BreeStephany
ALLIANCE MEMBER
On a trip to Seattle a couple of weeks ago, I found myself a complete 36" Ridgid pipe wrench, a 24" Ridgid pipe wrench hook jaw and a few other cool finds at an architectural salvage shop and decided to clean up the 24" hook jaw and restore the 36" pipe wrench.
From the date code on the hook jaw of the 36" pipe wrench, it was made in January 1943 and the 24" hook jaw was made in April 1944.
When I got the wrench and the hook jaw, both were in their "crusty & rusty" pile outside of the shop I bought them at and had a pretty good coat of rust on them.
I disassembled the pipe wrench, brushed off the loose rust and then stuck all the parts in a tank of evaporust for a few days to soak.
The wrench had seen a lot of corrosion and had some pretty deep pitting, some random tack welds and appeared to have a few different layers of paint on it over the past 80 years of its life.
After letting the wrench soak for a few days, I took it out, ran it on a wire wheel, removed the heel jaw and put the wrench handle and a Ridgid D223 1" ratchet body I had laying around in paint stripper to remove the majority of paint from them.
After removing the existing paint, I washed them in mineral spirits to remove the paint stripper, wiped them down in trichlor to remove any oil or remaining contamination and began to prep them for paint. I masked the individual pieces, put on 3 coats of 2k epoxy high build high heat engine primer, followed by 3 coats of 2k epoxy high gloss "universal red" paint, allowing for about 5 minutes flash time between coats on the primer and 25 minutes flash time between coats on the paint.
I sprayed the D223 ratchet face in 2k epoxy high gloss "metallic aluminum" paint.
I picked up a new 3/4" Ridgid handle for the D223 ratchet, but after ordering it and looking closer at the ratchet, I found that it was actually a 1" NPT handle thread. I purchased a 1" - 3/4" rigid pipe reducing bushing and applied blue loctite to the handle and reducing bushing threads and assembled it.
I had intended to replace the heel jaw on the pipe wrench, but it was a wider profile than the original heel jaw, so I used the replacement heel jaw pin, cleaned up the original heel jaw and reinstalled it.
Very happy with the end result and for being over 80 years old, I am very happy with how the pipe wrench turned out.
#JustAGirlAndHerTools
From the date code on the hook jaw of the 36" pipe wrench, it was made in January 1943 and the 24" hook jaw was made in April 1944.
When I got the wrench and the hook jaw, both were in their "crusty & rusty" pile outside of the shop I bought them at and had a pretty good coat of rust on them.
I disassembled the pipe wrench, brushed off the loose rust and then stuck all the parts in a tank of evaporust for a few days to soak.
The wrench had seen a lot of corrosion and had some pretty deep pitting, some random tack welds and appeared to have a few different layers of paint on it over the past 80 years of its life.
After letting the wrench soak for a few days, I took it out, ran it on a wire wheel, removed the heel jaw and put the wrench handle and a Ridgid D223 1" ratchet body I had laying around in paint stripper to remove the majority of paint from them.
After removing the existing paint, I washed them in mineral spirits to remove the paint stripper, wiped them down in trichlor to remove any oil or remaining contamination and began to prep them for paint. I masked the individual pieces, put on 3 coats of 2k epoxy high build high heat engine primer, followed by 3 coats of 2k epoxy high gloss "universal red" paint, allowing for about 5 minutes flash time between coats on the primer and 25 minutes flash time between coats on the paint.
I sprayed the D223 ratchet face in 2k epoxy high gloss "metallic aluminum" paint.
I picked up a new 3/4" Ridgid handle for the D223 ratchet, but after ordering it and looking closer at the ratchet, I found that it was actually a 1" NPT handle thread. I purchased a 1" - 3/4" rigid pipe reducing bushing and applied blue loctite to the handle and reducing bushing threads and assembled it.
I had intended to replace the heel jaw on the pipe wrench, but it was a wider profile than the original heel jaw, so I used the replacement heel jaw pin, cleaned up the original heel jaw and reinstalled it.
Very happy with the end result and for being over 80 years old, I am very happy with how the pipe wrench turned out.
#JustAGirlAndHerTools
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