tool box the "RoboGrip Pliers.
Click to expand...

Ill trade you a worthless paper weight for those robo grip pliers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!