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Pros/cons of French-style "clés à pipes" socket wrenches

bonneyman

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^^^
Yeh the old saltus style swivel socket wrenches a far more useful tool than these.
These are certainly not a must have but indeed a nice box filler if you got a chrome addiction or just see them at steal price ...
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I think you could get more torque out of a Saltus wrench than those.

But for small work - like inside stereo's and computers - they might work pretty well.
 
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Gmonkee

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Home Depot opened a new store on the highway close to my house. Oddly they carry a lot of the Truper garden tools, at higher prices than Fix, the catalog store also relatively close.
They got the home repair products i want. US standard electrical and a real selection of other stuff as need be. Otherwise a run downtown to see who was open, if they had anything I needed or something almost close.

I think they just created the .MX version of the chain as Costco, WalMart and the fast food joints did.
 

Gmonkee

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Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I think you could get more torque out of a Saltus wrench than those.

But for small work - like inside stereo's and computers - they might work pretty well.

Hey Bonneyman
These were useful in late-model automotive work, tight spaces and odd corners stuff. Not so much high torque situations.

Get the bit set in with all the bolts and if need be a yank on a breaker bar and socket to finish.
Or set a screwdriver in the end and pull a bit more.
 

KnurledNut

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The DuraTech line was manufactured by
Zhejiang / Zhejiang Yiyang Tool Mfg. Co. Ltd., No 68 Guangming Rd., Xiao Nanhai, Longyou, Zhejiang, China 324404 / http://www.ironduketools.com/ / http://www.yiyangtools.com/ / "Duratech" "Ironduke" /

but there's been some confusion about that recently - depending upon what website you're looking at - some sites are saying that DuraTech is now part of Great Star (the company that bought S-K) but I have not been able to confirm that one way or another.

Great Star / Hangzhou GreatStar Industrial, No.35 Jiuhuan Road, Jiubao Town, Hangzhou, China 310019 / http://www.greatstartools.com/ / est. 1993 / see also GreatStar USA / parent company of Adjustable Clamp Co. (Pony Jorgensen), Arrow, Goldblatt, Millers Falls, Shop-Vac, S-K, Workpro and others /

You don't have your location on your avatar so I have no clue where you might be.
It says so right on the website.
https://www.duratechtools.com/about/duratech.html
 

four.cycle

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^ It didn't the last time I looked. Thanks.

When I last contacted "Dura Tech" (Zhejiang) I was told they were operating as a completely independent company. That was .... at least 90-120 days ago.
 

Etchase

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As far as I could figure out Great Star started the Duratech brand, and Zhejiang was the manufacturer of at least the wrenches. Around the same time Zhejiang was mentioned as a subsidiary or if I remember correctly a sub of a sub of great star group Company. Whether Zhejiang was a supplier of Greatstar before being acquired or great star always had some owner ship position in them is unclear. Zhejiang is still an independent company sort of even though it’s a wholly owned subsidiary. It’s a subsidiary corporation and not a division is the distinction if it was a US companies I believe. The majority of corporate filings in China are not available in English and I don’t know what their reporting requirements are. Great star puts out some stuff in English. I got the furthest using the Perplexity AI platform. After a couple hours I just didn’t care anymore. Great Star industrial is pretty big, with $2 billion in revenue. And Great Star Holdings Group is even bigger and owns great Star industrial, some forklift/industrial equipment company and China’s largest tire company. In total the three entities have sales of over $10 billion. I think the three parts to great Star holding group have about 90 subsidiaries in total. Great Star Holdings Group is private and controls the three public companies, but doesn’t own 100% of their stock.
 

four.cycle

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^ Thanks! So my confusion is then well-founded.

Beginning to look like GreatStar is the Stanley Black & Decker of the eastern hemisphere.

Great Star / Hangzhou GreatStar Industrial, No.35 Jiuhuan Road, Jiubao Town, Hangzhou, China 310019 / http://www.greatstartools.com/ / est. 1993 / see also GreatStar USA / parent company of Adjustable Clamp Co. (Pony Jorgensen), Arrow, DuraTech, Goldblatt, Millers Falls, Shop-Vac, S-K, Workpro and others /

operating as both "Hangzhou GreatStar Industrial" and "GreatStar USA" makes it all no less confusing.
 

ebj

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Is there a source for SAE wrenches like the Facom. A set of 5/16 to 9/16 would be useful when I work on older Onan generators.
 
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Pexto

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other than branding, I am not seeing much difference between those and the "DuraTech" set I have.

Quick update on the Duratech wrenches you all forced me to buy. :)

Over the last two weeks, I used the 13mm wrench quite a bit - I was installing a deck railing with 37 metal posts, each with 4 stainless lag screws. So 148 lag screws total. I drove them most of the way with an impact driver, but for final tightening and fine-tuning for plumb I used the 13mm pipe key.

The wrench held up just fine and doesn't show any appreciable wear. It was also more comfortable in the hand than a combo wrench would've been. All in all I'd say these are an excellent value.

Sorry I don't have any close-up pics of the wrench, but here's one of the project:
20260603_162836.jpg
 

Gmonkee

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Mine have always been worker bees, they just blended into a mix of **** with no particular special care.

Yet in years of general use no deformation of the sockets and while I was setting them up for the photo here it was notable no finish went bad.
 

AEAdam

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Imagine you are designing car with a vertical rear windshield, or a hatch back with a mid engine. Imagine you are designing a car with a steering wheel that has one spoke or needs to activate its air suspension to change a tire. If you can picture all these things, then these tools will make perfect sense to you.

As for cons, in addition to the many downsides mentioned earlier, when you buy these, the lifetime warranty requires you to eat raw eggs and snails so keep that in mind.
 

scooterbum46

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I am surprised that @Dave455 has not chimed in!

Keep in mind, at one point, 50-odd years ago, ratchets were not as common as they are now and they were expensive! The clés à pipes were a clever and cost effective solution at a time when ratchets were an expensive luxury to tradesmen.
I know 50 years seems like a long time ago to youngsters, but c'mon that was 1976! My dad was using sockets with a ratchet in the late 20's and he was just a poor 19 year old mechanic working on Model T's and A's....
 

Beerhippie

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I am surprised that @Dave455 has not chimed in!

Keep in mind, at one point, 50-odd years ago, ratchets were not as common as they are now and they were expensive! The clés à pipes were a clever and cost effective solution at a time when ratchets were an expensive luxury to tradesmen.
My father gave me my first set of ratchets and sockets in '76--50 years ago. Anyone who wrenched at all had a set or three. We even had electricity and indoor plumbing!
 

seber

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I received one with a machine just a few weeks ago. I struggled with it for a while and finally gave up and got out a box end and a ratchet. It was extremely awkward and slow to use.
 

four.cycle

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The wrench held up just fine and doesn't show any appreciable wear. It was also more comfortable in the hand than a combo wrench would've been. All in all I'd say these are an excellent value.
Excellent. Very glad to hear that.
From what little Blake has told me about the DuraTech stubby combos I sent to him, they are apparently holding up quite well - NO chrome issues, which is what my big concern was.
Thanks. (y)
 
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