The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Ford wrench:

What kind of hammer is this?

jrenwick wrote:What kind of hammer is this?

John, it looks like you would have to use your Ford (thanks Willy I had forgotten about Ford wrenchs) wrench to tighten up the jaws on this one.

johneeb wrote:....John, it looks like you would have to use your Ford (thanks Willy I had forgotten about Ford wrenchs) wrench to tighten up the jaws on this one.

And then I'd probably have to use a pair of vice grips to tighten up the Ford wrench!

In days of yore, back before the big (Real) war, I quit high school and went to work for Lockheed Aircraft. The hiring physical was a quick count of arms, legs, fingers, and eyes, plus placing a small mirror an inch or so from your mouth. If steamed up, you were hired. "Report for work tomorrow with your tools".
I wish you could see some of the tools some of the farm boys from the mid west brought to work on aiplanes. "S" shaped open end wrenches with "John Deere" cast in them and lots of "Ford" wrenches.
However, they learned, bought real tools in the company tool store, and built a hell of a lot of damn good airplanes that helped to win WWii.
I still have two of the tool boxes that I bought in the Lockheed tool store back in about 1941. Everything they sold in the tool store was first class and
a good many of the tools i bought there are still in use and are still first class.
I worked building "Venturas", one of the first airplanes to use the P&W R-2800 engine. That S.O.B. could go like a striped assed ape! It was really an
18 series hull with the H.P. bumped up from 1200 to 2000. The L-18 (Lodestar) was the fastest airliner going when equipped with either Wright R-1820s or P&W R-1830s rated at about 1200 H.P. so you can immagine what a kick in the ass i got with an R-2800. God, how I wou have loved to fly one of them.
Post WWii some outfit down in San Antonio converted some of them to corporate aircraft and there was nothing that could even come close to their speed.
As I previously said, them farm boys done good.

blueldr
I hope you are writing all this down for a book some day......I'll buy the first copy, I wish we were closer I'd bring some beer and listen to you talk all day .

I have a cuple of those S wrenches and several Ford wrenches and everybody says when they see them"Better hand on to those, they are collector items" and I say "You want to buy them" they go "nope" so back in the tool box they go until the next guy comes along.

W.

Rigid still makes "Ford wrenches" but now they call them spud wrenches. They come in real handy sometimes, better than chewing up a big nut with water pump pliers.

John, the wrench under the Ford wrench, is it a monkey wrench or does it have another name? I have heard of a monkey wrench all my life, but never knew for sure to what kind of wrench it referred. I don't recall having ever seen one just like that one. Were Ford wrenches associated with FOMOCO? Had my Dad gone to work for Lockheed he would certainly have been one of those farmers with an assortment of "plow wrenches". He was born on a farm & farmed himself as well as working in a local (west TX) cotton gin for many years before changing careers. I doubt that Dad ever had a "set" of any kind of tools. His was just an assortment picked up here & there. In my shop I have a number of his old wrenches and this tool discussion got me to wondering about them. What i found was 6-8 steel, not chrome, box-end wrenches of vrs sizes & mfg's. All are long wrenches up to 14 " in length & are 12 pt--obviously for tractor/plow, etc. One is a 3/4 X 13/16 box-end with USA-M-o1A-17017BM32 on it as well as the stylized Ford name on it. Others include one that is a box-end 3/4X25/32 with a name of Lectrolite on one side & TruFit . Another is a 11/16X5/8 with VLCHEK WGH 2022 stamped & one w/ VLCHEK WBH 2428 7/8X3/4. One has 1 1/8 X ? T-214 and a partial name of New B??? (possibly Boston). I 'll bet those old tools could tell some stories!

The wrench in the picture I posted as "Ford wrench" looks just like the ones that came in the tool kit supplied by Ford with Model Ts, as far as I know. Somebody here must know more about it than I do. That wrench was among my grandfather's things after he died.

John

The Ford Model T was equipped with the following tools as standard equipment:

Basic Tool Kit

Wheel jack
Air pump
Model T Operations Manual
Oiling can
Tire iron
10” long
Unpainted
Pliers (screw driver blade on end of handle)
With Ford script unpainted
Width of head is 1 ¼”
Screw driver
Adjustable wrench
All adjustable wrenches were 9 ¼” long
Hub cap wrench
Open End Wrenches
The small wrench was used for 7/16” and ½” bolts and nuts.
The large wrench was used for 9/16” and 5/8” bolts and nuts
Wrenches were ¼” thick and hand either Ford Script, Ford U.S.A and/or the manufacturer’s trademark
Spark plug and cylinder head wrench
1 1/8” open end for spark plugs
1 1/16” box end for head nuts
Ford Script and unpainted
Tool Bag
Accessory Tools

Tire gauge
Tire repair kit
Split Rim Jack
Gasoline measuring stick
Grease gun
Dull nickel plated
Produced by the Alemite Mfg. Co. (course serrations on cap) or Bassick Mfg, Chicago IL . (fine serrations on cap)

I have a "Ford" script monkey wrench and also two unbranded monkey wrenches. One looks just like the Ford monkey wrench and the other is a larger version of the same. I also have a number of other antique wrenches such as S shaped open ends and some box ends, some labled "Ford", some labled early "IHC" and some later "IH".

Harold

170C,
A good many tools with the name "Vlchek" or "Vlachek" were G.I. (Govt. Issue) to airplane mechanics in the USAAF during WWII. The name always
seemed to be kind of a curiousity since no one appeared to have heard of it before or since.

John,

On looking closer at your Model T tool box picture, I also have the double open end wrench on the left top, the long wrench with one open end and one box end just below the monkey wrench, the monkey wrench, and the grease gun in the right side box, all with the Ford script.

Harold