Talking about the ones with an open end and a closed ratcheting end.
Does anyone think the reversible one's (small switch lever) are worth the extra money ?
The Craftsman reversible one's look exactly the same as the GearWrench brand but say made in U.S.A. Even the small switch lever has the exact same pattern.
jon
Jon,
I purchased a set manufactured by Crescent which I use at work (non-automotive). These are the reversing type and I like having that feature, mostly because all of the ones I saw that did not reverse were either flat (no head angle) or were floppy (had a piviting arrangement so that you could vary the angle back and forth) and to reverse, you had to flip the wrench over.
The type I have has the reversing mechanism running through the wrench - that is, they have two small buttons on either side of the closed end head, and pushing one in causes the other to pop out. One annoyance I've discovered is that if you turn the wrench against something it can accidently reverse the ratchet on you. This happens alot in my application, because I'm usually bolting flanges together and the wrench runs against the pipe. The type with the small lever might actually be much better about avoiding this problem.
The only other annoyance that I've noticed is that the ratcheting adds some to the diameter of the closed end wrench side so they can't really replace a combination wrench set - I have to keep both in the box, because many times there's just not enough room for the ratcheting head.
I bought mine from MSC Industrial Supply, but have seen the identical wrenches at Home Depot for much less recently.
Regards,
Powell
========================================================== Powell E. Barber, Sr. Engineer 850.644.6477 voice Department of Nuclear Services 850.644.9848 fax Nuclear Research Bldg RM 116 Mail Stop 4470 Florida State University Tallahassee FL 32306-4470
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