Ridgid Pipe Wrench Age?

[DavidB]

A guy at work picked up a couple of Ridgid pipe wrenches at an estate sale a couple weeks ago. I bought one from him and cleaned it up as it had seen better days.

Here it is as I purchased it. It's had a cheater bar on it at some point and was bent in both directions. I managed to get the side to side bend out of it.

Into the ******* tank it went...

Here it is cleaned up. The spring assembly is missing out of it so I'll have to get one.

Anyways, the reason I posted was because I'm curious about its age. I noticed it says patent pending on it and a little bit of research lead me to Alloy Artifact's page. I saw that the patent was issued in 1929. Is the pipe wrench really from before the patent was issued? I figure someone around here will be knowledgeable about Ridgid.

Thanks,
David

 

[lbgradwell]

Is the pipe wrench really from before the patent was issued?

Yes, I believe that it is!

 

[Sureshot]

What patent?
I have a 36" that has Pat 1127628 on it. Maybe it is a patent on certain design feature.

 

[DavidB]

What patent?
I have a 36" that has Pat 1127628 on it. Maybe it is a patent on certain design feature.

Pat No. 1727623 You can check it out here. http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT1727623

Oddly your patent number shows up as a typographical machine. http://www.google.com/patents/US1127628?dq=1127628&ei=RrWpUIawM4268wTemIGICQ

 

[Conductor562]

Forgive my ignorance as I've always had access to a bead blaster, but what is a ******* tank and how does it work?

 

[Sureshot]

Pat No. 1727623 You can check it out here. http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT1727623

Oddly your patent number shows up as a typographical machine. http://www.google.com/patents/US1127628?dq=1127628&ei=RrWpUIawM4268wTemIGICQ

I may have to scrape some paint.

Had to go look closer and upon further inspection my number is the same as yours.

 

[Mickey O]

That's one of their "newer" patents, I have one of their original pipe wrenches and they are quite different.

 

[jeffmoss26]

Wow, that is much older than any of the ones I have. Mickey, can you post a pic?

 

[Mickey O]

Wow, that is much older than any of the ones I have. Mickey, can you post a pic?

Apparently I can not, I thought I knew where they were but they're not there. Been doing a lot of moving in the past few weeks so they're probably at the other place, I have one more place to check at home so maybe. If not I'll post a pic sometime in the next few years, check back daily.

 

[DavidB]

Forgive my ignorance as I've always had access to a bead blaster, but what is a ******* tank and how does it work?

It's actually rust removal via electrolysis. It just gets called that around here from time to time. You use a car battery charger or some other 12V DC power source. The negative goes to the piece you want to clean and the positive goes to a piece of sacrificial metal. Keep the positive clamp out of the water though or it'll get eaten up too. All of that goes into a tub filled with water and baking soda. Hook it up and you should see bubble appearing on the surface of the part you want to clean. Leave it overnight and in the morning it'll be done. After that there is a layer of black sludge (loose iron) that needs to be cleaned off after that. It is an effective, easy method to use on rusty items. Search for it on here or the internet in general and you'll find lots of info about it. I probably would have bead blasted this if I has access to that.

I may have to scrape some paint.

Had to go look closer and upon further inspection my number is the same as yours.

No worries. I figured it was something like that.


I found a page on Vintage Machinery that lists patents numbers for Ridge Tool's pipe wrenches. Looks like Mickey's pipe wrench might have have a 1925 patent date. Here's the site: http://vintagemachinery.org/MfgIndex/detail.aspx?id=1402&tab=7

 

[Mickey O]

Found a small one:

 

[jeffmoss26]

Very cool!

 

[lbgradwell]

Notice the absence of the built-up material behind the nut on Mickey's wrench along with the "Trade RIDGID Mark" verbiage appearing on the hook jaw...

 

[skoronesa]

I may have to scrape some paint.

Had to go look closer and upon further inspection my number is the same as yours.

I find it funny that your typographical error sent you to a typographical machine.

 

[Mr.Cassell]

I have a pretty old Ridgid wrench too. I don't know much about so if you can feel me in that would be great. It has Trade Ridgid Mark PAT 1727623 E24 2 on one side and the other has The Ridge Tool Co. ELYRIA Ohio USA E24. It's in great shape. Would like to learn more about it. Looking forward to what I hear from y'all. Thanks

 

[Boilerhouse]

Here's another thread about vintage Ridgid pipe wrenches

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4359949#post4359949

 

[Roberts210]

It's actually rust removal via electrolysis....... All of that goes into a tub filled with water and baking soda.......

No, it has to be Washing Soda, or Sodium Carbonate. Baking soda is Sodium Bicarbonate and won't work. Any automatic dishwashing detergent has Sodium Carbonate in it and works just fine. I use about 1/4 cup to 2 gallons of water.

As has been said, the results can be amazing. Both of these '53 Chevy wheel cylinders looked the same before, but the one on the right spent a day in the tank.

 

[DavidB]

No, it has to be Washing Soda, or Sodium Carbonate. Baking soda is Sodium Bicarbonate and won't work.

Baking Soda works fine for me. I've used it to remove rust from numerous parts with electrolysis without issue.