13 ms·

RapidSlide Adjustable Wrench

60 points by bcon 4y ago

h2odragon 4y ago
Poorly designed, poorly manufactured, barely works in use and rounds the nuts you use it on so that subsequent attempts will be harder even with better tools. It feels like there's been a strong Satanic / nihilistic philosophy at work among the hand tool industry for a while now. Started somewhere around the time period when the movie "Rambo" caused a fad for crappy "survival knives."
- aidenn0 4y ago
  I think we are in a death spiral: 10 Some people buy cheap and/or gimmicky crap 20 This is observed by the industry so even some name brands (like Crescent) make cheap and/or gimmicky crap 30 People notice that even name-brands are making crap, so switch from shopping on brand to shopping on price 40 GOTO 10
- lazide 4y ago
  It’s a general shift economy wise from the post WW2/wartime ‘build it simple, build it tough’ to optimizing to cheaper and cheaper price points (while maximizing profit) while ‘still works’. Part of it I think is that most tool buyers now (statistically) are urban/suburban homeowners or renters which are not going to use it much, and are often not even capable of wearing out the old style tools. (And are not the proverbial 500 lb gorilla). Industrial tools are still quite sturdy. They’re also far more expensive than any normal homeowner would (or should) ever consider. It’s the market delivering what people will pay for, not what people say they want.
- waltbosz 4y ago
  My ironic favorite are the cheap screw drivers that destroy themselves instead of stripping the mildly tight screw.
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    Clearly a feature, not a bug.
    - waltbosz 4y ago
      Hmm, I doubt it was a design decision. The only time I've experience this was from bargain bin screwdriver sets.
- constantcrying 4y ago
  This diseases has infected almost anything. Even many expensive product I see have obvious cut corners and great effort seems to have gone into making it connect to an app, which nobody in their right mind would want to use. The sever decline in general product quality, together with an increase in unneeded complexity, is absolutely awful. You can go on amazon right now and for every product imaginable you can find many which are essentially just designed to be thrown into the trash in a couple of years, when with some actual effort the same thing could be made to last far longer. It is easy to blame the buyers who "just cares about the cost", but I am not sure that tells the entire story. Surely there is a significant market segment of people willing to buy actual high quality products.
Eduardo3rd 4y ago
I've long subscribed to the philosophy that you should buy the cheapest tool you can find and use safely, use it until it wears out, breaks, or your skill surpasses the capability of the tool - and only then should you spend money on high quality tools. Too much money is thrown away in the name of "buy once, cry once" only to discover that you don't need the capabilities offered by the top of the line options.
- nickthegreek 4y ago
  Agreed. Buy the cheap one first. If you use it enough to break it or outgrow it, buy the best one you can then afford. So many of my tools I need just a few times a year. The harbor freight model is all I need.
- Arrath 4y ago
  > ..you should buy the cheapest tool you can find and use safely, use it until it wears out, breaks, or your skill surpasses the capability of the tool.. I wholeheartedly agree with this view, with one caveat. You shouldn't cheap out on certain specialty tools where failure can pose a risk of injury or damage, a suspension spring compressor is my usual example. Fortunately, purchasing an expensive one-off tool isn't your only option! They're often available for rent from local auto parts stores, to keep with my example. But yeah, besides that caveat, you'll often be better served by going with a reasonably priced tool. If you use it enough to wear it out, or break it, kudos! Time to upgrade.
- legitster 4y ago
  Agreed! If you are a trade professional and regularly have tools crap out on you, that's one thing. But my tools are more likely to need replacing purely out of obsolescence than anything else. And having an overbuilt tool collecting dust is just as much a waste as throwing one away occasionally.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
    > "And having an overbuilt tool collecting dust is just as much a waste as throwing one away occasionally." Is it?
roflyear 4y ago
This goes for everything: - Know someone who likes books? Buy them good books! - Know someone who likes coffee? Buy them specialty coffee! etc.. I never saw the point in "oh they love painting, I'll get them these super cheap paints" or whatever.
JoeyBananas 4y ago
this is not bargain brand, it's more of a gimmick tool (costs more than harbor freight)
- soared 4y ago
  The shake weight of tools perhaps.
waltbosz 4y ago
The wrench in the article reminds me of that class of products engineered to maximize sales, not utility. I teach my children that dollar store products are all junk. But I still let them shop there because it's an inexpensive way for them to learn the lesson that there are businesses that have no scruples about selling junk products. I wonder how disheartening it is to be an engineer who designs these products. To be honest, they're probably just happy to be making a paycheck just like many of us. I've worked plenty of jobs that I didn't believe in.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
mauvehaus 4y ago
I haven't yet run across an adjustable wrench that was worth a shit. Even old (notionally decent?) Crescent ones. The jaws invariably splay when you apply force, even if you're using them correctly. I've come to the conclusion that it's just intrinsic to having a moving jaw that moves easily enough to be useful. At this point, if I expect to need the wrench ever again (or need to reuse the fastener), I'll just buy a proper wrench for it. The couple of Crescent wrenches I keep are for emergencies and plumbing (because I don't have combo wrenches that big and do it infrequently), nothing more. Vise-grips? Another tool that I find is more apt to round something than grip it properly. If I'm reaching for them, I figure I'm already so dicked that I'm unlikely to make it worse. Once in a while they get me out of an otherwise unavoidable trip to the hardware store.
- dusted 4y ago
  Yeah, nothing beats having a full set of high quality combination wrenches.. For the often used sizes, I also keep ratchet versions because they're convenient.. But wrenches alone is no good, you need a good socket set too, lots of places you just can't go without.
- mitthrowaway2 4y ago
  > haven't yet run across an adjustable wrench that was worth a shit. I found some truly excellent ones at hardware stores in Japan. For some reason they don't sell them elsewhere.
  - WillAdams 4y ago
    One of my treasured possessions is an adjustable wrench my father picked up while stationed in Japan. I'd give a lot to have an equivalent in a smaller size -- even the Spanish made Irega I bought a while back isn't the same standard.
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
  30 minutes, just used my vise-grips to grab and turn a plastic&felt chair leg end that was stuck on the bottom of the leg. Perfect tool when you need to grab it, pull it and don't care if it is damaged in the process.
cityofdelusion 4y ago
The bargain bin is fine, you just need to know what you're buying, and most people have no idea. For the engineering types here, you just need to remember one thing -- complexity scales fast. A bargain bin cast single piece wrench has no moving parts and only one failure point, the accuracy of that cast. If the price is low, its probably worth grabbing. The bargain bin table saw on the other hand has multiple dimensions of accuracy, many joints that have to line up, many engineered materials with various degrees of quality (polycarbonate? ABS? cast aluminum?) along multiple interference angles. Not a good idea to throw that $129 special in your cart. Remember that accuracy isn't cheap. Quality tool steel, dies, machining, QA -- it all costs money and is reflected in that price you're paying. Adjustable wrenches as show in the article are notorious for this problem. Backlash is one of those things that your average consumer doesn't think about. The engineer can do some quick thinking when shopping, "can I really manufacture XYZ part at scale and sell it (at retail!) for $1.00 and expect any degree of accuracy in that worm gear, on which this part relies on entirely for its usefulness?"
theiz 4y ago
I noticed the bargain bin in the hardware store often just gives you the illusion of buying cheap. In reality you just get crap for a price that is higher then the branded tools
pasttense01 4y ago
The article is talking about a tool made by Crescent which was the original brand name making adjustable wrenches. In fact traditionally a few decades ago any of these adjustable wrenches were called a crescent wrench no matter who the manufacturer was. Like Craftsmen tools another example of the decline of tool brands from quality to junk. https://jamestowngazette.com/crescent-tool-company/ https://jamestowngazette.com/crescent-tool-company/
Bluecobra 4y ago
Not all bargain tools are bad. One of my favorite YouTube channels to find decent quality/affordable tools is Project Farm. Funnily enough he did recommend a Crescent brand wrench: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyOd05PUix4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyOd05PUix4
dang 4y ago
This title was badly editorialized. Submitted title was "Beware of Bargin Bin Tools". You can see from the earlier comments here how badly that skewed the discussion in a generic direction that was dominated by the rewritten title. This is why HN has a rule excluding this type of title rewrite: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." If you want to say what you think is important about an article, that's fine, but do it by adding a comment to the thread. Then your view will be on a level playing field with everyone else's: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22level%20playing%20field%22%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... It's actually a good submission, but you need to use the original title so that can people can figure out for themselves how to assess the content and what they want to say about it.
Workaccount2 4y ago
Adjustable wrenches are good in emergencies, and that's about it. Never use one if you don't have to.
- brk 4y ago
  I have found the Knipex adjustable pliers to be a much better alternative: https://www.knipex.com/products/pipe-wrenches-and-water-pump-pliers/pliers-wrenches-pliers-and-a-wrench-in-a-single-tool/pliers-wrenchespliers-and-wrench-single-tool/8603125 https://www.knipex.com/products/pipe-wrenches-and-water-pump...
- bityard 4y ago
  IME they have their uses if you do a lot of mechanical stuff. The smaller ones don't work well because of the poor tolerances involved but the larger ones are indispensable for "field work" where they work just as well as large combination wrenches for most tasks and one wrench is easier to carry around than a dozen. I use one for changing the blade on my table saw. They also double as a hammer if used wrongly enough.
1970-01-01 4y ago
Don't beware of, just know your problem. You can and absolutely should buy bargain bin tools for emergency circumstances, or for rapid disassembly jobs, or in one-off situations, or simply as backups if your expensive tools are unavailable.
throwaway0x7E6 4y ago
all adjustable wrenches are crap save yourself a ton of frustration and buy a set of harbor freight wrenches
constantcrying 4y ago
Wera is even selling self adjusting wrenches, which tighten themselves when you turn them. The big drawback is that the adjustment range is quite small. All adjustable wrenches have the inevitable problem that they are easier to break then their solid counterparts and have some flex in their construction.
otikik 4y ago
Here’s mine. It has a wheel on the side. So it needs two hands. https://www.bellota.com/es-es/para-el-taller/herramienta-universal/llaves/ajustable/llave-ajustable-de-moleta-lateral-forjada-en-acero-crv-6464/6464-8 https://www.bellota.com/es-es/para-el-taller/herramienta-uni... It’s still as solid as the day I bought it. All others I have seen grow loose with use.
83 4y ago
Looking more closely, the slider screw has a pitch of approximately 0.545"/rev and a diameter of 0.25", for a helix angle of 34°. This means that less than half of the slider force is actually used to turn the screw, undermining any force gain. That is, the jaw force is less than is applied to the slider due to the screw's inefficiency as over half of the applied force is lost pushing against the screw's supports. Is that accurate that over half the force is lost? As the helix angle gets lower wouldn't more force be transferred to the screw instead of the supports? I'm no mechanical engineer but my gut says 45 degrees would be the point where forces are balanced between screw and support and as the helix angle decreased (to 34 degrees for example) more than half the force would be applied to the screw.
- snovv_crash 4y ago
  Consider the friction coefficient between the two parts. If it slid perfectly, ie. both were made of greased teflon, then at 30 degrees half would be in the correct direction - sin30° = 0.5 However adding friction makes it much worse. Unlubricated steel on steel is really bad.
Melatonic 4y ago
Knippex "Pliers" are still far superior to this. They blew my mind when I first used them. I dont use normal wrenches at all anymore - the knippex just grip stuff so much more perfectly and with less chance of rounding and you can "ratchet" around the bolt even though they are open ended.
- edelans 4y ago
  Same. I first saw them in the hands of a plumber doing some work at home. I bought a pair the same day. It's this kind of tool that just makes me happy when I have an occasion to use it.
- emmelaich 4y ago
  I was wonder what these were so had a look. Found: in Australia we call them multigrips and I've got a few!
  - Melatonic 4y ago
    Nope - totally different. Those are known as Channel Locks over here. Watch a video of the knippex pliers in action - they are not the same at all!
    - dunco 4y ago
      there are many knipex pliers which is why the other poster is confused. I presume the ones you refer to are the "pliers wrench" that someone had linked to above: https://www.knipex.com/products/pipe-wrenches-and-water-pump-pliers/pliers-wrenches-pliers-and-a-wrench-in-a-single-tool/pliers-wrenchespliers-and-wrench-single-tool/8603125 https://www.knipex.com/products/pipe-wrenches-and-water-pump...
  - dunco 4y ago
    they mean these: https://www.knipex.com/products/pipe-wrenches-and-water-pump-pliers/pliers-wrenches-pliers-and-a-wrench-in-a-single-tool/pliers-wrenchespliers-and-wrench-single-tool/8603125 https://www.knipex.com/products/pipe-wrenches-and-water-pump...
twobitshifter 4y ago
I’d wager the reason the the screw mechanism wasn’t designed to give a mechanical advantage is that it’s a part from a standard crescent wrench. The idea here was not to design a sliding lock mechanism, but to make a slide that can spin a regular crescent wrench. Note that The crescent wrench already closes up linearly, so we’re just changing direction 90 degrees. There’s better ways to do that.
WillAdams 4y ago
There was actually a revisiting of an earlier design in this space recently: https://www.metmo.co.uk/products/metmo-grip https://www.metmo.co.uk/products/metmo-grip I funded on Kickstarter (to get one for myself), and then again on Indiegogo (to get one as a graduation gift for my son) --- it's an amazingly nice tool, and once broken in, incredibly smooth.

60 points by bcon 4y ago

Poorly designed, poorly manufactured, barely works in use and rounds the nuts you use it on so that subsequent attempts will be harder even with better tools. It feels like there's been a strong Satanic / nihilistic philosophy at work among the hand tool industry for a while now. Started somewhere around the time period when the movie "Rambo" caused a fad for crappy "survival knives."

aidenn0 4y ago
I think we are in a death spiral: 10 Some people buy cheap and/or gimmicky crap 20 This is observed by the industry so even some name brands (like Crescent) make cheap and/or gimmicky crap 30 People notice that even name-brands are making crap, so switch from shopping on brand to shopping on price 40 GOTO 10
lazide 4y ago
It’s a general shift economy wise from the post WW2/wartime ‘build it simple, build it tough’ to optimizing to cheaper and cheaper price points (while maximizing profit) while ‘still works’. Part of it I think is that most tool buyers now (statistically) are urban/suburban homeowners or renters which are not going to use it much, and are often not even capable of wearing out the old style tools. (And are not the proverbial 500 lb gorilla). Industrial tools are still quite sturdy. They’re also far more expensive than any normal homeowner would (or should) ever consider. It’s the market delivering what people will pay for, not what people say they want.
waltbosz 4y ago
My ironic favorite are the cheap screw drivers that destroy themselves instead of stripping the mildly tight screw.
- bee_rider 4y ago
  Clearly a feature, not a bug.
  - waltbosz 4y ago
    Hmm, I doubt it was a design decision. The only time I've experience this was from bargain bin screwdriver sets.
constantcrying 4y ago
This diseases has infected almost anything. Even many expensive product I see have obvious cut corners and great effort seems to have gone into making it connect to an app, which nobody in their right mind would want to use. The sever decline in general product quality, together with an increase in unneeded complexity, is absolutely awful. You can go on amazon right now and for every product imaginable you can find many which are essentially just designed to be thrown into the trash in a couple of years, when with some actual effort the same thing could be made to last far longer. It is easy to blame the buyers who "just cares about the cost", but I am not sure that tells the entire story. Surely there is a significant market segment of people willing to buy actual high quality products.

Eduardo3rd 4y ago

I've long subscribed to the philosophy that you should buy the cheapest tool you can find and use safely, use it until it wears out, breaks, or your skill surpasses the capability of the tool - and only then should you spend money on high quality tools. Too much money is thrown away in the name of "buy once, cry once" only to discover that you don't need the capabilities offered by the top of the line options.

nickthegreek 4y ago
Agreed. Buy the cheap one first. If you use it enough to break it or outgrow it, buy the best one you can then afford. So many of my tools I need just a few times a year. The harbor freight model is all I need.
Arrath 4y ago
> ..you should buy the cheapest tool you can find and use safely, use it until it wears out, breaks, or your skill surpasses the capability of the tool.. I wholeheartedly agree with this view, with one caveat. You shouldn't cheap out on certain specialty tools where failure can pose a risk of injury or damage, a suspension spring compressor is my usual example. Fortunately, purchasing an expensive one-off tool isn't your only option! They're often available for rent from local auto parts stores, to keep with my example. But yeah, besides that caveat, you'll often be better served by going with a reasonably priced tool. If you use it enough to wear it out, or break it, kudos! Time to upgrade.
legitster 4y ago
Agreed! If you are a trade professional and regularly have tools crap out on you, that's one thing. But my tools are more likely to need replacing purely out of obsolescence than anything else. And having an overbuilt tool collecting dust is just as much a waste as throwing one away occasionally.
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
  > "And having an overbuilt tool collecting dust is just as much a waste as throwing one away occasionally." Is it?

roflyear 4y ago

This goes for everything: - Know someone who likes books? Buy them good books! - Know someone who likes coffee? Buy them specialty coffee! etc.. I never saw the point in "oh they love painting, I'll get them these super cheap paints" or whatever.

JoeyBananas 4y ago

this is not bargain brand, it's more of a gimmick tool (costs more than harbor freight)

soared 4y ago
The shake weight of tools perhaps.

waltbosz 4y ago

The wrench in the article reminds me of that class of products engineered to maximize sales, not utility. I teach my children that dollar store products are all junk. But I still let them shop there because it's an inexpensive way for them to learn the lesson that there are businesses that have no scruples about selling junk products. I wonder how disheartening it is to be an engineer who designs these products. To be honest, they're probably just happy to be making a paycheck just like many of us. I've worked plenty of jobs that I didn't believe in.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

mauvehaus 4y ago

I haven't yet run across an adjustable wrench that was worth a shit. Even old (notionally decent?) Crescent ones. The jaws invariably splay when you apply force, even if you're using them correctly. I've come to the conclusion that it's just intrinsic to having a moving jaw that moves easily enough to be useful. At this point, if I expect to need the wrench ever again (or need to reuse the fastener), I'll just buy a proper wrench for it. The couple of Crescent wrenches I keep are for emergencies and plumbing (because I don't have combo wrenches that big and do it infrequently), nothing more. Vise-grips? Another tool that I find is more apt to round something than grip it properly. If I'm reaching for them, I figure I'm already so dicked that I'm unlikely to make it worse. Once in a while they get me out of an otherwise unavoidable trip to the hardware store.

dusted 4y ago
Yeah, nothing beats having a full set of high quality combination wrenches.. For the often used sizes, I also keep ratchet versions because they're convenient.. But wrenches alone is no good, you need a good socket set too, lots of places you just can't go without.
mitthrowaway2 4y ago
> haven't yet run across an adjustable wrench that was worth a shit. I found some truly excellent ones at hardware stores in Japan. For some reason they don't sell them elsewhere.
- WillAdams 4y ago
  One of my treasured possessions is an adjustable wrench my father picked up while stationed in Japan. I'd give a lot to have an equivalent in a smaller size -- even the Spanish made Irega I bought a while back isn't the same standard.
PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
30 minutes, just used my vise-grips to grab and turn a plastic&felt chair leg end that was stuck on the bottom of the leg. Perfect tool when you need to grab it, pull it and don't care if it is damaged in the process.

cityofdelusion 4y ago

The bargain bin is fine, you just need to know what you're buying, and most people have no idea. For the engineering types here, you just need to remember one thing -- complexity scales fast. A bargain bin cast single piece wrench has no moving parts and only one failure point, the accuracy of that cast. If the price is low, its probably worth grabbing. The bargain bin table saw on the other hand has multiple dimensions of accuracy, many joints that have to line up, many engineered materials with various degrees of quality (polycarbonate? ABS? cast aluminum?) along multiple interference angles. Not a good idea to throw that $129 special in your cart. Remember that accuracy isn't cheap. Quality tool steel, dies, machining, QA -- it all costs money and is reflected in that price you're paying. Adjustable wrenches as show in the article are notorious for this problem. Backlash is one of those things that your average consumer doesn't think about. The engineer can do some quick thinking when shopping, "can I really manufacture XYZ part at scale and sell it (at retail!) for $1.00 and expect any degree of accuracy in that worm gear, on which this part relies on entirely for its usefulness?"

theiz 4y ago

I noticed the bargain bin in the hardware store often just gives you the illusion of buying cheap. In reality you just get crap for a price that is higher then the branded tools

pasttense01 4y ago

The article is talking about a tool made by Crescent which was the original brand name making adjustable wrenches. In fact traditionally a few decades ago any of these adjustable wrenches were called a crescent wrench no matter who the manufacturer was. Like Craftsmen tools another example of the decline of tool brands from quality to junk. https://jamestowngazette.com/crescent-tool-company/ https://jamestowngazette.com/crescent-tool-company/

Bluecobra 4y ago

Not all bargain tools are bad. One of my favorite YouTube channels to find decent quality/affordable tools is Project Farm. Funnily enough he did recommend a Crescent brand wrench: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyOd05PUix4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyOd05PUix4

dang 4y ago

This title was badly editorialized. Submitted title was "Beware of Bargin Bin Tools". You can see from the earlier comments here how badly that skewed the discussion in a generic direction that was dominated by the rewritten title. This is why HN has a rule excluding this type of title rewrite: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." If you want to say what you think is important about an article, that's fine, but do it by adding a comment to the thread. Then your view will be on a level playing field with everyone else's: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22level%20playing%20field%22%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... It's actually a good submission, but you need to use the original title so that can people can figure out for themselves how to assess the content and what they want to say about it.

Workaccount2 4y ago

Adjustable wrenches are good in emergencies, and that's about it. Never use one if you don't have to.

brk 4y ago
I have found the Knipex adjustable pliers to be a much better alternative: https://www.knipex.com/products/pipe-wrenches-and-water-pump-pliers/pliers-wrenches-pliers-and-a-wrench-in-a-single-tool/pliers-wrenchespliers-and-wrench-single-tool/8603125 https://www.knipex.com/products/pipe-wrenches-and-water-pump...
bityard 4y ago
IME they have their uses if you do a lot of mechanical stuff. The smaller ones don't work well because of the poor tolerances involved but the larger ones are indispensable for "field work" where they work just as well as large combination wrenches for most tasks and one wrench is easier to carry around than a dozen. I use one for changing the blade on my table saw. They also double as a hammer if used wrongly enough.

1970-01-01 4y ago

Don't beware of, just know your problem. You can and absolutely should buy bargain bin tools for emergency circumstances, or for rapid disassembly jobs, or in one-off situations, or simply as backups if your expensive tools are unavailable.

throwaway0x7E6 4y ago

all adjustable wrenches are crap save yourself a ton of frustration and buy a set of harbor freight wrenches

constantcrying 4y ago

Wera is even selling self adjusting wrenches, which tighten themselves when you turn them. The big drawback is that the adjustment range is quite small. All adjustable wrenches have the inevitable problem that they are easier to break then their solid counterparts and have some flex in their construction.

otikik 4y ago

Here’s mine. It has a wheel on the side. So it needs two hands. https://www.bellota.com/es-es/para-el-taller/herramienta-universal/llaves/ajustable/llave-ajustable-de-moleta-lateral-forjada-en-acero-crv-6464/6464-8 https://www.bellota.com/es-es/para-el-taller/herramienta-uni... It’s still as solid as the day I bought it. All others I have seen grow loose with use.

83 4y ago

Looking more closely, the slider screw has a pitch of approximately 0.545"/rev and a diameter of 0.25", for a helix angle of 34°. This means that less than half of the slider force is actually used to turn the screw, undermining any force gain. That is, the jaw force is less than is applied to the slider due to the screw's inefficiency as over half of the applied force is lost pushing against the screw's supports. Is that accurate that over half the force is lost? As the helix angle gets lower wouldn't more force be transferred to the screw instead of the supports? I'm no mechanical engineer but my gut says 45 degrees would be the point where forces are balanced between screw and support and as the helix angle decreased (to 34 degrees for example) more than half the force would be applied to the screw.

snovv_crash 4y ago
Consider the friction coefficient between the two parts. If it slid perfectly, ie. both were made of greased teflon, then at 30 degrees half would be in the correct direction - sin30° = 0.5 However adding friction makes it much worse. Unlubricated steel on steel is really bad.

Melatonic 4y ago

Knippex "Pliers" are still far superior to this. They blew my mind when I first used them. I dont use normal wrenches at all anymore - the knippex just grip stuff so much more perfectly and with less chance of rounding and you can "ratchet" around the bolt even though they are open ended.

edelans 4y ago
Same. I first saw them in the hands of a plumber doing some work at home. I bought a pair the same day. It's this kind of tool that just makes me happy when I have an occasion to use it.
emmelaich 4y ago
I was wonder what these were so had a look. Found: in Australia we call them multigrips and I've got a few!
- Melatonic 4y ago
  Nope - totally different. Those are known as Channel Locks over here. Watch a video of the knippex pliers in action - they are not the same at all!
  - dunco 4y ago
    there are many knipex pliers which is why the other poster is confused. I presume the ones you refer to are the "pliers wrench" that someone had linked to above: https://www.knipex.com/products/pipe-wrenches-and-water-pump-pliers/pliers-wrenches-pliers-and-a-wrench-in-a-single-tool/pliers-wrenchespliers-and-wrench-single-tool/8603125 https://www.knipex.com/products/pipe-wrenches-and-water-pump...
- dunco 4y ago
  they mean these: https://www.knipex.com/products/pipe-wrenches-and-water-pump-pliers/pliers-wrenches-pliers-and-a-wrench-in-a-single-tool/pliers-wrenchespliers-and-wrench-single-tool/8603125 https://www.knipex.com/products/pipe-wrenches-and-water-pump...

twobitshifter 4y ago

I’d wager the reason the the screw mechanism wasn’t designed to give a mechanical advantage is that it’s a part from a standard crescent wrench. The idea here was not to design a sliding lock mechanism, but to make a slide that can spin a regular crescent wrench. Note that The crescent wrench already closes up linearly, so we’re just changing direction 90 degrees. There’s better ways to do that.

WillAdams 4y ago

There was actually a revisiting of an earlier design in this space recently: https://www.metmo.co.uk/products/metmo-grip https://www.metmo.co.uk/products/metmo-grip I funded on Kickstarter (to get one for myself), and then again on Indiegogo (to get one as a graduation gift for my son) --- it's an amazingly nice tool, and once broken in, incredibly smooth.