Let's wrecket
- Thread starter jeejay
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fatfillup
Well-known member
I got one of the "vise Grip" adjustables in a box lot several years ago and I referred to it as junk on junk. Then I tried it and I will say it grips the fastener very tight. Never really used it and it is on my wall of oddities but it does work.
There's some longer ones (low torque, extended reach tools). I was surprised with all the crowfoot varieties out there that these were the only wrench type handles for them (or all I've seen are the thinner belt style). Another type of socket handle for pipeline construction does look like wrench, except it doesn't appear to have a male square drive, or the same drive sizes.
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toolenthusiast
Well-known member
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- Jan 21, 2017
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Why would you want this? It's like a tiny breaker bar, except you can't break anything loose with it because it's tiny. Since you aren't going to put any real load on it, it might as well have a ratcheting head... that would be a "ratchet". It's slimmer than a typical ratchet, but it doesn't necessarily look slimmer than a RAF80. If you don't like Snap-On prices, you can get a similarly low profile ratchet with 1/4 drive and 3/8 drive flex heads on a 14" handle at Hazard Fraught for $30. Or there's good ol'-fashioned wrenches.
So, what do you do with a 6" breaker bar?
So, what do you do with a 6" breaker bar?
Right, so the idea is basically to use them as fixed wrenches like those are, with a similar handle, not as a breaker bar (unless you call any wrench a "breaker bar" for having a fixed handle). Seems obvious, but these are not seen as wrenches somehow (independently of ratcheting, or on a handle that suits wrenching). Storing or carrying around a full length wrench set with that many handles could add up (although one-piece wrenches are slimmer at the working end, so they are shallower tools). The one handle could be better in some situations, or a smaller set of different lengths would still be more versatile and compact than the standard handles are as a set, even without ratcheting (in addition to being socket drives—I know, all sockets and screwdrivers must ratchet)! But that's the weird thing between socket and bit drivers. There are all kinds of fixed handles for bit drivers, as an alternative to ratcheting handles (go figure, there are even fixed socket spinners, but not crowfoot levers per se). Otherwise, if the flat handled ratchets had a middle setting on their reversible lever to make the drive fixed sometimes (like some ratchet adapters or screwdrivers do), that could be useful, except it can also be more tricky to set, so a fixed drive handle is simpler. I can see how a ratchet may be preferred, although this seems to be the only socket type that requires a ratchet, for an appropriate handle, whereas the others are considered more useful with a fixed handle, in that there are several available...
that makes no sense in general. I'm not counting the locking adjustable wrench as an alternative, because it wasn't made for this specific purpose, but that's alright too. Fixed levers are apparently not seen as equivalent to fixed spinners (or those would be relegated to "breaker shafts", I guess). Well, it's still strange to me that someone wouldn't throw in a fixed handle with a set of crowfoot sockets, for how much those can cost (while cheap sets of standard sockets often include one or more handles, and sometimes a fixed L-handle, but those are relatively uncommon too). I'll stick with my cheap set of crowfeets with skinny legs then. I'm sure they suit each other (saw pictures of broken wrench sockets in the pass/fail topic here too, no wonder).The 5-inch handle works fine at 3/16" thick, with the amount of leverage a 5-inch handle allows for (unless you're trying to break it somehow). The 1/4" drive torque wrenches are about 10-inches in length, so I figure that the stubby one being half as short for about half the thickness is adequate, with typical use (it's the same length in 3/8" drive, which is generally enough to tighten or loosen a fastener in that range, unless breaking torque is exceptionally high—there are lots of stubby handles around, because they must work well enough at times, and an extra long belt wrench would give you the same torque range, but you'd have to be careful not to use as much leverage as it allowed for). Longer levers should be thicker ideally, like the adjustable wrench (same goes for the long reach / low profile ratchet—people break it for that reason). There isn't as much of a variety in locking adjustable wrench lengths (or vise grips), so it's only good for up to a 10-inch setup (with the hex drive socket caps locked on). That's the average 1/2" drive handle length though, so it's pretty good for a one-handed lever. Also, a fixed drive handle is usually best for holding the other end of a bolt, and the open-end wrenches can help with positioning, where fiddling with two ratchets and round sockets may be excessive. Adding a drive would allow the adjustable wrench to be a fixed size (where sometimes there isn't enough room to adjust it), or it can be extended in size and depth, while remaining dual purpose as a handle. The other levers pictured with that are also angled upward to prevent skinning the knuckles, with a good grip, so they're both low profile and not, at the same time. I have a set of smooth jaw pliers that work pretty well as a wrench in confined spaces, without having to ratchet, and just figured I could set up the crowfoot sockets to be used more often (than me forgetting I had them—there was one specific use that I needed one size for at one time). I think it's nifty or even more practical to use them as standard wrenches too, they're like the exorcist with a spinning head sometimes!
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Farmall 1066
Well-known member
These? Yeah, looks like the 7" would be in between those other two handle lengths, and would fit all the socket caps. Although I think the actual gripping area is about the same size as the levers.
These don't get much action from me as wrenches, but they kick *** as cotter pin pullers. That head is sort of like pliers with a rolling head bar built in.
Other socket adapters work for locking wreckets of some sort. I think they discontinued smaller handles for the thumbwheel wrench there (couldn't quite fit both in that one).
By the way, I found that the 7" Milwaukee MaxBites will clamp a thumbwheel ratchet too, unlike standard jaw locking pliers that size, and those are sort of a smaller version of the 12" pipe jaws pictured (although they don't wrap around it in front like that, but won't be in the way there either). I don't know if all of those ratchets are the same diameter, but mine in 3 drive sizes are (around 1.5" or 38mm). I don't use them much as thumbwheels, so there's another option for that and pipes in general. The fixed drive adapters are good enough for small wrench heads, and will fit in the smaller locking pliers (just not as tightly for extra torque).
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Now you're just being silly jeejay. Those inventions work but few will ever use one unless all else is lost.
The regular tools for the job are cheap and common so anyone with any kit at all has something that works well enough.
I got a pile of gimmick tools and combo tools going back a full century. No need to ever re-invent most of them.
The regular tools for the job are cheap and common so anyone with any kit at all has something that works well enough.
I got a pile of gimmick tools and combo tools going back a full century. No need to ever re-invent most of them.
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Well, the crowfoot spanners have wings too (coincidentally I had to attach those, or maybe this one won't fly away).
Somehow a pickle fork is more mainstream than a crowfoot handle otherwise.
I must have been looking for the other leg of a three-legged crow... or was that a pickled crowfoot? 
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Pop Alexandra
Banned
I like the crowfoot better, but I'm in a minority.
Or a crowfoot spanner doing an elbow stand (works that way too).
Of course, a T handle with an extension bar would be more typical. An L handle might do more gymnastics though (or make that an inverted double L/flex). By itself, the L works as a fixed wrench handle, oriented the other way, if there's enough room for its higher profile—compared to a non extended flat lever—even the ells are uncommon in the most common crowfoot size though. Apparently, if people wanted more adaptability, then there would be more of these parts around. Ironically though they have to do more gymnastics to use less configurable tools, in general. Yet, since there are one-piece crowfoot spanners, it looks like switching parts around is just too much, or they work that much better for being inflexible at times. I wouldn't know, just seeing what's out there, and like the adaptability myself. At least the parts I found go together in one way or another.
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