Williams vs Wright Wrenches

[liliysdad]

I am working toward upgrading my entire box to tool truck or industrial tools. My next step is SAE combo wrenches. for roughly the same money, I can buy Wright or Williams 15pc SAE wrench sets. My inclination is to go with Williams...but other than the Snap-On connection, I can't really tell you why. I do have some concern that the Wright Grip will mar fasteners, but I have no clue if that concern is founded.

Is there a clear winner here? Is there a contender I am overlooking?

 

[Firebrick43]

First, williams has two different lines. One made in tiwan and the super combos made in the USA. The Taiwanese are ok wrenches but i would buy half a dozen other Taiwanese wrenches before buying the Williams.

The super combos are great wrenches in industrial finish but the chrome on them has always been **** on the ones I have used long term.

The wrightgrip wrenches on the other hand, are my favorite. I like the satin finish, the shape, and the open end is great. I like them better than my snap on wrenches.

 

[JerseyBoatBuilder]

I have the Williams wrenches. The Super combo wrenches will be the same as Snap On Flank drive plus.
You can get them in a Satin finish, red, yellow and black besides just Chrome.

 

[Firebrick43]

I have the Williams wrenches. The Super combo wrenches will be the same as Snap On Flank drive plus.
You can get them in a Satin finish, red, yellow and black besides just Chrome.

I have all three, the supercombos are not the same as the snap on, a different shape to the shank

 

[liliysdad]

I do want full polish, and I am aware of the Williams US vs Taiwan issue.

I had not heard of the chrome issues with the Williams Supercombos. Is this a known, recurring issue?

 

[Firebrick43]

I do want full polish, and I am aware of the Williams US vs Taiwan issue.

I had not heard of the chrome issues with the Williams Supercombos. Is this a known, recurring issue?

The ones that I have used all had the chrome peeling issues. This was in an industrial plant and it cut enough people that they went to industrial black oxide finish. There were a lot of wrenches in there. Time frame was from 20 year ago to about 10 years ago. I have never used the supercombos in satin.

I have personally had two snap on wrenches and one SK superchrome 32mm wrench do it as well, definitely more prevalent on full polish but it seemed the super combos were particularly bad.

 

[Lt CHEG]

I love my SnapOn combo wrenches, so if the US made Williams are close copies of them then they are really nice wrenches. Having said that, I’d probably by the Wright. I’m done buying non-USA made tools, and I’m even trying to eliminate US made tools that I have under warranty that would be replaced by non-USA made if I replaced one under warranty (e.g. my Craftsman sockets). With Williams seeming to make more of its products in Taiwan, I’d probably stick with Wright, because I think they are more likely to stay US made.

 

[KnurledNut]

Is there a contender I am overlooking?

Proto.

 

[Fedwrench]

The Williams Supercombos are nothing like anything off of a snap on truck. For starters, the williams' anti slip open end doesn't have the aggressive teeth found on flank drive plus wrenches. The supercombos use a notch or two on each parallel side of the open end. Next the beams on the supercombos are alot thicker than any snap on combination wrench. In fact, larger sizes over 3/4 are clublike. However, you missed the real difference between supercombos and wrightgrip wrenches, their length. Supercombos are a long pattern wrench whereas, the wrightgrips are a shorter standard length. I never experienced any chrome issues with my supercombos though.
KnurledNut, the voice of experience and wisdom, gave you a great option, PROTO.

 

[AEAdam]

Just looking at The Torque Test Channel results:

My hesitation about Wright is the clearance of the open end, it’s thickness, which in part accounts for its strength score, and it’s low hardness. It bites in, I’m sure, but I’d worry about it’s performance on low side hardware. I think Proto is a better choice.

You want a tight fitting, hard wrench that’s as thin as possible. That’s snap on FD+. If thin is a concern, the German wrenches are all in the “thinner than Snap On category“ and this may explain their poor performance and score. They are good wrenches (but tend to be short).

Williams has Snap on clearance, thickness (ish), but just doesn’t have snap on hardness. As we all know, they are clearly not rebranded Snap On wrenches.

Really not a fan of HF, but I find the icon wrenches interesting. They have snap on like clearance, but not as hard. More comparable to Williams. TTC ranked them 8th above Williams 10th. The Icon are softer than Williams, but ranked stronger probably because they are thicker. Really a toss up between the two. Otherwise, the truck tools all performed very well.

My advice is to pay attention to open end thickness, roughly 50Rc hardness, and spring for the teeth in the open end. I think they work. I also prefer long combos, like Snap On.

But Taiwan (China) materials and processing are far better than they were just a few years ago. I’m afraid this has to do with China’s rapid militarization. I respect folks who recommend we in the US don’t support their industry. If you are so inclined, I’d be attracted to their double box wrenches to round out my wrench collection. Between a good set of combos and the DBEs, I think youd be in good shape.

 

[Zewnten]

I vote wright. Williams are soft and so are my Proto's open end's spread.

 

[liliysdad]

Proto.

Proto has always seemed relatively crude in comparison to more mechanic - centric wrenches….but I’m game to look again.

Do the Proto full polish wrenches has any sort of anti slip in the open end? It looks like they are spline drive in their current form. How is the length?

 

[liliysdad]

I’m coming from a box full of Craftsman raised panels, so the bar is pretty low…

 

[Firebrick43]

Proto has always seemed relatively crude in comparison to more mechanic - centric wrenches….but I’m game to look again.

Do the Proto full polish wrenches has any sort of anti slip in the open end? It looks like they are spline drive in their current form. How is the length?

They do have a full polish ASD now. I have never held /used either the full polish or ASD ones. We had a lot of larger protos at the plant as well.

The satin finish proto wrenches are not quite as nice as as a satin wright but they are ok.

 

[bob15]

Buy the Wright. I own the Supercombos and the Wright's and prefer the latter of the two. Not a fan of Proto.

Other option: used Snap-On's.....

 

[liliysdad]

Buy the Wright. I own the Supercombos and the Wright's and prefer the latter of the two. Not a fan of Proto.

Other option: used Snap-On's.....

Used Snap Ons would easily be my first choice, but it’s pretty difficult to snag anything resembling a 15pc set of SAE in any modern version for $300

 

[Firebrick43]

Just looking at The Torque Test Channel results:

My hesitation about Wright is the clearance of the open end, it’s thickness, which in part accounts for its strength score, and it’s low hardness. It bites in, I’m sure, but I’d worry about it’s performance on low side hardware. I think Proto is a better choice.

You want a tight fitting, hard wrench that’s as thin as possible. That’s snap on FD+. If thin is a concern, the German wrenches are all in the “thinner than Snap On category“ and this may explain their poor performance and score. They are good wrenches (but tend to be short).

Williams has Snap on clearance, thickness (ish), but just doesn’t have snap on hardness. As we all know, they are clearly not rebranded Snap On wrenches.

Really not a fan of HF, but I find the icon wrenches interesting. They have snap on like clearance, but not as hard. More comparable to Williams. TTC ranked them 8th above Williams 10th. The Icon are softer than Williams, but ranked stronger probably because they are thicker. Really a toss up between the two. Otherwise, the truck tools all performed very well.

My advice is to pay attention to open end thickness, roughly 50Rc hardness, and spring for the teeth in the open end. I think they work. I also prefer long combos, like Snap On.

But Taiwan (China) materials and processing are far better than they were just a few years ago. I’m afraid this has to do with China’s rapid militarization. I respect folks who recommend we in the US don’t support their industry. If you are so inclined, I’d be attracted to their double box wrenches to round out my wrench collection. Between a good set of combos and the DBEs, I think youd be in good shape.

I have no idea what your talking about. The wright other than being about 3/4 of an inch shorter has very little difference in dimensions of the open end compared to the snap on.

I went and got 2 14mm, the snap on is 0.295" of an inch thick at the open end(largest dimension as it varies 0.010+ depending on where measured) and the wrightgrip is 0.291" .

16 mm was 0.305" for the snap on, 0.309" for the wrightgrip.

So my OEXM160B was a full 0.0175" different (larger) than torquetest sample at 0.287"
My 16 mm wrightgrip was 0.005 different (smaller) than torquetest sample at 0.0316"

Outside profile shapes of the head have very little difference as well. The box ends share the same OD dimensions. The snap on is more barrels shaped so its thinner at the top/bottom edges were the wright is more cylindrical but in the center they are the same.

While torquetest is somewhat of a good comparison, if one doesn't realize that its a sample of ONE its misleading. Theses are forged products and depending on what die, and how used it is is going to somewhat determine its outside dimensions.

 

[AEAdam]

I’m coming from a box full of Craftsman raised panels, so the bar is pretty low…

I jumped from Craftsman to FD+. I took me a minute to learn to trust open ends after Craftsman. My FD+ open ends are a legit option that can be faster and easier for some stuff. Craftsman raised panels may have been good for their day, but they aren’t good now,

 

[AEAdam]

The wright other than being about 3/4 of an inch shorter has very little difference in dimensions of the open end compared to the snap on.

The Torque Test Channel‘s Wright wrench was 8.05mm thick, while their Snap On was 7.3mm. That’s 10%, but I don’t see 10% improvement in strength. Williams was 7.6mm. I think they were all 13mm wrenches.

The German wrenches we’re closer to 6mm. Thats pretty thin.

I don’t own all these wrenches. I’m only interpreting the data provided by TTC.

 

[KnurledNut]

...

 

[liliysdad]

Those Wrights are short, ain’t they?

 

[Firebrick43]

The Torque Test Channel‘s Wright wrench was 8.05mm thick, while their Snap On was 7.3mm. That’s 10%, but I don’t see 10% improvement in strength. Williams was 7.6mm. I think they were all 13mm wrenches.

The German wrenches we’re closer to 6mm. Thats pretty thin.

I don’t own all these wrenches. I’m only interpreting the data provided by TTC.

As far as thickness to strength, that is not a good engineering inference to make.

They were 16mm wrenches. As noted above my example of the 16mm snap on (OEXM160B) was 0.305" (7.747MM) to TT 0.287"(7.3MM) a 6% variance compared to TT sample.

Where my wrightgrip 16mm was 0.309 (7.85mm) vs the TT 8.05mm sample.

And again, my wrightgrip 14mm was thinner than the snap on 14mm.

You can not draw conclusions based on one sample.

 

[Firebrick43]

Those Wrights are short, ain’t they?

When you compare them to only long pattern wrenches they do look short. Compare them to SK superchromes or Craftsman RP and they don't look so short.

 

[nadogail]

I have purchased Wright, Proto and Williams wrenches from used tool stores and was pleased with all of them.

 

[MarkH]

We have used Wright wrenches, sockets, ratchets etc for years in our main shops and on the farm service vehicles. We have a good supplier for them in the region and started with them since they were available at a reasonable price. We have stayed with them by choice. We have not noticed any marring beyond when we apply excessive force with a cheater. We have had no problems getting the singles we need to replace the ones that get lost in a machine being repaired.

 

[Fedwrench]

When you compare them to only long pattern wrenches they do look short. Compare them to SK superchromes or Craftsman RP and they don't look so short.

You have to remember though that USA Made SK Superchrome combination wrenches were offered in two lengths standard and long. The standard version is about the same as the wrightgrip but, the long pattern wouldn't be. see the craftsman professional wrench in the photo above which was made by SK as a long pattern.
At the end of the day, you really can't go wrong with Wright, Williams Supercombo, or Proto. It's all up to the OP as to how they feel in your hand and what specific features you want.

 

[liliysdad]

That’s kind of the issue…there ain’t anywhere local that carries any of these brands, let alone all of them.

 

[Mgdoug3]

I have SK and Wright wrenches. The Wright wrenches I bought this winter. I like using the Wrights over the SK because the open end seems much stronger. The standard length SK are noticeable shorter than the Wright and the long pattern SK are obviously longer than the Wrights.

I don't have any experience with new William wrenches, but the old ones feel great in my hands and I like the length. If the new wrenches are like the old ones, I don't think you can go wrong with Wright or Williams. My Wright ones don't marr up a nut too bad but you can see where the wrenches dig in. I keep my SK wrenches around for that reason.

 

[Firebrick43]

You have to remember though that USA Made SK Superchrome combination wrenches were offered in two lengths standard and long. The standard version is about the same as the wrightgrip but, the long pattern wouldn't be. see the craftsman professional wrench in the photo above which was made by SK as a long pattern.
At the end of the day, you really can't go wrong with Wright, Williams Supercombo, or Proto. It's all up to the OP as to how they feel in your hand and what specific features you want.

The standard length was shorter, about the same as the RP. I have a set a full set to 32mm

 

[rockettauto]

Wright.

You're looking at a contender for one of the best wrenches available for any amount of money anywhere on the planet. Yet they have a reasonable price, and are made in US using US steel by a family owned company.

They simply can't be beat, all elements considered.

Disclaimer:
That said I'm quite partial to them. I'm born in the town they're made and have family that helped produce some of their production equipment.

I own proto, snap-on, Craftsman,Husky (old US and new) ,s-k, and Carlyle and have used old Armstrong extensively.

Marring....no...unless you're using very high torque on an open end and then well, it's to be expected no matter what wrench you use.

My second choice would be Carlyle and they're more expensive, third snap-on and they're only behind Carlyle because of the value ratio.

I think you'll find a lot of members here calling wright and snap on very close......given price that's incredible.

 

[Ricky Joe]

Wright chrome is not impervious to flaking. I have a ratchet wrapped in tape to protect my hand. If considering used, don’t overlook Armstrong. Though no longer made, they were incredibly good.

 

[F-22]

The Mac RBRT as sold under Facom don't have a too agressive profile but are really great quality wrenches for the price. I have the USAG version which is same as Mac and am very happy with them.

 

[cherrybomb]

I've had good luck with my Proto ASD.The open end is not overly aggressive yet works well if that feature is needed.Zoro carries them,wait for a coupon.Sometimes if a shorter,thinner,more manageable wrench is needed, Stahwille have worked well for me.Actually any of the German brands are good quality. It will be a satin type finish,that is really a good for grip when oily and if not familiar with,will soon come to like.

 

[CHI_Tool&Die]

Proto.

x2

Proto has always seemed relatively crude in comparison to more mechanic - centric wrenches….but I’m game to look again.

Do the Proto full polish wrenches has any sort of anti slip in the open end? It looks like they are spline drive in their current form. How is the length?

Proto has their ASD which is like the Williams in that it has notches at the front of the open end. This does not mar soft metals like the Wrightgrip 2.0. They are also longer than the Wright wrenches.

The downside to Proto is that the beam is a bit thinner but if you’re coming from Snap-on you’re going to find the Wright and Williams wrenches to be kinda beefy.

Personally I owned all the brands you’re looking at and ultimately kept the Protos and then went German for everything else. I don’t think the Williams wrenches are worth their cost and I didn’t like the anti-slip function on the Wright wrenches. The Proto wrenches are more industrial but I think they are a much better wrench than either the Williams or the Wrights.

 

[VolvoRyan]

You have to remember though that USA Made SK Superchrome combination wrenches were offered in two lengths standard and long. The standard version is about the same as the wrightgrip but, the long pattern wouldn't be.

Incidentally, I had this pic on hand for a friend:



The SK's are just short.

-Ryan

 

[Snapped-off]

I sold my Wrights on here years ago.

My SAE stuff now consists of Williams supercombo and metric stuff is Snap-on.

Everyone loves the Wrights, and they are nice wrenches but the Wrightgrip open end just doesn't perform in the rust belt.

Williams is just a thick Snap-on.

 

[kngelv]

I have Metric Proto ASD wrenches and they work great. Much nicer than the Craftsman Industrial I replaced them with. I would like to try the Wright's at some point. I like my Wright ratchet and I like that they are a small American tool company that has somehow survived. Proto is an SBD brand and I'm not happy with them at the moment.

James

 

[American Locomotive]

I have used Snap-On FD+ wrenches, and currently own a set of metric Wright WrightGrip 2.0 wrenches. I also had Williams wrenches as work.

The Williams wrenches were nothing special at all, wouldn't buy. The WrightGrip 2.0 wrenches have been absolutely fantastic, the open is great and really bites into fasteners. I also much, much prefer the way the WrightGrip 2.0 wrenches feel in the hand. To me, the Snap-On FD+ wrenches feel "sharper" in the hand, and seem to dig in. The WrightGrip 2.0s feel great, even when putting a lot of force on them.

They're also half the cost of Snap-On, and maxed out Torque Test Channels' test rig.

As for wrench thickness, I do not think the wright grips are too thick at all. They are not "thin" wrenches by any means, but definitely not thick either. My flexhead gearwrenches are what I would call "too thick". Some of you comparing the thickness of a Snap-On FD+ to a WG2.0 are literally arguing over the thickness of a mechanical pencil lead.

 

[ecotec]

That’s kind of the issue…there ain’t anywhere local that carries any of these brands, let alone all of them.

Do you have industrial tool stores?

We have a few that carry Wright and Proto.

Williams can be found on a lot of websites.

 

[liliysdad]

Of course they can be found online...

The industrial shops here carry Gearwrench, but they can order anything you want, after you pay for it. This is the reason I am doing my homework before I order anything.