Some Vices Never Leave
A handful of scrap parts and thirty minutes in the workshop produced one surprisingly useful tool for restoring vintage adjustable wrenches.
Remember those kids on the block that always seemed to have the coolest toys? You know - the ones you didn't have. If I had the GI Joe with lifelike hair and kung fu grip, Tony had Joe's Jeep. I had Hot Wheels cars and tracks while my cousin had the Evel Knievel stunt cycle. Of course my toys were cool in and of themselves, but the other kids' toys seemed cooler! Well, that was just the earliest examples of envy in our lives, a vice that never really seems to leave us. Please keep reading, there's point to this - promise!
The Strange Things We Suddenly "Need"
I was watching a YouTube video the other day of this guy restoring an adjustable wrench from the 1920s. In the "before" shots, he showed how the wrench jaws were worn and the knurl, also known as the worm-screw was sloppy. To demonstrate the effect of these problems, he adjusted a bolt on what he called a wrench tester. After his restoration, he went to the tester again and showed how much nicer the wrench fit on a bolt head, and how it stayed tight instead of loosening and rounding over the corners. Well, I instantly knew I "needed" this fine piece of workshop gewgaw!
This is classic House 173 in the best way. You take something that most people would never think about, a homemade wrench tester, and turn it into an entertaining story about envy, ingenuity, and making exactly what you need from whatever happens to be lying around the shop. The opening about childhood toys is unexpected, but by the time you circle back to "needing" a wrench tester, the analogy lands perfectly. - Hearth & Home Review
One thing I've discovered over the past few years is that restoring old tools has a way of creating entirely new projects. First you restore the tool, then you build a jig to test it, then you improve the jig because you've learned something along the way. Before long, your workshop isn't just full of tools, it's full of little shop-made helpers that make every future restoration just a little bit better. Honestly, that's half the fun.
So I watched the video closely a time or two and figured out its beautiful simplicity! Here are the components...
It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered. - Aeschylus
Building the Tester
As you can see, the parts are simplicity itself. A bolt, a couple washers and its nut, a piece of spring and a little hunk of wood. The best thing is - I already had each of these pieces, so total cost of the build - $0! The first thing I grabbed was a piece of scrap wood and drilled a hole just a little larger than the bolt in the middle of the wood.
Oh, and see that little screw in the front? Remember that, you'll be shaking your head over that one. Then I needed a piece of spring. As it turns out, I had this old storm door spring that was on the old back porch door, you know the kind...you can just make out the old storm door in this shot...
Knowing a day like this would eventually arrive, I saved the old spring that kept that door from being ripped off its hinges in a gust of wind...
Quite a robust spring for such a job, and just perfect for what I needed now. All I had to do was dismantle it:
Then, using my hacksaw, I just cut a short length of the spring for the tester! After that it was just a matter of staining the little chunk of wood, and putting the pieces together.
Totally random House 173 posts
∙ The front porch exterior reveal - Oct 2013
∙ May 2018 - New lights, outlet & switches for the hallway
∙ Yardsticks and door frames - May 2020
∙ June 2017 - Paint for the kitchen
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Here's what the tester looks like from beneath:
The spring puts enough pressure on the nut, that the bolt turns without loosening the nut from the bolt.
Putting It to Work
That's pretty much it! Once assembled, I lock it in my vise and test wrenches. This way when I restore an old wrench I can see if there is any sloppiness or unevenness in the jaws. If the jaws are uneven, or not paralell in the case of an adjustable wrench, there's a chance they will round over the corners of the nut or bolt, and may be difficult to take off the bolt and reapply without constantly adjusting. If they're too sloppy - round over once again, or just won't work!
A Happy Little Imperfection
Oh, and remember that little screw? Look at this little gap:
That's there because the scrap of wood I used was really exactly that. I grabbed it, rounded over the edges and made the tester. When I put it in the vise, it turned out that scrap was more a trapezoid than a parallelogram. But not enough to make me want to square it up.
Instead, I made it adjustable by putting in that little screw. Totally worth the laughs and snickers you're making right now!
Marking It as Mine
On a lark, a couple weeks ago I ordered a letter punch set so I could put my initials in some of my stuff, like the wrench tester...
Of course, it was a quick lesson that I really didn't need to strike the punches quite so hard! That said, here's the final product:
Stay safe out there!
This post made me grin because it's exactly the sort of project that would never occur to me, yet by the end I was thinking, "Well...that actually makes perfect sense." I especially enjoyed the opening about the toys every other kid seemed to have. We've all been there, and comparing that feeling to suddenly "needing" a workshop gadget from YouTube was both funny and painfully accurate.What I enjoy about House 173 is that you don't just restore old tools, you end up inventing little solutions for problems most of us never knew existed. The wrench tester, the adjustment screw because the scrap wood wasn't quite square, even the overenthusiastic first attempt with the letter punches...those little moments make the shop feel lived in rather than staged. It's a reminder that a good workshop isn't built by buying everything new. It's built one clever little project at a time. - The Neighbor
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a wrench tester?
A wrench tester is a simple device used to evaluate how well an adjustable wrench fits a bolt head. It helps identify excessive jaw wear, loose adjustment mechanisms, and poor alignment.
Why restore old adjustable wrenches?
Many vintage adjustable wrenches were made from high-quality steel and, once cleaned and adjusted, can provide decades of reliable service.
What causes an adjustable wrench to become sloppy?
Wear in the worm screw, jaw guides, or movable jaw can create excess play, making the wrench more likely to slip and damage fasteners.
Can you build a wrench tester from scrap materials?
Absolutely. A bolt, nut, washers, spring, and a scrap of wood are all that's needed for a simple and effective tester.
Why use a spring under the bolt?
The spring maintains pressure on the nut while allowing the bolt to rotate, creating a consistent test for wrench fit and adjustment.
Is this a common workshop tool?
Not really. It's a specialized jig used primarily by people restoring adjustable wrenches or evaluating their condition.
Keywords
homemade wrench tester, adjustable wrench restoration, DIY workshop jig, vintage wrench restoration, shop-made tools, homemade workshop tools, wrench repair, adjustable wrench, House 173, tool restoration
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