This is brilliant. What can go wrong? I might use this someday but I would have to cover it with my leather welding apron.
That'll work in a dangerous kind of way. People use truck cranes to break cylinder nuts all the time. Kinda like that but horizontal.
Hope they’re not harbor freight wrenches
I see the clevis in the handle failing before anything else…..
Someones got a lot more faith in small D-shackles, than I would have!!
I don't see a lot of hazard in that arrangement. There is not a lot of spring in the wrenches, chain, or union, if anything breaks it is just going to go slack and fall to the ground. Keep toes out from under. I work with pipe wrenches like that and it is always done with cheater pipes, you notice the longer wrenches do not have the swell/knob at the end of the handle like the shorter ones do, it is that way for a reason. 2 guys with cheater pipes, a lot more can go wrong involving them smacking each other in the face, than that come along keeping human flesh out of range.
Those are cheap wrenches and not Ridgid ones, they will break
This will be the next photo in the sequence ....
They need to learn Willie's peening technique.
Top notch hand crafted Chinesium poured in a porous cast with reclaimed Hondas and Pepsi cans.
“Shake hands with danger. Meet a guy you oughta know. I used to laugh at safety. Now, they call me, Three Finger Joe.” I wonder if Jim Stringer and the AM Band are still around? Doesn’t look like his FB page ha s been updated since 17.
Pretty big come-along for the job. I only use a1/4 ton size when I take my wood hot water system apart every year to get the chimney cleaned. d.d.
A couple a light hammer strikes around the edges, help rearrange the molecules so to speak. But in all honesty, I have rigged up even uglier apparatus than that. When in a pinch, you do what you gotta do.
You should've seen some of the set-ups I've had to figure out in the field.
I've hung bucket pins off my crane in a choke sling to use as a hammer. I've reconfigured my crane block into a snatchblock to pull wrenches with single part line. At least the upside was my crane told me how much weight was "on the hook" so I could do hillbilly cyphering to come close to torque requirements. Yeah, I've done sketchy stuff. But who among us, hasn't? Quarry guys, don't say anything. We know, we know.
On a Ridgid 24, I have 5' cheater pipes I used with them and I weigh 250 lbs
Who here hasn’t broken a pipe wrench or 3, maybe a cast vice or 2?
If your breaking pipe wrenches your are buying the wrong ones, I have never broken a steel name brand one before and I have used 30' cheaters before (Ridgid 36" on that one, had 5' of tension on my end) Edit I've broken the hook before I guess if you count that
I've never broken a pipe wrench but all of mine are antique Ridgid brand except one.
Worked as a helper one winter on diamond drill rigs, Pipe wrenches (Ridgid) backed up against mast while taking full torque of the head to break rod connections. 10’ drill rod on pipe wrench to remove drill bit etc. Tough drilling conditions could really build torque on the drill string. Ridgid could definitely take some abuse….
I’ve got a cheap 24” with a bowed handle- i don’t remember how i did that but i have a couple no-name aluminum 18”ers that will never break, given to me one xmas by my FIL. They won’t grip anything, something to do with the angle of the teeth. They need to be melted down and made into something useful. My old Ridgids are scarred up but still good
When is was young and doing front end alignments I purchased a cheap China made pipe wrench. It was good for nothing! Not sure it is the angle of the teeth or the fact that the teeth all rounded and were not pointy any more. Anyhow, from then I vowed Rigid only....Fast forward 45 years, Aluminum Rigid only...LOL
I use a Rigid 5 ft pipe wrench to turn stubborn cylinder nuts. What is the amazing part is that after locating on jack stand I push the wrench with my backhoe until slight bow. Then I hold it that way and put heat and whack with sledge. Never fails. Nick
I think the aluminum pipe wrenches were the worst for breaking. We used 36" pipe wrenches for breaking drilling rod loose on geotech drill rigs. I hated those "lightweight" aluminum pipe wrenches. They were not worth a darn when you put a 5' or 6' cheater pipe on the handle.
Looks like they already broke it once, everything in the picture is brand new. But if it works it works. Joe H
You need a tight fitting chest pipe, one that's too big will break the aluminum right away, I just avoid cheaters on aluminum.
I can't recall the last time I actually had to use a pipe wrench.
lol! A crude, but sometimes necessary tool
We had a 4ft one on the shop wall that was bent like an L. I asked about it one day. Apparently a 10ft cheater that. Guys plus big Todd, who was pushing probably 450 did that.
Me too and I have 2 on my truck.
I was helping in a shop and asked for the "big pipe wrench". Got handed this cute little thing that maybe could have snugged up a sink drain. I brought in Big Bertha from home the next day. We got the cylinder apart
When you need one, you need one. It's too late for anything else. Joe H
It's easy to bend them when you don't have the proper cheaters or you push them not in the plane of the I beam. I use them every day, but I also deal with pipe every day
I bought a used 48" Ridged and the end has a knob that my aluminum snipe wouldn't fit over. Thankfully I didn't need a snipe to get the gland nuts off on my 4 in 1 bucket cylinders. It's a heavy wrench. I'd hate to have to lug a 60" Ridged around. I think they're 60lbs.
Looks fine to me.As said earlier id use my little 1/4 ton comalong. But first id hold a small sledge on one side of that union and hit against it with a my 4lb er to break things loose.
I use 2" pump barrels for cheaters, they fit the wrenches great but on the 36" you have to bring the knob end down a little bit, like 1/8" on both sides. I've bent them plenty when you are pulling up and back at the same time because it's in the ground. I've also extended the cheaters to like 12'
Bending the wrench handles can be minimized by sliding the cheater over the entire length of the handel.
I was just looking at pipe wrenches on eBay. I had to laugh when I saw a listing for a curved handle wrench
My last 5 wrenches I bought new on eBay, used wrenches are not worth it
Boss walked by and said "holy ****, didn't know they made them that big!" And of course I replied with a "that's what she said"
My dad worked the oil rigs for many years. Spent a lot of time in the 1980’s on Loffland Brothers 93. A real nice diesel/ electric triple, capable of really deep holes. I was a teenager when he toured us & I still remember the rather impressive pipe wrench ‘display’….some real ‘big boys’. Ridgid of course lol! Later on during my university years he got me the odd job and I learned (rather poorly) to break connections using the tongs; that is a really impressive ‘giant pipe wrench’ lol! Takes good teamwork & timing to do right….
I think it was at an auction I saw a Ridged 60" but the handle was cut off with a torch so a 2" pipe fit snuggly on the stub. A couple things crossed my mind. The wrenches are made of some kind of cast steel and who would cut the handle off a 60" Ridged pipe wrench?
It was probably broken off
I once used two fork lifts on two pipe wrenches to unscrew a fitting from a propane tank that had been on since the 40s. One fork lift as the anchor and the other one travelling on the ground to turn the wrench. Nothing broke, pipe came undone.
Regular pipe wrenches bend, when you use incorrect cheaters or just put way too much load on them or put side load on them, and I've bent them back several times with a press. I imagine the body of a pipe wrench actually breaks it's from being bent back and work hard and made it brittle. I've seen a few broken pipe wrenches around 48-in size that people weld a cheater pipes on to them to fix them but those things are never safe anymore
Mehhhh "safe". If you squint, it's mint!
Under extreme loads, good alloy tool steel will bend, but cheap-a*** Chinese steel that is just carbon steel, will snap. Seen more than one guy go a***-up on the ground, when a Chinese tool snapped or fractured under heavy pressure!
Ridged are warranteed against bending but it would be obvious a snipe was used. I don't think you could break one. The one that was cut off was more likely because it bent rather than it broke. The hook jaw might break though. I had an old National pipe wrench snap the handle off because it was some kind of cast iron. I beveled it and welded it with 7018 and it seems fine. It's only a 14" so I won't use a snipe on it. It broke because I didn't have a bigger pipe wrench and I pushed on it with the loader on the tractor. I welded a piece of channel iron on a steel saw horse and then welded a 3" pipe to the channel hoping to get a 3" pipe fitting off. Nope it was rusted as tight as if it were welded.
I'm sure we all know this, but when whatever was tight comes loose, it can have the same effect as having the tool break, everything falls to the ground including you. So wrench with that in mind. Also never smile or grimace when pulling/pushing hard, lips can heal, teeth don't.
I had a hook snap and fly off on a 36" and clip a shoulder of a guy. It just brushed him. It was breaking a collar of a joint with hydraulic power tongs with the 36 backed up to the tongs. I make sure to use a non a used wrench and people are clear of the danger zone.
I have told this story before i was trying to unscrew some part of a cylinder. The shop had a BIG vice mounted to a loader rim. I was using a 966 and 955 with a big pipe wrench . One was push down or holding the vice the other was pushing down on the pipe wrench not very smart but it worked. That vice is about the only thing i would have like to have from that shop.
We all do what we have to do in order to get a job done. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s the ones that don’t learn from their mistakes that keep doing the really dumb stuff. Ones profitabile ones lucky or not.
One of my scariest tool mishaps dates back to my early twenties. I had a business partner and we worked out of a Texaco station repairing Volvos mainly. We were removing a brake drum from the rear of a 122 Volvo. They fit on a tapered, keyed shaft. We had a massive puller that bolted onto 3 of the lug studs and has a large threaded shaft that would tighten against the axle shaft. We would tighten pressure on the axle then hit the head of the puller shaft with a hammer and eventually the drum would POP! off. this drum was being particularly ornery and I had tightened down on the puller using a half inch pull handle with the floor jack handle on it. I reared back and hit the puller head with a 5 lb sledge and the drum finally let go. It flew straight across the empty bay beside us and stuck into the wall. We're talking about 40 lbs worth of brake drum and puller flying straight for at least 15 feet with no drop and sticking into a sheetrock wall. Greg was standing in front of the axle with me to the rear. We both just looked at each other in shock but glad neither of us were in front of it when it let go. That was the last time we ever pulled one of those drums without having the axle nut loosely threaded back on the axle. I still have that puller, pull handle, and hammer. I can't count the number of times I have used it and adapted it for other uses. I recently bent the handle on that pull handle trying to get one of the lug nuts off my truck. I ended up having to order a 3/4' drive socket to fit the lug so I could get them off with my 1" impact. That's another story.
I had this brilliant idea about 40 years ago. I was too cheap to buy an angle grinder so had this genius idea to weld a bolt in a socket so I could use an impact gun to grind with. Whelp worked great till I let off the trigger and lift it off the work. Went all the way across the garage, about 30 feet. Socket, bolt and grinding wheel are still in the wall. Dad painted right around it after trying to pry it out of a stud it’s buried in.
Haha, I use a worn out death wheel on a drill for small jobs away from the shop