To Make More Tools

I’m having some fun in the shop today. I managed to accomplish two things.

My new belt grinder is very nice for what it cost, but it’s not a high-dollar industrial job. The people who made it are starter-uppers, and they aim at hobbyists. There are little things here and there that could have been done better. The tracking pulley is an example. It has been running about 1/8″ too far to the right, relative to the other wheels, and this seems to put stress on one side of the belt. I was thinking about making a new mechanism, but today I got it aligned with shim washers, so I guess I won’t have the fun of machining something new.

After that, I made a wrench for the tool post on my lathe.

My lathe has a big Aloris-style tool post, and the nut on top is 1-1/2″ in diameter. Naturally, the manufacturer doesn’t supply a wrench. Whenever you want to turn the post, you have to find a tool. Like a lot of people, I’ve been using a crescent wrench. It works, but it’s bulky, it has to be adjusted every time, and it’s not the right tool. Adjustable wrenches are hard on nut corners. The nut on my lathe appears to be hardened, but still. Wrong tool.

I saw this neat video by Keith Fenner, and I realized he was onto something. He had a wrench he had bent in order to reach remote fasteners, and he added a second bend to it and turned it into a tool post wrench. The video below explains.

There are a few benefits. First, it’s the right type of tool to turn a nut you don’t want to ruin. Second, it can be left on the tool post most of the time, so you don’t have to put it down where it will be in the way. Third, because he shortened it, there isn’t much leverage, and that means he’s less likely to torque it too hard and crack his compound slide.

Obviously, you can go to Northern Tool and buy a ready-made combination wrench, but where is the fun in that?

I decided to try this. I have little experience with using a torch to bend stuff, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to do more of. It’s a very useful ability. Also, with the belt grinder running correctly, I had the right tool to round off the end of the wrench after shortening it, and I wanted to try that.

It’s not that easy to find 1-1/8″ box end wrenches. Northern Tool probably has them, but it’s not a standard item at normal hardware stores. It turns out Home Depot sells a Chinese job for $10. It’s made for trailer hitches. I figured I couldn’t lose, so I bought one.

I put it in my bench vise, after cutting two pieces of aluminum to put between the wrench and the jaws. I didn’t want to mar up the wrench. I have brass jaws for this. But I didn’t want to mar up the jaws.

I know that sounds crazy.

I put aluminum foil in the vise with the wrench to deflect heat and protect the vise’s paint. Then I got out a MAPP torch and started heating the wrench.

This experience reminded me how much I need acetylene. A MAPP torch takes maybe 15 minutes to get a wrench hot enough to bend, and I still had to use a breaker bar. What a pain. But it bent. After that, I put the wrench in the vise in a different position, and I bent it again to make the second angle.

With the offset created, I put the wrench in the band saw to cut off the unwanted end, and of course, my Chinese saw threw its blade. It does that just for attention. I did get the wrench cut, though, and I put it on the belt grinder and prettied up the end.

It’s slightly loose on the nut. Chinese wrench. I don’t care. It will be very handy, and it was a fun project. I like easy projects. I don’t screw them up as much as hard ones.

It’s going to be a conversation piece. When average people walk into a shop and see a wrench with two 90-degree bends in it, they will want to know what happened.

I thought about doing this with a smaller wrench and using it for my table router. You need an offset wrench to change the bits. I have an offset wrench made by some company or other, and it’s made from steel plate. I thought a wrench might have a smaller shaft (whatever its called), which would give me more clearance between the wrench and router table, but it turned out I was wrong, so I’ll stick with what I have. If you don’t have an offset wrench for your table router, you should get one. Makes life much easier.

The wrench I bent turned blue in places. I can’t get it off. I assume it’s some kind of metallurgical change that goes below the surface. I probably messed up the temper or something. Who cares? It’s never supposed to be pushed hard, so it doesn’t matter. It would actually be better if the wrench snapped before the compound. But I’ll never torque it that much.

It’s fun to have tools and get stuff done. It was also nice to have this idea handed to me. Keith Fenner is a blast to watch. If you can’t apprentice at a shipyard and spend 20 years learning to do things the right way, his videos will help you catch up a little.