Tool for turning a nut

Whiz horse The press Italian blue cheese The state of freedom from danger or injury Minstrels song The starting point of an activity Resistance fighters Archery contest The spanish dude somehow escaped Lung tank Present day levantine Substance found in tea Crusted over of sores Tall story The sort of wit that doesn't shine very bright. An instrument, often a simple bar or lever with jaws or an angular orifice either at the end or between the ends, for exerting a twisting strai A tool for turning screws so as to drive them into their place.

It has a thin end which enters the nick in the head of the screw. The thin edge or ridge left by a tool in cutting or shaping metal, as in turning, engraving, pressing, etc. The more the number of points, the more advantage you have of turning the nut or bolt where space for turning is very limited. There are box-end wrenches with eight-point openings. These are ideal for turning and holding square-shaped nuts and bolts.

The flare-nut wrench is similar to the box-end wrench. These are ideal for use on regular plumbing nuts typically made with softer metals and therefore more susceptible to wear when regular open-end wrenches are used to turn or tighten them.

You set the amount of torque you want to impact on the fastener on the torque wrench, and then you start tightening the fastener. An Allen wrench is used for turning those types of screws and bolts. Allen wrenches are made from a hexagonal wire stock, and they come in two types or forms viz the L-shaped and T-handle Allen wrench.

As you can tell from the names, the L-shaped Allen wrench is shaped like an L from the Hexagonal wire stock while the T-handles Allen wrenches are shaped like T with the handles made not from the hexagonal stock but from straight metal or plastic. The Bristol wrench is a not so common wrench that looks just like an Allen wrench and also designed for internal socket-head bolts and screws.

The torx wrench looks like L-shaped Allen wrenches but the cross-section of the head resembles a star. The end sections contain a ratcheting one-way mechanism or lever that allows the ends to ratchet or turn the fastener in one directing without turning it in the other direction when the wrench handle is returned.

A ratcheting box wrench combines the compact design of a box wrench with the ease of use and quickness of a ratchet wrench, allowing you to use it in the most compact of spaces. Also known as a Saltus wrench, a flex-head socket wrench is similar in concept to a socket or ratcheting box wrench but with the socket permanently affixed to the handle.

Unlike a socket wrench, the sockets of the Saltus are not interchangeable. Pushing a wrench should always be done with an open palm. The large, wide handles of these twisted wrenches allow for greater force to be safely applied in extreme-torque applications. Ratcheting Wrenches: The New Standard. Ratcheting wrenches are similar to combination wrenches but feature a ratcheting box-end instead of the traditional thin-walled 6- or point design.

Because users don't need to waste time repositioning the wrench after each turn, ratcheting wrenches are used to quickly drive fasteners. The wrenches' open ends should be used for breaking free tight fasteners. Zero-degree offset ratcheting wrenches, which only ratchet in one direction, are typically found at a lower price than reversible ones.

However, these wrenches can become trapped under certain conditions, a huge frustration that can be avoided by instead using a reversible ratcheting wrench.

The reversible ratcheting wrenches shown here feature Gearwrench's CapStop design, which prevents the box end from sliding down long bolts. Specialty Ratcheting Wrenches. In addition to the immensely popular zero-offset and reversible ratcheting wrenches, there are quite a few other styles designed with greater accessibility in mind. S-style, half-moon and new elbow-pivot ratcheting wrenches can reach around obstructions to access fasteners.

Similarly, flex-head and locking flex-head ratcheting wrenches are designed to reach above obstacles to reach fasteners. Newer ratcheting designs such as Gearwrench's X-Beam and Craftsman's open-ended ratcheting wrenches are designed for greater comfort and ease of use. Ratchets and Sockets: The Mechanic's Workhorse. For some applications, especially when you cannot reach a fastener with a wrench, you're going to need a ratchet and socket set.

Sockets can be purchased individually, as part of small and large tool sets. Beginners looking to fill their toolbox should consider a socket or mechanic's tool set that is mostly if not entirely composed of 6-point sockets.

Twelve-point sockets are acceptable for medium-duty use but can round-off fasteners if used in high-torque applications. One downside to cost-saving tool sets is that the included ratchets are often coarse-toothed and of lower quality.

After purchasing a fine-toothed ratchet, advanced tool users will usually look to flex-head and stubby ratchets for use on obstructed fasteners or those in cramped locations.

One of the most common ways to damage a ratchet is to slip a pipe or cheater bar over its handle for more leverage. Sometimes this will damage a ratchet's gearing, other times it results in a bent handle. There's a much better way to break supertight fasteners free, and that's to use a breaker bar. A breaker bar consists of a bar with a nonratcheting pivoting square-drive head.