What use for the huge DOE wrenches?

[mritchie77]

Saw an ad on FB marketplace today for a guy selling a 5gal bucket of these large DOE wrenches. No maker information or whatnot but very neat. Would anyone have an idea on what these would be used for?? Guy is asking $50 for the bucket.

 

[humber2]

You do need big wrenches if you have big nuts.

I’d imagine they are oilfield wrenches of quality manufacture.

Seller does themself no favours by not mentioning anything to identify.

 

[slowtwitch73]

Art/sculpture. Door handles, shelf supports, drying rods for towels, etc etc

Manly wind chime.........

 

[Shiftless]

View attachment 1568541

Art/sculpture. Door handles, shelf supports, drying rods for towels, etc etc

Manly wind chime.........

Wrenches make pretty solid door handles. Here is a medium sized DOE I put on a crawl space access door in a basement room.

View attachment 1568541

 

[Dumber than lumber]

That is a very good price IMO.
About 9 years ago I went to a very old hardware store in Melbourne FL area. Near NASA. Hardware store had been established in the 1800s.
They had very large wrenches and the big ones seem to have been in inventory a very long time. None of them were as cheap as $50.
If you think about it, some of those wrenches could serve as a hammer. Sort of a Redneck multi-tool.

 

[Ricky Joe]

Saw an ad on FB marketplace today for a guy selling a 5gal bucket of these large DOE wrenches. No maker information or whatnot but very neat. Would anyone have an idea on what these would be used for?? Guy is asking $50 for the bucket.

Could be for dozers, cranes, etc.

 

[IMCA38]

Went to a farm auction a few years ago with “railroad wrenches” listed. There were 5-6 wrenches as I recall and these things were HUGE. Probably 3-4” nut size and the wrenches were 3’+ long and probably 40#. They auctioned them choice and I think the winning bidders were all family. As best I recall first winning bid was around $200 and last one sold was maybe $75-100.
I did snap a photo with my fat hand to give a sense of scale.

 

[Shiftless]

That one would make a hell of an impressive door handle!

 

[Super Mech]

Wrenches make pretty solid door handles. Here is a medium sized DOE I put on a crawl space access door in a basement room.

View attachment 1568541

You need more vises. That handle is a great idea though. I may be stealing that.

 

[Stillgottimefor1]

With the popularity of “Man-Cave “ stuff I believe big tools could be cleaned up and framed and sold for a decent price.

 

[3baygarage]

50 bucks worth of fun. Looks like a dozen or more wrenches so it seems well worth it. I’m willing to bet some Williams are in there. Many massive wrenches I used to see were Williams. It doesn’t matter though. Williams, Armstrong, Billings, Fairmount, Bonney, Herbrand, etc, they’re all good quality old tools. If they aren’t all beat up, peened out, and rusted up even more reason to grab them
I have a soft spot for large tools like wrenches, ratchets, and sockets, so numerous buckets like that around here.

The question is that was Friday, so did you grab them yet? lol

 

[Stillgottimefor1]

Several years ago a member of this forum cleaned up a large wrench and put it above a door as an accent piece, it looked great…seems like it was a Williams or a Billings…don’t recall who that was…

 

[Lassen Forge]

Structural assembly and maintenance. A-325 bolts, that run up well past 3". The double ended ones were to snug the bolt to "hand tight", then you got out the spud wrench of the same size with the (sometimes multiple) cheater pipes to torque them to whatever degrees were required. (they're torqued not in ft lbs but in degrees past hand tight). VERY common when I worked on bridges...

BTW, depending on what's in that bucket, $50 would be a slam-dunk... or, as they say, a drop in the bucket...

 

[genog]

Probably used for stuff like this
Shown with a 1/2 drive ratchet

 

[RTM]

I got mine from a company that bought a big cabinet, full of wrenches, from a company designed stuff for defense, they suspected tanks. Mines a Williams 2-3/8” I think.

 

[Roberts210]

I routinely use wrenches up to 1-3/4" on my place. Tractor, bush-hog blade removal, trailer adjustments, etc. etc.