You inadvertently answered the question immediately. The reason why there are so many unopened ones floating around is because they did not have the cutting disk technology we have now.
Well, I guess I just found a Costco version of Avé. The sausage fingers aren't sausagy, but he does have hairier arms. Plus, the jokes are finally a millennial can understand. And since he's poor, he actually has to put things back together. i might subscribe
If you look closely in Breaking Bad, you can see a Black and Decker auto-wrench sitting on a chair when Gale is setting up the lab for Gus (Not really, but that would be funny)
A long time ago, I redesigned one of these for an electromechanical engineering project. Was fully forged using the jaw and gear from an existing wrench design, had a microcontroller to sense when the amperage went up on the motor to shut off, had a lower gearing, and had a 2 level rocker switch to pulse the jaws open or closed if pressed gently, or fully running when you pressed harder. I think the total cost was like 3x more than this, but the apparent profit margins for this were already really high.
Too bad that never had a chance to make market, I'd pay for a good version of this concept. A good one-handed adjustable wrench that actually tightens down well blind would be pretty darn good.
So much wasted potential in this idea. Give this idea to TTI and we'd have a Ryobi version that could actually handle something, and 5 years later we'd have a Milwaukee version that was brutal.
i was gonna say what was he smoking lol Both BD and Sears sold a ton of these for a few years. all the suburbanite white collar dads got them. Then he shits on the wires like it needed 5-gauge wire to push 1.5 volts lol The whole product was made for the aforementioned people i was talking about above. So reviewing it as a serious tool is odd
his point was as a serious tool it failed hard, he even mentioned this was very much the Christmas/Father's Day purchase that was kept not for what it was but for who bought it.
I agree. What are you saying is essentially you'll never find these in a plumbers or mechanics tool bag. But rather left up in the attic or in some dusty shelf. @@nickm9102
I had a similar “ZipWrench” version circa 2004. As stated, it was a “gift” (curse) and came in Billy Mays “as seen on TV” packaging. The slop was so bad it couldn’t be reliably used on any fitting. Thanks for the flashback. 👍
I think this wrench won an invention of the year award in the 90’s. It was invented to be used on the space shuttle, the motor driven adjustment was meant to be used with the gloves of an astronaut suit.
I feel like it would be a terrible idea to use adjustable wrenches during a space walk, even if it was automatic. They’ve using expensive torque wrenches and sockets that fit properly
I actually used to have one of those except it didn’t use electricity… It had a spring and a latch, and you just push a button and it automatically adjusted to the nut size and then reengages the worm gear when you release… I actually loved that tool and apparently someone else did too because it went missing. It had a few flaws, like occasionally it wouldn’t reengage on its own if the teeth and worm gear weren’t properly aligned but all you had to do was wiggle it a bit and it would lock into place. The biggest flaw was user error, the way I tended to hold it, it would hit the button when tightening and the wrench would unlock, pop open and I’d slam my knuckles into something. That was my own dumb ass though, admittedly. Fool myself fifty times and I’m a moron who will get fooled again. Haha It was perfect, no need for electrical nonsense, it still worked normally even if the spring mechanism wore out or stopped working for some reason and it made working on awkward things out of reach really simple. I’ve looked for another one but don’t remember the brand and I can’t find it on Amazon or anything… if anyone knows, hit me up! I’d like to buy another one.
Did it look like a regular adjustable wrench? With an exposed worm gear? I’ve been looking at wrenches online for like 20 now lol. I’ve found ratcheting ones, self adjusting pipe wrenches, vice grip locking adjustables, slide adjustable, but I don’t think you mean any of those. I want to find it too 😭
Replace the AAs with a lithium cell from a discarded vape. Some even come with USB-C for charging. That will give the motor some extra oomph. And not leak.
They actually sold these for quite a long time surprisingly, I remember seeing these in a center isle display at Walmart maybe 15 years ago. It never seemed like a good idea to me, but there was a time where I almost bought one of those adjustables with a with a slider that you run with your thumb.
I bought one of those with the slider, 2-3 decades ago at a flea market for cheap. It was seized up, and I had to clean and oil it to get it working again. It works now, but I still prefer to use conventional adjustable wrenches. I would probably choose the slider one over the battery powered one though.
I own one. It comes in handy when you need to adjust a nut or leveling feet of a machine and can't see the fastener. When the accessible opening is tighter than an open vice grips would allows. I use it to get behind a panel in a privately owned submersible craft.
Oversized Dremel to open a plastic shell and blatant disregard for open terminal wires touching (till they do?). A real life Tim the tool man, Taylor! SUBSCRIBED!
No matter how well it works, the most obvious problem with it is that it's big. The best, most expensive wrenches are always lithe and elegant looking, and no larger than needed. Every extra millimeter means more places where the tool just won't fit.
Turn in your card, former Sir. I've had a word with the Commission, and you have been disbarred. I would say that henceforth you are only allowed to drink Bud Light, but that would be cruel and unusual punishment. And, let's be honest, you probably prefer Whiteclaw, anyway.
One of these made it into our family at a white elephant Christmas many many years ago. Ever since then, my brother and my dad have been gifting it back and forth each Christmas as a joke 😂
I still have the one that was gifted to me back when these first hit the scene. I have never changed the batteries. They died very early on. I have used it many times over the years as just a regular wrench. And also as a hammer.
As an aircraft mechanic mechanic for much of my career and minor in various other trades, I know the value of a quality tools made to do a task correctly. I have also learned that many lower end tools can successfully perform a task without a high cost or flashy appearance. I have also found that random cheap tools can be used as is or modified to do something they weren’t designed to and accomplish a variety of things. Sometimes they only work once, others routinely speed up installing a fastener in a confined location while the final torque is with the proper tool. I remember looking at one of these when they came out. I couldn’t think of a single task that I would bother to use this for. The cheapest pair of knockoff vice grips would be more valuable than a truckload of these,
"The cheapest pair of knockoff vice grips would be more valuable than a truckload of these" I doubt it. Imagine selling a truckload of these, at $1 each.
My grandfather has one of these. I used to use it to slightly tighten bolts and nuts before using it to find the right sized box end to finish the job.
i have one it's mounted on a long bolt that holds my other adjustable wrenches, it's the back wrench so i use the two in front first which means i rarely if ever use it .
My dad has one. He was a mechanic and had all the tools he needs so me and my brother would buy him all the gimmick tools that he would use and say how great they were just to show he was grateful for the gifts. He still has the wrench and still struggles with the dog bone wrench
Actually yeah, adjustable wrenches rarely work as well as a proper one, this is great for figuring out which wrench first try every time. Although, if we wanted that, a laser would be better
I have a Sheffield mechanical adjustable wrench that works with a slider. You operate it with your thumb, much faster than this, it doesn't need batteries and the build quality is really good. I wonder why I don't see them more often, they work good.
Maybe if he put the oil on the screw instead of the handle, he wouldn't have dropped it in the toilet, and he would have been able to adjust it with his thumb without the toilet water rusting the thing up.
The only autostrippers I like are Speedex. But Speedex aren't the auto adjusting kind. They're like regular wire strippers with the cutouts for wire gauges but then they have the gripper bit too. I've seen folks use decent auto adjusting strippers. I've never had them myself though.
I used to have thos wrench, and it was loved and abused to the point where the metal part cracked and broke off. Still my favorite wrench, because it was so easy to grab when you had to unscrew a lot of differently-sized nuts.
❤the fact that the wrench was unopened is hilarious and speaks volumes. And you are correct about nickelback. I do not hate them however I do not like their music whatsoever
I'm proud to say I can't name a single nickelback song but I have a sneaking suspicion that if I heard one of their popular ones I might have heard it before. I've definitely heard of them.
Someone bought my Dad that for Christmas or something and I found it to have too much play. The one gimmick tool of that time I really appreciated was the small robogrips. They worked great. The large ones not as much. Even with my hands the grips were pretty far apart.
I talked my dad into getting one when i was a kid. That thing was completly unuseable. Even at that age I knew it was utter garbage. It was the first poor quality tool I've ever held. Good times.
Have had much better luck with mine got one from my wife when they came out and been using it since for low torque jobs it opens and closes better too. I did see right away it would not be wise to push it too hard.
if it was built more like an older style wrench with the nut further down the handle then you'd have room for a good motor and gearing, but also I definitely think a belt is a wise choice because you don't want it to have a catastrophic failure from overtourquing
Found one of these at a garage sale a while ago, figured id try it for the couple bucks it was priced for while not expecting much. Surprisingly mine works well, much better than the one you have. Granted i dont use it on anything that needs a proper gronking but for most things it works well enough.
I actually had one of those.... I didn't think it was terrible. It'd adjust 90% of the way with the battery, and then you could snug it with your thumb.
I was fortunate to be able to work with best in class mill Wright mechanics, welder, & machnists while an apprentice. Millwrights took my adjustable wrenches from me because they said only halve ass people use those nut rounders. They only used a 6 point socket or box wrench to tighten or loosen hex nuts or hex headed bolts. Mine are collecting dust in one if my top chest.
Well, I was fortunate enough to purchase a Bacho while they were still being made in Sweden. It is the God level adjustable wrench. They put a subtle inwards pitch on the jaws so when you tighten the wrench down onto a fastener it grips it and won't come off. Super precision. It ain't your Daddy's Crescent wrench, that's for sure. Which all those knob gobblers you were working with knew about.
they're new in box because at the time, no one had invented the angle grinder yet -- hence it was impossible to remove them from the steely grip of packaging
Angle grinders have been around for a very long time but they weren't as mainstream as they are today in the past. The high-speed angle grinder was invented in 1954
Hey…my mom bought me one of those for Christmas one year😂😂😂 stuck it in the BBQ grill to assist with propane bottle swaps. Worked till it didn’t…then she was disassembled and scrapped. A for design concept, F for execution…
Because of the mention I had to find out what the worst Nickelback song was and listen to it. I made it 23 seconds. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GP7zpdwo3Xo.html They really do suck.
My grandma got one of these for my dad back in the day and it was absolutely useless. It had so much backlash that you would strip any fastener you tried to tighten or loosen with it.
If someone doesn’t have the physical ability to use a standard tool, they probably don’t have the physical capability of completing the job even with a tool of this sort.
If i remember right this won innovation awards and all other kinds of accolades in a tool show several years back. As a tool guy just laughed as i think the guy invented it didnt plan on it being just a fatherday gift on end cap at big bix stores. Prob got paid enough to not even care at that point. Atleast i hope he did...
i got mine from my sadly now passed pop-pop new as well. but it def fore makes light work saving time on the bolt/nut size! and that is it! never even tried to wrench with it lol
i bought those same wire strippers from Harbor Freight, and goddammit, they suck SO HARD. i dont think ive ever successfully stripped a single wire with them; they tear the insulation youre trying to strip while shredding the insulation youre trying to keep. i would honestly rather use a razor blade.
Autostrippers are difficult tools to make decently. I have a good pair but they're not the auto adjusting type. They're like regular strippers with a grabby attachment on them.
