Handy Tools Help Hold Wrenches

Handy Tools Help Hold Wrenches FARM SHOP Miscellaneous 29-6-39 vA couple of handy helpers let Cary Urka do more with his wrenches. "I was reaching down into a bulldozer to tighten a bolt on the transmission," explains Urka. "I needed more leverage, and I didn't want to try to use one wrench on another." Urka's solution was to take a 14-in. long piece of 2-in. steel bar and tap two 1/2-in. holes through it near one end. "I screwed two 1/2-in. bolts into the holes, leaving the heads high enough for the wrench to fit under," says Urka. The wrench is held in place between the two bolts while the extended handle provides increased leverage. The pressure against the wrench holds it in place," he says. Another tool Urka made is a pipe wrench floor vise. When he had to work on two cylinders too large to fit on his workbench, he recalled seeing a floor vise made from a pipe wrench and a support frame. To make the frame, he put a bend in a piece of 1/2 by 3-in. flat bar to create a slight arch. At the center of the arch's top, he welded a piece of steel tubing large enough for a pipe wrench handle to slide through. Scrap angle feet were welded to the ends of the support frame to stabilize it. To stabilize the pipe wrench handle, Urka installed a keeper. The keeper consisted of a short piece of bar that fit inside the length of steel tubing. A U-bolt extends up over the tubing and welds to either end of the short bar, letting it move back and forth. Urka then drilled a hole in one side of the steel tubing and welded a nut to the outside of the hole. To secure the pipe wrench handle in the tubing, he simply screws a bolt through the nut until it pushes the keeper against the wrench handle. "It only took about half an hour to make, but using it, we can work a 30-ft. length of pipe," says Urka. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Cary Urka, 16919 Pole Rd., Bretheren, Mich. 49619 (ph 231 477-5364; urka@ kaltelnet.net).

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