Since one of the first jobs I ever had and did for a few years is what they used to call an Oiler on heavy equipment, I knew right away what it was for.
It also reminded me of a couple of tools I have had for well over forty years now that I would imagine are as rare as Hen’s teeth, as they were really hard to come by even back then.
Let’s see how many of you will know what these are for.
Even better, a show of hands from everyone who has ever even seen these tools before personally?
I will tell you from experience that these things are the original Knuckle Busters.
Yep, plumbers use them on old brass plugs and valves. My uncle was a old school plumber and had a set of those.
https://www.drivetrainamerica.com/054254-eaton-spicer-plug/?=054254
https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-wh2t0j/images/stencil/500×659/products/12999/41978/apimolp77__35432.1603331286.jpg?c=2
They look kind of like a union wrench for the big hammer unions we used to use on 16in and larger threaded closures. Later ones had a ratchet tool that bent the first time you had any crap on the threads.
I remember straddling a 12in pipe and gripping it with my thighs 20feet in the air, while swinging a sledge to open the 20in threaded closure on a vertical coalescer at a remote gas plant north of grande prairie. That was october and after 4hrs of that stupidity my legs were almost too numb to climb down the ladder.
These days OHS would have a heart attack knowing half the shit we did back when i was young… and invincible.
They look kind of like a union wrench for the big hammer unions we used to use on 16in and larger threaded closures. Later ones had a ratchet tool that bent the first time you had any crap on the threads.
I remember straddling a 12in pipe and gripping it with my thighs 20feet in the air, while swinging a sledge to open the 20in threaded closure on a vertical coalescer at a remote gas plant north of grande prairie. That was october and after 4hrs of that stupidity my legs were almost too numb to climb down the ladder.
These days OHS would have a heart attack knowing half the shit we did back when i was young… and invincible. Now youd be fired for using a latter that tall without a tie off point for a harness.
Puttin’ oil in, taking’ oil out. —ken
Nuckle bustin *^#! plug wrench!
I used similar tools for the drain & filler plugs of manual transmissions and differentials back 50 years ago.
Sump plug keys – yes, I’m that old . . .
Mechanics’ morningstar
They look like bung wrenches to me….
It is a bung wrench used open 55 gallon drums and the hole for a valve.
They are the wrenches for opening 55 gallon drum caps and valves.
Usually called a “bung wrench” here abouts.
One eyeball full of that, and I got up and walked to the back of the bus.
No clue.
My Dad was a plumber/steam fitter. Never saw any of those tools in his collection and he had a literal ton old wrenches and other tools for working on old fixtures and pipes that they don’t make any more. He had an adjustable pipe wrench that was five feet long and probably weighed fifty pounds or more that he gifted to a much younger plumber when he moved out of home, at 90, because he and Mom were just too old to keep house any more.