Tool Talk
Wrench Forum => Wrench Forum => Topic started by: scottg on June 25, 2011, 05:25:45 PM
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Well, we were talking about getting distracted over on the Gazette.
Yesterday, I literally stubbed my toe on a wrench, putting something else away. It was on the floor under my rolling toolbox where it has been for years. I had disturbed a couple days earlier when I dropped pair of pliers and had to fish them back out.
So, I had a sore toe.
I had always wanted to repair the poor old thing. As far as decent told wrenches goes, the worst and only thing really wrong with it was the lack of any kind of handle slips. I got out a scrap of some hard mahogany I had had for years. There was plenty. Most mahogany is too soft but some of it is plenty hard enough for service.
Its a Pexto wrench. The bar, top jaw and handle frame were forged together, one piece, just like Perfect Handle.
If you look close enough, it was the sliding jaw that was forged over the bar and riveted back together.
I'd already done the Smith Wrench some time back. It has walnut handle slips.
There is a Ridgid 6" pipe wrench in the picture for scale.
When I did the Pexto I made washers for it and set the rivets proud. Headed up large and set smooth to the touch.
The second picture is of a washer, (1/2" brass rod with a hole drilled for the pin and sliced off to around 1/8" more or less.
I made 5 of them in case I lost one. heh. )
The rivet set in one of my homemade's. Obviously made out of a carriage bolt. They don't hold up forever but they work great for a while, and making a new one is pretty quick.
yours Scott
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Say, I'm working on a pair of Perfects for Papaw, and I'm having a heck of a time getting the rivets(?) out. Don't want to pound too hard. Any suggestions?
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George
This is rivets through intact wood you are trying to save or something?
If they are just rivets alone, cut them off. You can' t pound them out one piece.
Take a hacksaw or a thin cutoff disk and lop em.
You can't reuse rivets anyway.
If you are trying to save old wood or something you will have to grind one head off and tap it back through. Grinding deep enough to take the head all the way off so it will clear the frame,
is going to eat your wood though.
So back to answer one.
I split old wood with a cold chisel and remove it first thing! Just crack and pry it off.
yours Scott
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Lots of things are good for rivets- I have successfully use an old brass rod from a toilet float.
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Dremel Tool with a tiny cutter is what I use at times. Easy to control.
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Scott those are beautimous as are most of your projects.