stupid by design.
A crescent wrench is, by design, one of the stupider tools. Apart from people not understanding how to use them, every one-even the honking 36 inchers- closes tight. You’ve no business using a 36 inch wrench on anything smaller than a 1″ nut. Making a minimum size means the max size can be bigger. I had this grokked at 19, why has nobody figured it out?
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I, for one, appreciate that they close _mostly_ tight, it is great for “adjusting” plate steel parts that have been crunched (trailer light brackets don’t survive idiots well). Wouldn’t us them on a bolt with the jaws that close, but appreciate the alternate uses for the tool. Did my old man warp me by referring to them as a Mexican Socket Set?
I am looking forward to your toolbox post; curious what tools you haul and favor.
Bust a knuckle did we? With a pair of pliers and a couple of crescent wrenches you can handle 80% of what needs to be done to keep a tractor running.
(I made up the 80%) but you can fix a lot with those tools. Through in a locking pair of pliers and you are good to go.
It’s a hell of a lot easier to use the wrenches that actually, you know, fit.
But a Crescent is sometimes useful, particularly if you have to get into a small space with a limited number of tools.
Dad used to chew my ass when I’d use a Crescent to open the valve on the acetylene cylinder. We had a perfectly good stamped steel wrench for that but it sometimes went missing…
My knuckles are beyond busting, having been sliced off or apart at one time or another.
No, my beef, if you read the actual words i wrote, is that a wrench that uselessly goes from zero to 3/4 could easily be made to go from 1/4 to 1″ and still be more than adequate. Could even be made stronger.
I’ve owned my 4″ Proto “crescent” wrench, since I was 13 years old.
It’s not as useful as the 6″, but it’s just such a cool tool.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
A Dremel tool is the wrong tool for the job … except when you don’t have the right tool with you.
Same with a crescent wrench.
Long ago, I picked up an eight inch adjustable road-kill that didn’t close all the way, stayed open maybe 3/16″. I got curious as to why, found out that the moving jaw’s rack was mushroomed a bit on it’s outer end from being used as a hammer, probably. On good adjustables, that rack does not protrude at full-closed. This means that any adjustable could be made to stay open if the designer wanted it to, so there has to be another reason.
Yes. Stupidity. Imagine using a 36″ crescent wrench to tighten a 4-40 screw.
Well I have several crescents going from about 4 inches up to an 18. If I need something bigger that those will cover I usually get a 1/2 inch socket in the nut size.
I don’t think I have ever tried a crescent on a 4-40. Impacts, yes, crescent no.
I have used a crescent as a hammer, although it did not do that as well as I needed and ended up with a sledge.
And yes, I also have the full set of wrenches in both metric and sae. As long as you can find them one can never have to many tools.
You think YOU have tool problems. I got two words for you: Microsoft Word. Nuff said.
M
I agree! 110%! You’re absolutely right!!!
And I know goddamn well that sure as shootin’ some halfwit cretin will raid my toolbox, and I will be caught with my pants down in the field when I discover the theft! And rather than walking back to the control room or the tool crib for the proper wrench, I will have to fuss and fart around with a ‘croissant’ wrench instead.
That is, assuming the bastards didn’t steal my crescent wrench as well…So in defense of the crescent, I suppose it is easier to spot its theft from your tool box faster than the smaller wrenches I guess…
At flea markets, etc. I will still pick up nearly any “Crescent” wrench if it’s a Name Brand and if it’s cheap enough. They’re very handy to throw in a tractor toolbox, hang on a nail in the sawmill, etc.
I find the 10″ size the most handy, but since metric is becoming so common, I find myself reaching for the 300mm more and more.
Oh, I have no issue with crescents used properly. Which means you snug the jaws on the fastener every time you put it on- this is not a box wrench, it moves, and must be adjusted every time you touch it to the fastener. Otherwise it is going to round the fastener off. I keep a 4″ crescent in my pocket. I keep a 10″ and a 12″ in the toolbox. I use them all the time. But I would only need a 10, if the 10 only closed to, say, 1/4″, which would be plenty, and opened to as large as the 12. Hell, I’d rather carry two tens than a ten and a twelve.
Mr Dunmyer: I’m a little pissed about the inch/metric thing, until I found an 8 way screwdriver that’s inch and metric slotted and Phillips. Saves a lot of aggravation.
But, suppose you gave a 1/8″ nut that’s REALLY stuck, you’d need the 36″ wrench for that, especially if the bolt is made of an alloy of Adamantium and Unobtainium, so it wouldn’t shear off from the torque you could apply with a 6″ wrench.
Posting from home today, still having trouble commenting from my work computer. Sigh.