My Favourite New Tools
Monday, January 2, 2006
I first came across these a fair few years ago on a shopping channel when flicking through a friend's Sky channels - Super Wrenches. It's difficult to convey how amazing they are without you giving them a try, but they really are a cracking tool.
The shape of the heads and positioning of the pivot are tricky to describe, but they provide an obscene amount of torque and grip in the desired direction, and yet it's completely free in the opposite direction, creating a ratcheting effect, yet there's no screws to adjust as with adjustable pliers or mole grips. I even have a £60 pair of mole grips I won in a Practical Classics competition, which are the business, but these completely trounce them in terms of grip strength, and there's no fiddly adjusting or physical exertion to get the best out of them.
I decided to recreate one of the demonstrations they use on shopping channel promotions for these, which involves a presenter gripping a smooth round metal bar at about the height of a pull up bar with one of the wrenches, and using it to do pull ups. It sounds like the sort of thing you'd see on the internet when he puts them on the wrong way round and goes flying. I have a pair of spare forks for an old bike lying about, which offer good solid round metal to grip. Positioning the forks across each side of the loft hatch, I gripped the largest of the four wrenches on and grabbed a hold. Perfectly solid, not the slightest bit of movement. Safe? No. Impressive? Yes. I can't wait to use these for shifting old UJ bearing cups!
I managed to pick up the set of four for £20, which offers jaw sizes that can cover anything from 3mm to 35mm. The sizes also overlap, so apart from the top and bottom of the scale, you always have two wrenches that can cover each size, so great for plumbing jobs when you're gripping two things at once.
I'm starting to sound more like an advert than an advocate here, so I think I'll sign off, but being sceptical when ordering, I simply couldn't believe how great these tools where - if you've got some cash to spare, they're well worth the expense.
Posted at 10:13
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