There are different designs which provide the same results, such as the adjustable pin spanner. Usually, a pin spanner contains a hole so it can be attached to lanyards or other tools. Others sometimes have an additional hole, which can be used for flat-sided fasteners. As it is possible that you’d likely fall or otherwise injure yourself in either of the above scenarios, then you’re not performing the job safely and you may need to consider a different approach. Be mindful of any existing damage or wear Turn the screw mechanism on the tool to open or close the spanner (i.e. to alter the width gap between its jaws) to the required setting. This variation can fit with most holds, which is a unique quality of the open-end crows foot spanner. It is commonly used by auto mechanics and people who do DIY.

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. Another popular type of adjustable spanner has a base and jaws that form four sides of a hexagon, and is therefore particularly suited for hexagonal nuts ("hex nuts") and hexagonal headed ("hex head") cap screws and bolts. 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. Depending on which way you turn the screw mechanism, the jaws of the spanner will begin to open or close accordingly (it’s almost always the smaller lower jaw that actually moves, in relation to the static upper jaw which remains fixed in place.) Third Step

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.

a b c d e f g Geesin, Ron (2015), The Adjustable Spanner: History, Origins and Development to 1970, Crowood Press, ISBN 9781785000362. Lance Day; Ian McNeil (11 September 2002). Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology. Routledge. pp.206–. ISBN 978-1-134-65019-4.When working on fluid lines, such as the breaking system in cars, the flare crows foot spanner is ideal. It can also be used for the fluid lines connecting the hydraulic system with the vehicle’s drive. For fasteners that have no faces, the hook spanner is designed to tighten and loosen nuts with a periphery with no holes. For example, Stahlwille Adjustable 20mm-42mm Hook Spanner is an adjustable tool that ranges between 20mm-42mm and weighs 90g. 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.

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. These spanners can range between 100mm-750mm long, and they can fit onto hexagonal fasteners sized between 4mm-210mm. If you want to use a ring spanner for a square fastener, increase the size of the fastener head by 25%. This number is the size of the required spanner. Once you’ve got the tool to grip the fastener as tightly as required, proceed much as you would with any other, non-adjustable spanner: turn the fastener right to tighten it, or left to loosen it 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.When in use, the box spanner fits over the top of the fastener, meaning it touches all edges of the nut or bolt, and the Tommy bar is used to tighten or loosen it. The spanner’s size can be measured in various ways, such as Whitworth, BA, metric and imperial AF (across flats) sizes.