3 ms·

TIL that adjustable wrenches (or crescent spanners as they are known here) are directional, so that the load is handled by the fixed jaw.

• rlonstein 4y ago
  https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/ Today is a good day then! There is, for lack of a better term, "folk knowledge" and technique even for simple tools that someone has to explain or demonstrate. I've been lucky and had people in my family pass their experience on to me but I've also made a lot (a lot a lot) of mistakes ruining things and breaking tools.
• porknubbins 4y ago
  Not just crescent wrenches, pretty much any tool with one fixed jaw and one moving jaw is directional. This applies to channel locks, vice grips, oil filter wrenches etc. It blew my mind how well these tools work if you rotate the right way.
• toomanybeersies 4y ago
  > or crescent spanners as they are known here I presume you're a Kiwi? Over in Australia they call them shifters. One of the many tiny culture shocks I had when I moved across the ditch was when I asked someone to hand my crescent and they passed my Crescent brand pliers instead.
  • tonyarkles 4y ago
    It’s funny how these things are different throughout the Commonwealth. In Canada, if you asked someone for a Crescent Wrench they’d give you the adjustable wrench just fine, but if you asked them for a spanner of any kind they’d look at you like you had antennae sticking out of your head. So much so that, while typing this, iOS autocorrect tried to change “spanner” into “scanner” for me.
  • beachy 4y ago
    Ha ha, correct, tool names as PII.