My small but growing DBE wrench collection

[misterbill]

It was a half dozen DBEs for me today.

Williams 7029 25/32 x 11/16
Williams 7723 7/16 x 3/8
Duro (Circle-X) 9/16 x 1/2
Jos Shaw 9/32 x 1/4
TruFit 5001 3/8 x 7/16
Herbrand 4925 1/2 x 9/16

The more interesting ones (to me) were the stubby ones. All circa WWII I think.

Bill

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I picked up this odd one this morning.

No branding, and I have no idea what the "22" or the "17-" markings mean. It's not metric, because the "22" end is 11/16" and the "17-" end is 3/4". And 2217 doesn't work as a model number.

At first I thought the shape of the panel looked like either a Herbrand Ultra Box or a Duro-Chrome Chrome Vanadium Steel, but it's not quite right for either of those. I feel like we may have seen this panel before, maybe even a set, but I just can't place it.

Anybody?

 

[3baygarage]

Sparta had a panel like that as well.

 

[misterbill]

Lugz,

That design was bothering me all day today. If you look on AA

, there is a Husky wrench with those panels and a little googling will find Sparta wrenches with that same forging. So, looks like NB made under contract. Can't help with the numbers.

Bill

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Thanks, 3bay and Bill.

 

[LesserSon]

I have no idea what the "22" or the "17-" markings mean. It's not metric, because the "22" end is 11/16" and the "17-" end is 3/4". And 2217 doesn't work as a model number.

Too bad that right-hand number isn’t 24, ‘cause 2224 would make sense in 32nds.
What I see there is “22 1.7.—” which still means nothing, unless, of course Saturday, January 7, 1922 was some NB bigwig’s wedding anniversary.
Then there’s Genesis 22:17...nah, descendants numerous as sand just doesn’t work for wrenches, although occupying the cities of the enemy might refer to acquiring production facilities of New Britain’s competitors. 22°1’7”N? 22°1’7”S? Not too far from the Tropics...if Lat and Lon are the same, could be Libya, Botswana, or the North or South Atlantic.
Yeah...I favor the wedding anniversary gift theory. And the ends were the actual ring sizes of the couple.
Oooh, wait: those numbers (22+1+7) add up to 30; what about 73.33% iron - 3.33% molybdenum - 23.33% nickel? Have it tested.

 

[leg17]

I would guess simply die identification.

 

[BlueBomber]

Wow, I missed that last round of wrench marking shenanigans!

I recently prowled Ebay and came up with two I don't own:

Blackhawk 15659 obstruction, 5/8" x 9/16"
Blackhawk 15660 obstruction, 11/16" x 3/4"


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[Rileysan]

I was going to post photos of my latest acquisitions tonight but I broke my phone today!

I guess I'll just have to tell about them and update with photos later ...

From an auction of a local machine shop, I ended up with (among other things) the two biggest DBEs in my collection.

- Proto 1-13/16" x 2" DBE
- Proto 2-1/4" x 2-7/16" DBE

Brian

 

[d42jeep]

I found these in S Lake Tahoe on Thursday. I don’t recall who made the Chrome Molybdenum marked wrenches but the wartime Super Quality alongside the unmarked wrench in the last picture was made by Indestro.
-Don

 

[twertsy]

I found these in S Lake Tahoe on Thursday. I don’t recall who made the Chrome Molybdenum marked wrenches but the wartime Super Quality alongside the unmarked wrench in the last picture was made by Indestro.
-Don

Nice Don! I've been working on a set of those. Pretty sure I have all the ones you picked up though, but I'm gonna check.

 

[d42jeep]

Nice Don! I've been working on a set of those. Pretty sure I have all the ones you picked up thought, but I'm gonna check.

Todd,
If you need any of them, consider them yours. Who do you think made them?
I cleaned up this Tiger Tools DBE wrench.
-Don

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I don’t recall who made the Chrome Molybdenum marked wrenches

Vlchek.

 

[d42jeep]

Thanks. I guess they made the Tiger Tools wrench too.
-Don

 

[Username already in use]

I dunno, Don. I thought SK was making the Tiger Tools wrenches?

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I guess I'm not following you on a connection, Don. The 'Chrome Molybdenum' DBE wrenches you have are tubular with no panel. The 'Tiger Tools' DBE wrench is flat with a panel.

I don't recall if I have any Vlchek tubular DBE wrenches, but I know they made them in the 30's. The key to my ID is the marking. As far as I know, only Vlchek used an all capital letters marking with the "C" and the "M" slightly taller than the other letters in CHROME and MOLYBDENUM. I have many examples of other style Vlchek wrenches with that marking.

 

[d42jeep]

I believe that I saw that AA said that Vlchek was making Tiger Tools wrenches, although the Tiger Tools sockets I’ve had sure have an S-K look about them. I probably should have tried to verify that tidbit. The first DBE wrench below is Vlchek marked. If anything the pad resembles the Duro Chrome 2015A below although the offset is deeper on the Tiger Tools.
-Don

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I found this twister at the flea market today. Made by TRUTH and that's the only marking (see Pic 3). In addition to the oblique bends in the shank, the ends are also angled, which I have tried to show in Pics 4 & 5 where one end is flush to the workbench. Both openings are 5/8" 12 points. It reminds me of a couple similar DBE's I have for the cylinder base nuts on 40's era Indian and Harley motorcycles, but those are fairly plain and shallow "S" wrenches compared to this partial pretzel.

 

[r_olson_06]

I found this twister at the flea market today. Made by TRUTH and that's the only marking (see Pic 3). In addition to the oblique bends in the shank, the ends are also angled, which I have tried to show in Pics 4 & 5 where one end is flush to the workbench. Both openings are 5/8" 12 points. It reminds me of a couple similar DBE's I have for the cylinder base nuts on 40's era Indian and Harley motorcycles, but those are fairly plain and shallow "S" wrenches compared to this partial pretzel.

I think Plomb had a similar wrench. I will do some digging. I want to say a Buick Head/Cylinder wrench.

Looking for the following Plomb Pebbles Wrench 3061

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I have been looking. Nothing in the 1934 Truth catalog. I've seen some twisters from the likes of Bonney, Cornwell, and others, but nothing exactly like it yet. EDIT: To be more specific, those were Chevy head wrenches, design to clear an oil line and a rocker arm shaft. I just looked them up.

 

[davethorik]

I found this little guy today. 7-1/4" open, 4-3/8" folded up.
Only marking is HUNTER L10-12

The box nubs are tapped and held to main handle using bolts with lock washers. The bolts look like stainless, but are magnetic.

Both box ends and the handle are forged and chrome plated.

There is another on eBay that has different markings but appears to be the same wrench. It says MFD USA and has the sizes on it (Both ends 13/16"). That looks about right.

Not even sure what it's for, although a guess would be a Hunter alignment machine... Or if it's vintage. But it is interesting.

 

[r_olson_06]

I found this little guy today. 7-1/4" open, 4-3/8" folded up.
Only marking is HUNTER L10-12

The box nubs are tapped and held to main handle using bolts with lock washers. The bolts look like stainless, but are magnetic.

Both box ends and the handle are forged and chrome plated.

There is another on eBay that has different markings but appears to be the same wrench. It says MFD USA and has the sizes on it (Both ends 13/16"). That looks about right.

Not even sure what it's for, although a guess would be a Hunter alignment machine... Or if it's vintage. But it is interesting.

I have an identical Proto one. I was wondering the purpose.

Looking for the following Plomb Pebbles Wrench 3061

 

[davethorik]

I have an identical Proto one. I was wondering the purpose.

Looking for the following Plomb Pebbles Wrench 3061

You have any pics? Here are a couple from eBay (no affiliation) and I would have guessed Proto based on the MFD USA, but good to know I was on the right track.

Looks like the main handle has a ground finish on this eBay example, mine is just the bare forging with chrome.

 

[r_olson_06]

You have any pics? Here are a couple from eBay (no affiliation) and I would have guessed Proto based on the MFD USA, but good to know I was on the right track.

Looks like the main handle has a ground finish on this eBay example, mine is just the bare forging with chrome.

Here you go.

Looking for the following Plomb Pebbles Wrench 3061

 

[davethorik]

Ooh yours is 7/8. Very cool.

 

[humber2]

Somewhere in this thread Reece is mentioned according to the search box.

Can anyone remember it to find it please?

A short deep chromed doe REECE T-48 was purchased to-day.

On the reverse is Armstrong made USA Armaloy.

The sizing had me look twice, 1/2 and 7/16, the 1/2 is 12 point, 7/16 is 8 point.

I think it is a tool post wrench.

Sorry no image.

 

[d42jeep]

GJer ryan20021982 very generously offered me some surplus DBEs for the cost of shipping--four for under $2 each!

Bonney ratcheting refrigeration wrench
Armstrong Reece-T-48 deep offset stubby, 1/2" 12-pt on one end and 7/16" 8-pt on the other--anyone know something on this guy?
Forged Select Steel deep offset stubby, 3/4" x 25/32"--fills a hole on my rack!
Indestro angled stubby, 3/4" x 25/32"--fills another hole on my rack!




Thanks, Ryan!

Humber,
BlueBomber posted his Reece wrench back in #966. I took the liberty of cropping his pictures. The wrench looks like the one that you are describing. I hope things are good for you in New Zealand.
-Don

 

[humber2]

Thanks Don, That's it except for a variation in the Armstrong name stamping.

It may be an earlier pre Armaloy version.

AA has wrench 9725 which shows a normal 12 pt DBE

I'm thinking that it isn't normal for a tool post wrench to be plated so more ideas as to application are needed, here's hoping.

Who or what is Reece?

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Somewhere in this thread Reece is mentioned according to the search box.

For future reference, there is a "Search this Thread" function in the blue functions bar at the top of every thread. After you use the site "Search" tool and get a list of all the threads your search term appears in (in this case it was one, this one, but often times it's several threads...), you can click on each thread, and then use the "Search this Thread" function, type in your search term, and it will give you a list of posts the search term appears in.

 

[humber2]

Thanks Lugz, Noted for future use. I had used Search in the black bar and sensed the next step was lacking.

 

[Outlawmws]

Better still, use the "Advanced search" option, and then you can select for either a list of posts, or threads. you can also select for in the title or anywhere...

 

[BlueBomber]

I found this little guy today. 7-1/4" open, 4-3/8" folded up.
Only marking is HUNTER L10-12

The box nubs are tapped and held to main handle using bolts with lock washers. The bolts look like stainless, but are magnetic.

Both box ends and the handle are forged and chrome plated.

There is another on eBay that has different markings but appears to be the same wrench. It says MFD USA and has the sizes on it (Both ends 13/16"). That looks about right.

Not even sure what it's for, although a guess would be a Hunter alignment machine... Or if it's vintage. But it is interesting.

Here you go.

Looking for the following Plomb Pebbles Wrench 3061

I couldn't resist and had to join the adjustable DBE fun. This is the Ebay one davethorik mentioned earlier. Very strange--obvously meant to get into tight spaces, but not designed for bolts needing a lot of torque.



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[disston]

I'd say those weird DBE wrenches are not meant for anything with any amount of torque.

I'd really like to know what these are for. Funny nobody knows yet and yet they don't seem rare, at all.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

I would break it.

 

[Outlawmws]

What I don't get is how you can actually do any real torquing with no "teeth" to lock the head to the bar...

 

[d42jeep]

I found this poor long C wrench that some previous owner had turned into an offset wrench. I’m pretty sure that it didn’t start out this way.
-Don

 

[Oldtuleguy]

What I don't get is how you can actually do any real torquing with no "teeth" to lock the head to the bar...

Could it be a holding fixture? I have some dual cam holding tools that are kinda the same concept.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

I found this poor long C wrench that some previous owner had turned into an offset wrench. I’m pretty sure that it didn’t start out this way.
-Don

I think you are right. Someone customized that.

 

[Outlawmws]

Could it be a holding fixture? I have some dual cam holding tools that are kinda the same concept.

I think you are onto something there! Plop that on two bolts in a pattern, and then you can tighten the bitter end and one bolt keeps the other from rotating! that would explain why they are both the sane size!

 

[1320]

A question for those here who might know - I have these Proto SAE DBE wrenches and I'd like to know what other ones exist within the set that contains these.

Proto 1150 - 1-1/8" x 1-1/16"
Proto 1160 - 1-3/8" x 1-1/4"