JP started his company, Enköpings Mekaniska Verkstad, in Sweden in 1887. He always had a set of pipe wrenches to hand in his workshop. Each wrench fitted a particular size of pipe, but this meant having to carry around a variety of sizes. This is where his idea of an adjustable pipe wrench sprung to mind. He designed it so that its jaws could be easily adjusted to fit all pipes, irrespective of size. The pipe wrench is now known and sold worldwide.

This tool has a looped head to grip the fastener on all sides, meaning it’s less likely to slip off when used. Ring spanners are double-headed and can turn a fastener in wider arcs so it takes less time to loosen and tighten. The ratchet spanner can be between 90mm-425mm long, with the length increasing with the size of the head, and the ratchet head sizes are between 4mm-36mm. However, if you need to reduce the size, some of these spanners have interchangeable heads or bushes that can fit onto a larger head size. If you have Torx fasteners, Torx spanners (or Torx spanner sets) can be used to loosen or tighten them. The head (or both heads) resembles a 6-point star and it is designed to not slip whilst tightening a fastener. It should also prevent cam-out from the person using this tool when requiring heavy torque. In between uses, store them away securely in an appropriate container or tool box to have the best chance of keeping the tools dry and free from excessive grease, grime or rust a b c d e f g Geesin, Ron (2015), The Adjustable Spanner: History, Origins and Development to 1970, Crowood Press, ISBN 9781785000362.A hook spanner is curved and has a hooked nose or a pin at the end, allowing it to grip the nut or bolt. This pin connects with the hole, enabling it to turn the fastener. This is a special-purpose tool that can be used on ring nuts and is often used to maintain motorbikes and cars. Unlike most spanners, the crows foot spanner has no handle. It is shaped like an open-end spanner but has no shaft, making it ideal for use where 6pt and 12pt spanners can’t reach. To extend the length, it can be combined with a ratchet, or to apply extra force, a torque wrench may be used. Crows foot spanner sets are also available. Adjustable wrenches ought to be calibrated for width settings on a regular basis, and certainly before starting a new job (even if the fasteners you’re dealing with are the same size as the last time you used the spanner) Keep adjustable spanners and wrenches clean When looking for the right pin spanner, two different sizes are usually given, and these are the distance between the central points of both pins and the diameter of the pins. The diameter tends to be between 2.9mm-10mm, and the distance between the pins is usually between 10mm-230mm. Heamar offer several Torx spanners, including the Stahlwille E20 & E24 Double Ended Torx Spanner, which is suitable for heavy use and is manufactured using chrome alloy steel.

The potential uses of an adjustable spanner are almost too numerous to mention, but in essence they all perform the same fundamental task. Their key role is to enable the tool user to achieve a firm tightening or loosening grip on multiple different sizes of fastener, as opposed to having to swap for a different non-adjustable spanner size every time they come up against a new gauge/diameter of nut, bolt or pipe section. Most non-adjustable spanners and wrenches can only be used on one particular size of bolt or nut. This means that if you’re dealing with various sizes of fasteners on a single job, you’ll have to bring multiple non-adjustable spanners along with you. Monkey wrenches are another type of adjustable spanner with a long history; the origin of the name is not entirely clear, but Geesin reports that it originated in Britain with a fancied resemblance of the wrench's jaws to that of a monkey's face, and that the many convoluted folk etymologies that later developed were baseless. [3] Before the Bahco/Johansson/Crescent type became widespread in the United States, during the industrial era of the 1860s to the 1910s, various monkey wrench types were the dominant form of adjustable wrench there.Ratchet spanner sets offer this tool in various sizes. You can also get spanners with two ratcheted heads, providing two sizes in the same tool. For example, the Stahlwille 11mm & 10mm Ratchet Spanner is lightweight and appropriate for heavy-duty usage. The types of size guides you need to bear in mind will be slightly different when choosing and buying either an adjustable or a non-adjustable wrench. Standard spanners will carry a single size rating, whereas adjustable versions will define a specific range of fastener sizes that the tool in question was designed to accommodate. Most spanners of this kind are designed for hexagonally shaped nuts and bolts. The box spanner is a small metal tube with holes drilled at a perpendicular angle into the metal. The Tommy bar, also known as the T-bar, can then be inserted through the holes so the spanner can be turned. You need a Tommy bar to use the box spanner, as it enables you to turn the spanner like a tap. Its small size makes the magneto spanner an ideal addition to any toolbox. They can also be called ignition spanners and are used when fixing and servicing magnetos. This tool tends to have a screwdriver attached.