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Thread: Because one can never have too many... right?

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
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    Wild Wild West USA
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    Make way for a new monkey

    Three flats on a punch. I will have to try that.

    My habit has always been to ‘“prick punch” the center THEN center punch to widen it then if it is important even use a third larger punch with the more obtuse angle see the three angles of punches out of the four in the photo. The short fat punch was one of my Dad’s and falls some where in between I suppose.

    There’s your hemaphrodites and Starrett punches (see my photo). I have no idea where I came across those dividers. It may have been a machine shop supply in Denver, CO. That would have been over thirty years ago. An older women we all called “Mother” owned it. She was a machinist during the war (WWII).

    And finally at the top of the photo is one of the things I was working on in the shop today. I need to tweak / bend stuff all the time at work and in the long past I worked in a shop that had a small “monkey wrench” I used it all the time to bend / tweak stuff. I didn’t realize until just recently how much I missed that wrench. I always try to make due by putting a crescent wrench in the what ever and sticking a screw driver or socket extension through the hole in the handle and either abusing the heck out of the crescent wrench or wishing that it worked.

    Often the jaws of the crescent or channel locks (which never have the right kind of angle to it to use as a sideways bending thing but that doesn’t stop me from trying on a daily basis. Anyway the crescent wrench and channel lock arc joint pliers have jaws that are way too fat to get in where I need to work.
    I warned you I am a slow learner.
    Since the stock monkey wrench jaws can not get into every situation, especially the main application I have in mind for these things, and since I bought these monkey wrenches just for tweaking (never wrenching); today I pulled out the magic marker and the hacksaw and did a little surgery.

    AAAAaaaahhhh

    THERE that’s better. See the 90° areas I cut out. I tend to use these in pairs. One to stabilize and one to do the moving.
    I think I will call them my tweakers when they are roaming in pairs and Dinosaur wrench when found solitarily. I wonder that the archeologists will make of them say, a thousand years from now.

    Now at home I have all kinds of simple fork like benders that I have welded up on the spot to do certain repetitive jobs. I don’t want to take them to work though so until now I suffered in silence.

    No more !

    Say have any of you looked at the price of a new monkey wrench ? Asssssstounding !
    I mean . . . I mmmmmeeeeeeeaaaaaan !
    You would think they were made by Snap-On and came with a jewelry polish.
    During the search I came across this Facom tool company. Apparently they are the Snap-On of Europe or something. To get them into the USA some how they hook the words Stanley and Proto to their name to make it Stanley-Proto-Facom
    The Facom monkey wrenches seemed to nearly always be associated with air craft tools. I am still trying to picture that one. Air craft . . . monkey wrench . . . air craft . . . monkey wrench . . . hmmmmmm

    they made the country and helped immeasurably . . . Their main reward for working for little pay,in dark shops full of dangerous belting and open gears,and harmful chemicals,was the pride they took in their work. In welds that held when ships rammed other ships,and in engines that kept working while crossing oceans. The aircraft that brought their crews and passengers home safely over millions of collectively flown miles.
    YES SIR ! You said it !

    anyway there’s my post. Sorry I got all on that monkey.

    PS: now that I have looked at the wrench from the perspective of a postage stamp size photo I now see that the flat horn sticking off the end serves absolutely no purpose and should be cut off.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by Winton Applegate; 08-18-2014 at 12:50 AM.
    Sharpening is Facetating.
    Good enough is good enough
    But
    Better is Better.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Williamsburg,Va.
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    Sorry,that is not a true monkey wrench. I don't have a picture handy,but they are more primitive,blackened forged steel,and have wooden slab inserts in the handle,and big,clunkier square jaws. Not sure what yours would be called.
    Last edited by george wilson; 08-18-2014 at 8:03 AM.

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
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    Wild Wild West USA
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    Sure are a lot of monkeys in here.

    G. W.,

    I got your monkey . . . right here (see photos).
    How about that one ?

    Note I did a little more surgery on the smallest one. Got rid of that useless horn. As you can see the horn on the middle sized one at least has a hope of reinforcing the root of the jaw. (I will probably saw that off tomorrow)

    Not sure what yours would be called.
    Oh I solved that . . . a dinosaur wrench.

    PS: George you didn't say if my dividers is what you were talking about.
    There was a special divider made for that purpose,called a hermaphrodite caliper. It had one leg made a divider,but the other leg was a caliper.
    Well ?
    Young man ?
    What have you to say to that ?

    PPS: the small one I used on the very last thing I did at work today. Totally saved my bacon. Like buuuddah.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by Winton Applegate; 08-19-2014 at 12:24 AM.
    Sharpening is Facetating.
    Good enough is good enough
    But
    Better is Better.

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Wild Wild West USA
    Posts
    1,542
    George W.,

    Are you there ?
    over . . .
    What do you think about the bigger wrench I posted last and the dividers ?
    over . . . .
    Sharpening is Facetating.
    Good enough is good enough
    But
    Better is Better.

  5. #20
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Sebastopol, California
    Posts
    2,319
    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Ray Smith View Post
    Anyone know what that little guy with the hook on the end is?
    Attachment 294945
    Looks like a scriber: http://www.starrett.com/metrology/pr...2-Scribers/67A

    As a result of a yard sale that we stumbled over last Saturday, I've joined David Barnett's tiny dividers club - plus tiny outside calipers and tiny C-clamp thrown in:

    Gloat tools Aug 2014 detail.jpg
    Attached Images Attached Images

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    SW FL Gulf Coast
    Posts
    341
    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Houghton View Post
    As a result of a yard sale that we stumbled over last Saturday, I've joined David Barnett's tiny dividers club - plus tiny outside calipers and tiny C-clamp thrown in:
    You are hereby enrolled as a member in good standing, Bill, and are free to donate your dues to the charity of your choice. Nice find, by the way. Tiny dividers, calipers, pin vises, miniature clamps—love 'em all.

    Hooked scribers are useful for getting into awkward or cramped spaces, especially on in-place machinery, automotive, aviation, stuff like that. Useful for machinists and mechanics when troubleshooting or modifying. They're also convenient for retrieving washers and other small parts when magnetized.
    διαίρει καὶ βασίλευε

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Sebastopol, California
    Posts
    2,319
    I picked up some General Tool spring installation tools - one with a 90-degree hook, and one with a curved hook like a pirate's - which are marvelous for parts retrieval, too.

  8. #23
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Williamsburg,Va.
    Posts
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    Winton,your larger wrench,seen on the top of the picture,is the closest thing to a true monkey wrench. But,it still doesn't quite make it. At least,in my opinion.

    I wish I had one to show you,but I never wanted one. They are so homely looking!

  9. Quote Originally Posted by David Barnett View Post
    You are hereby enrolled as a member in good standing, Bill, and are free to donate your dues to the charity of your choice. Nice find, by the way. Tiny dividers, calipers, pin vises, miniature clamps—love 'em all.



    Hooked scribers are useful for getting into awkward or cramped spaces, especially on in-place machinery, automotive, aviation, stuff like that. Useful for machinists and mechanics when troubleshooting or modifying. They're also convenient for retrieving washers and other small parts when magnetized.
    and the ones with tiny thin hooks like that are good for removing and installing O rings.

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