Hi everyone, hopefully this is the correct spot to post about this ratchet.
I work at a hot forge, form, head, sometimes thread and machine shop as the maintenance supervisor. Been here for 25 years and I've seen this big, old, ugly breaker bar looking thing leaning up against the 1600 ton forge since day one. Well, last week the boys in that department got the order to clean up the place and this "thing" ended up getting dumped in the maintenance department. I asked the forge department lead why he dumped it on us, even though I have never seen this thing used. His response doesn't belong in print. Suffice to say he didn't want it and didn't know what to do with it.
I took a little time and scraped about a half inch of aged grease, scale from the forge and the ever present floor dry from the outside of this thing and realized it was a ratchet. I let is soak over the weekend in the solvent tank while I searched the internet for some image and any information I could find. I have yet to find a photo.
I did find a bit of nomenclature that helped me understand the "workings" of a ratchet unlike I have seen in my 45 years of wrenching. I only have one socket, a 2½", that was in the ratchet. It is removable via three screws that release a collar on the back side of the ratchet, then with the direction lever in the middle or neutral position the forged socket and gear slides out of the ratchet handle.
My questions are: Does anyone have any information on this tool? Any idea when this was manufactured? Do sockets for these ever surface?
Thanks,
JackieB
