Phil Perry Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 Many friends tell me that their toolboxes seem to be bereft of 13Mil open ended spanners ( Or Crescent wrenches if you're a septic ) I did a tool check in the summer ( yeh, I know, I get bored easily being a retired Gent ) It appeared that I had around a dozen . . . even though I have only owned TWO Ford products since being kicked out of OZ as an undesirable in late 1983. . . and as any decent Ford Fiddler knows, there are lots and lots of nuts desirous of that nomenclature of Crescent Wrench. . . . NOT that I could lately be accused of climbing underneath my Fiesta 1.4 to unslacken anything. . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old man emu Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 Crescent wrench? Is that the American version of a "pleasant wench"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry_Atrick Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 No.. You meant wench! (I'll take the suspension) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomadpete Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 Well there ya go. A crescent wench is an open ender. I learned something new so my day isn't wasted. I always laboured under the belief that a crescent wrench was yankie for a slotted ring....... But now that I think more about it, a slotted ring does sound rather like a painful condition to suffer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry_Atrick Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 25 minutes ago, nomadpete said: But now that I think more about it, a slotted ring does sound rather like a painful condition to suffer. For some.. yes.. for others... I will take expulsion, now.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old man emu Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 The descriptor "crescent" doesn't apply to the design of a spanner. It comes from the name of the company that made that type of hand tool, much in the same way the "Hoover" became a word to describe domestic vacuum cleaners, as well as many other brand-related words for common items. Crescent, originally called the Crescent Tool Company, is a brand of hand tools. It is best known for its style of adjustable wrench. I have always thought that "crescent spanner" was what these are called Of course, there's the English King Dick. King Dick was the name of a prize winning bulldog belonging to the owner of the Abingdon Engineering Company, which was rebranded as King Dick Tools in 1945 after a successful run of products named after the hound, the most famous being King Dick Spanners, of which there are still countless original models in service to this day. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 They built complete motorcycles AKD, in the Veteran period. Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 57 minutes ago, old man emu said: Of course, there's the English King Dick. King Dick was the name of a prize winning bulldog belonging to the owner of the Abingdon Engineering Company, which was rebranded as King Dick Tools in 1945 after a successful run of products named after the hound, the most famous being King Dick Spanners, of which there are still countless original models in service to this day. Is that where the saying King Dick comes from? As in "that bloke thinks he's King Dick". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomadpete Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 Last time I saw a set of Crescent spanners (thankfully we haven't lowered ourselves to call them 'wrenches'... Yet), the set contained a hundred Crescent spanners and only some were 'open end'. The rest were Crescent ring spanners. As you said, OME, the name Crescent has been Hoovered by the americans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmccarthy Posted December 4, 2021 Share Posted December 4, 2021 To me a Crescent wrench has always been the adjustable sort in OME's picture. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old man emu Posted December 4, 2021 Share Posted December 4, 2021 To me, the pictured tool has always been and "adjustable spanner". Then there's the pipe wrench, commonly known as stillsons, since the inventor's name was Stillson. I wonder how many apprentice plumbers have been sent out for a nipple wrench? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yenn Posted December 4, 2021 Share Posted December 4, 2021 Those vintage adjustable spanners shown above are officially called screw hammers. The one shown below is a shifter and as it is shown is being used incorrectly. The load should be applied to the adjustable pars of the spanner as near to the main body of the tool. As it is shown above the spanner should be turning clockwise. Now I know where all my 13mm spanners have gone, but I can't remember lending them to Phil. 13mm is probably one of the most useful sizes as it fits a lot of circular saws and whipper snippers. Next is the 11mm which is just right for AN nuts, either AN3 or AN4, I forget which. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted December 4, 2021 Share Posted December 4, 2021 (edited) I always find there,s one size missing !. Some were between 17 & 22 mm. Those spark plug sockets are 2/3 rds useless.( Memory ) 14, 18 & 22 mm. OK for the vintage car mechanic. But who uses 22 on an aircraft motor. ( don' advertise old spanners, or they will disappear , ( BSA brake adjusting spanner )). spacesailor Edited December 4, 2021 by spacesailor Spelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onetrack Posted December 4, 2021 Share Posted December 4, 2021 "Get the Crescent" has always meant "find the adjustable spanner", in my neck of the woods. And the 12" one was the most common. They were also nicknamed, "the nut-f***er" for the regular ability of their jaws to spread, and round off any nut. In my workshop, the most common metric spanner I'm always looking for, is the 10mm ring-open ender. For most of my machinery, which is largely American origin, or simply old, a 3/4" and 9/16" ring-open ender are the most used spanners. At one time, there a bloke of outstanding ability, spoken of in hushed terms. That was the bloke who could remove a gearbox from an FJ Holden using only a Crescent shifter, and a 1/2" x 9/16" ring spanner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yenn Posted December 5, 2021 Share Posted December 5, 2021 Why did he need the shifter. From memory it only takes the 1/2 ' 9/16" to do the job. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old man emu Posted December 5, 2021 Share Posted December 5, 2021 So he has something to undo the bolts after this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted December 11, 2021 Share Posted December 11, 2021 Crescent?? Its get the Metric or UN shifter. 15 MM is often not included in a socket set but still often the ONE. Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old man emu Posted December 11, 2021 Share Posted December 11, 2021 I have to drill a hole down the centre of some HDPE rod to run a 10mm cold rolled steel rod through it. A 10mm drill hole is too tight. A 3/8" is too sloppy. The best result comes from using a 13/32" bit. According to the manufacturer, that will give me a 10.35 mm hole. That's 0.175 mm, or 0.008", slop all around the rod, and I can take up any slack with grease. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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