Un-**** a Crappy Tool

[xroad]

I found a new crappy double box end wrench. It was really sloppy when I tried it on a fastener, as expected.

So, here is a hypothetical question ... Can I un-**** the crappy tool by heating it red hot and whack it with a sledge hammer and hope that the compression will "tighten" the box end. I expect the outside diameter to increase. Will the inside diameter decrease and will un-slop itself so that it fits tighter around the fastener?

 

[chad99]

Heating a tool like that will ruin the tempering and probably just make it more useless...but really it doesn't sound like you stand to lose much by trying.

 

[SeattleKent]

I doubt it would expand evenly all around. The inner diameter would be smaller in some areas then others. Sounds like a recipe for really screwing up the fastners.

 

[PowerGenGuy]

Don't waste your time, go and buy the desired open end wrench!

 

[e30bradley]

it won't work.. if you don't mind crappy wrenches go get a pitsburg set from HF.

 

[kc-steve]

To quote Tim the Toolman Taylor, "Duct tape it."

Steve

 

[ajchien]

I might designate its use as the "wrench extender" for those times you need a double wrench technique.

 

[franzdom]

When you heat a ring both the inside and outside will get larger, and then they will shrink again when it cools. If it's so crappy, why bother with it at all? What type is it?

 

[G_P]

Not even worth the trouble. Even if it works which is doubtful it will probably blow apart the first time you put some real force on it.

Save it for a time when you have a badly rusted/rounded fastener. You can hammer this junk wrench onto it and it wont matter if you destroy the wrench.

 

[Brian_B_]

The gasses used in your torch to heat it may cost more than a half way decent tool in the first place. Not worth it.

 

[kidney]

To quote Tim the Toolman Taylor, "Duct tape it."

Steve

"Just remember if the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy. Oh...and Tim the Toolman is a hoser"

 

[boostedgt]

throw it on the side of the road and wait for a "found tool!" post here

 

[xroad]

The purpose of this HYPOTHETICAL mental excercise is not to make a functional tool, or try to turn it into a Snap-on wrench. I just want some education on metalurgy ... and entertainment.

 

[bgott]

You have no way of controlling the contraction. You might try heating it up red hot and then forging it down on a nut the size you want. When you heat the wrench you are going to anneal the metal with a slow cool while working it. You'll have to heat it past critical and slow cool it to relieve stress, this entails burying the red hot metal in sand or wrapping it in an asbestos blanket to really slow down the cooling. Then heat it back up to critical and quench it in oil to re-harden it. To determine the critical heat of a metal you can use a magnet, the metal will lose it's magnetism when it reaches critical heat. Then you would have to heat it up to probably between 500 and 800 degrees to temper it. This is really wild assed guessing because we don't know exactly what tool steel was used when it was originally made.

 

[xroad]

You have no way of controlling the contraction. You might try heating it up red hot and then forging it down on a nut the size you want. When you heat the wrench you are going to anneal the metal with a slow cool while working it. You'll have to heat it past critical and slow cool it to relieve stress, this entails burying the red hot metal in sand or wrapping it in an asbestos blanket to really slow down the cooling. Then heat it back up to critical and quench it in oil to re-harden it. To determine the critical heat of a metal you can use a magnet, the metal will lose it's magnetism when it reaches critical heat. Then you would have to heat it up to probably between 500 and 800 degrees to temper it. This is really wild assed guessing because we don't know exactly what tool steel was used when it was originally made.

Wow that is a great primer. Well, good for adding to my knowledge. As for possibility of pursuing this little experiment, it is a no go. My "facility" does not go beyond a propane torch and sledge hammer. Thanks.

 

[buffalobill]

helping a friend who was allergic to quality, we found ourselves replacing an alternator on a whopped out mercury sable one day. His flim flam collection of garbage that he called tools were all the wrong sizes. He didn't want to buy any new tools, and I didn't want to buy any for him. We did have a vice, a big hammer, and cheapo sockets in his box o trash.

I hammered the open and closed end on the closest fitting wrenches i could find into tighter fitting wrenches. it works better on open ends, as a closed end will crack pretty easy. the open wrenches held up though, and I got the job done. He was impressed that you could do that, but if he had higher quality tools, i doubt it would have happened....

 

[shurik06_83]

"Just remember if the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy. Oh...and Tim the Toolman is a hoser"

i met the guy and spoke to him a few times when i was a young lad i used to pump gas he came in all the time and dint tip what a cheap ******* ,one day he came in with his dodge ram v10 pick up and wanted a carwash i sent him threw and his extended mirrors got riped off , he was so pissed i think thats the only reason i dint tell him nothing a bit of duck tape cant fix

he lived arounmd the corner from the gas station i worked at it was a beaver gas bar on Dundurn st Hamilton Ontario

 

[2oolhound]

Just get a set of number punches and re-stamp it to the closest metric or whitworth size.

 

[Sureshot]

Use a file and make it the next size bigger. Do that with them all then you can call it your set of "offset wrenches".

 

[supersteve]

i met the guy and spoke to him a few times when i was a young lad i used to pump gas he came in all the time and dint tip what a cheap ******* ,one day he came in with his dodge ram v10 pick up and wanted a carwash i sent him threw and his extended mirrors got riped off , he was so pissed i think thats the only reason i dint tell him nothing a bit of duck tape cant fix

he lived arounmd the corner from the gas station i worked at it was a beaver gas bar on Dundurn st Hamilton Ontario

lmao
I love this board