Garage Gazette
TOOLS AND THE SHOP => MECHANIC HAND TOOLS WE USE => Topic started by: nelstomlinson on March 29, 2021, 02:38:50 PM
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Found some tiny wrenches in my tool box. Mostly Craftsman, and the open and box ends are different sizes. I hadn't seen that before. Also, some of them are in 64ths.
Finally, there were a couple of tiny angle wrenches, one Proto and one Meteor.
Let's see if the pictures show up.
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The Craftsman wrenches came in a plastic pouch and was an ignition set of about 11 wrenches.
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That's when they were new. These came to me in a junk box from a garage sale, and I finally after many years and a move got around to looking at the junk. They are probably not very useful to me, but they obviously aren't going to take up much space, and they're SHINY!
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Every now and again those little ignition wrenchs have saved my butt.
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definitely don't get used real often but when you need em, you need em.
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I have them too, and as said, every now and then you need them. I have a metric set as well. I know if I ever come across a small fastener, I have a wrench that will fit.
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The last of the tiny wrenches, after a bath in WD40 rust remover. They had a little light rust, and the magic brew shined 'em up nicely. The old Proto LA is nifty!
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There were some more wrenches in that old garage sale batch I'm cleaning up. There was a set of Thorsen metric wrenches, but they are pretty rough. I bought all this at a garage sale in Juneau, and I'm pretty sure these sat in a bilge in salt water for a long time. The worst of them are probably rusted half way through on the bad side. That's too bad, because they were nice little tools.
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The last batch were some little Elora SAE wrenches. They were boat wrenches, too, unfortunately. 48 hours in the WD-40 rust remover got rid of the worst of it, but it can't replace the missing metal.
I'll put all these into a drawer, and maybe someday I'll use them.
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Yes they can come in handy. Sears put them is lots of sets to build tool count the same as putting allen wrenches in. I have sold a number of the Cman sets to young mechanics who didn't have any.
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You can always wire wheel the rusty wrenches and give them a bath in the rust remover and then paint them with hi-temp silver paint and they will be usable. Tools and machinery don't fare too well in Alaska. I do miss going to Yakutat to halibut and salmon fish with a family friend who was a guide there.
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It's hard to see in the photos, but they've been wire wheeled and soaked in the rust remover. What you're seeing is the black crud the rust remover leaves, and shadows from the pitting. It's ugly as sin, but as near as I can tell they'll all still do their jobs.
I probably won't bother with the paint. I'm in a dry climate now, and they won't rust much more. In the past I've had to go into the house and get my electronics kit if I was getting into tiny stuff, so having these tiny ignition wrenches in the shop will be a plus.
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The Craftsman wrenches came in a plastic pouch and was an ignition set of about 11 wrenches.
Exactly.
What I don't get is why the SAE's were dual size combo's , while the Metrics were single size DOE's.
In full sized wrenches DOE's are usually dual size not Combo's.
I have the SAE's from my grandfather and bought the last American made set of the Metrics they had at the local hardware store.
I do use them frequently enough, but not as much as full sized wrenches or a 4" adjustable.