Not sure if this has been properly named yet, but it is a speeder handle/speeder bar, NOT a speed wrench…
Speeder handles have a large bend in the shaft that allows the shaft to be turned rapidly to quickly rotate the socket to install or remove nuts and bolts, it has a drive (1/4", 3/8", 1/2" normally) at the end of the shaft that connects to a socket…
I’d attach one of each kind to a wall plaque for display in man cave. (back of garage)
Removeable if needed.
(I have a rare Metric Crescent™ Wrench from the late 1960’s!)
PS: Grandfather never owned any metric tools.
Before metricrap came about.
Sorry Robert-Gift, I’m not going down another rabbit hole about metric.
But a Metric Crescent Wrench is still funny, and yes they are real… lol
Only the first 100 times RG posts that but after that , not so much.
I have found my /32 sockets can work when the metric I need, like the 14mm I loose on a regular basis is missing ;(
A good substitute for a 14mm is 9/16”
Found 17/32 worked better for me.
I was referring to the wrench at the top right, in the row of wrenches. I inherited one of those speed wrenches to which you refer. My dad inherited it the first time. He never used it. I can’t say I’ve ever used it. They must have been a pretty common diy’er tool at one point, before ratchets and sockets.
OK, I see what you are referring to… It is called an “S” wrench because of its shape (like the letter “S”, not like a “snake…” L o L . . . .), an s-wrench was used on bolt heads and nuts in difficult-to-reach places on a locomotive.
| National Museum of American History.
I have several of these wrench that I inherited from my Grandfather. The are relatively short handled, about 8", but for large nuts\bolts, about an inch to an inch and a half, and from my Grandfather’s past, I always figured they were for farm equipment.
There is also an expiation that the “S” shape was largely to present more torque to the fastener with a shorter wrench. I so not know how to test that theory…
Ever watch old racing movies? They will occasionally show pit crews changing spark plugs during a pit stop using a speeder handle.
I had a rotator ratchet handle with square drive end till I broke it. Handy tool. I got a cheap Stanley replacement but it does not have a drive end.
Ford starter wrenches were necessary for years and those ‘snake’ wrenches were necessary when holding one fitting while turning one connected to it. I had accumulated a 5 gallon bucket of combination wrenches that had been carefully bent to enable speeding up common jobs like removing EGR valves on 2.5L 4cylinder celebrity engines.
The “Iron Duke!” I had one in my 1988 Olds Ciera.
My one grandfather died before I was born so never met him. I do have his flimsy scaffold though and a table he made. The only thing I have from my other grandfather is his philco radio I had to buy at auction. No tools from either one. My dad had a sae craftsman socket set with the breaker bar and no ratchet. I managed to break a few small engine head bolts with that one.
Remembering a saw blade, maybe 3 inches, that attached to a drill. Dumb teenage yout, tried using it and it kicked back and nearly cut my face. Tossed it!