|
|
| Andy sez:
|
| A tip for extending the life of your Whitworth wrenches: Unless you
| don't have room in your application, turn them so the sliding jaw is
| getting less of the load. I thought this was understood, but have
| seen people use them backwards so often, I thought I'd mention it. I
| will now make a sorry attempt to include pictures.
|
| /\ /\
| #| |X X| |#
| # \/ X X \/ #
| XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
| XX XX
| XX -> this way XX <- this way
| XX XX
|
| Where # is the sliding jaw, and the Xs are the wrench, including the
| fixed jaw. The arrows are showing direction of handle travel.
|
|
| ---------
|
| I have always turned them the OTHER way. I had heard it was better to have
| the moving jawed pushed against the body of the wrench, rather than pulled
| out as the above method shows.
|
| mjb.
|
|
|
Ajustable Whitworth wrenches??? Whats next, metric crecent wrenches? SAE
vicegrips?
I sounds like not everyone shares the same definition of what Whitworth wrenches
are. My understanding confirmed by thirtysome years of buying and using them is
that a Whitworth wrench is a wrench sized and marked to fit Whitworth nuts and
bolts. In the Whitworth system a wrench marked 1/4W fits the head of a 1/4 inch
Whitworth bolt. This is a bolt with .250 inch shank. The hex head of that bolt
is
near to 7/16inch across the flats and a 1/4W wrench looks a lot like a 7/16
(SAE)
wrench. Its near but not near enough. I don't see how an ajustable wrench can
fit this measuring system.
I have three tool boxes. One is for metric tools. One is for American(SAE/USS).
One is for Whitworth tools. Which I use depends on the car I am working on.
I have Whitworth box wrenches, Whitworth open ends, Whitworth combinations and
Whitworth sockets. It never occured to me that I need to look at all the
ajustable spanners(Crecent wrenches& monkey wrenches) and try to devine which
fit metric, which fit american and which Whitworth.
Seriously Whitworth is a size standard for machine screw thread pitches and
threads and for head sizes. It was used on most Britcars and motor cycles until
the early 1950s and in some until the late '50s or early '60s.
Some British companies used BSF(British Standard Fine) because it was reasonably
compatable with the american standard, SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers)
national fine and thus made an easy transition.
Triumphs are pretty clean and pretty early in switching, BMC later and more
mixed.
Jag worse.
luck to all/dickn
|