Square-headed fastener wrenches.

[Rusty_H]

So I wandered into a local antique store looking for a nice industrial looking lamp to hang over my lathe, and happened to find a T-wrench with a drive for a square fastener, it was too large for the smaller fasteners and too small for the larger fasteners on my lathe.

So my question is, where can these be bought new?

And do they at least have an actual name? to make my searching more productive.

Thanks,
Brandon.

 

[Gmonkee]

Tool post wrenches.

They come in double or single open end varieties more commonly. I have a few really nice old ones myself.

 

[Rusty_H]

Gmonkee, do you know a source? I would prefer a closed or boxed end, or a T-Wrench like the one I found. Any idea on those?

 

[Gmonkee]

They used to come with the tools like mills and lathes years ago, now standard wrench styles are the norm. Up to the 50's they were in all catalogs by most tool makers.

Maybe antique shops, pawn shops that have antiques or a modern supply house that caters to machinists. I got all mine at swap meets. They are usually in very good shape because they don't apply to normal mechanics tool needs.

 

[retrobuilder]

Just check out Mc Master and MSC-Direct all day long...

 

[neophyte]

It depends on what sizes you're looking for. For sockets you can still purchase double square from more than one company, JH Williams being one of them. SK also manufactures some female square plug sockets in some sizes. Some metric female plug sockets can also be purchased from European tool manufacturers. I saw some four point sockets from a tool company a while ago but I forget which. If you're looking for fractional sizes, both open end wrenches, and socket wrenches, Martin Tools still manufactures some sizes in both L-handle and T-handle types. McMaster-Carr is a martin dealer, and I believe I've seen the wrenches listed.

 

[Dave455]

These are still made in the U.K. by Priory (Smith Francis Tools). They make a lot of industrial tools. Probably available to order through MSC.

I think they call them T handle box spanners, but you'd need to look on their website!