of buying new bolts,washers,nuts,fasteners/hardware of all kinds on auctions! sure can get the stuff a whole lot cheaper that way! I needed some 2=1/2x 3/8 bolts for something the other day....and had a whole slue of them and they were fine threaded ones which would work fine anyway! I grabbed a handful of them and put them to use....cept there is not one wrench out of the hundreds that I have that will fit those heads or nuts! not metric, not SAE, only thing is vise grips/pliers/pipe wrench/cresent! that fit them! WTF! oh...and I remember buying a lot of new nails of various sizes at auction, and one 50 lbs box of galvanized nails were all melted together in one bloob! lol...they went back onto another auction!

they ain't rusty! they're in new condition! they're kinda like the oil plug on one of my trucks, ain't gots any wrench that fits it either, nor my mechanic that has bouts every tool ever made...hafta use a "metric" vise grips! I remember that now Ted...about the "metric cresents"! years ago I bought a pallet full of about every kind and size washers there is and today only have about a handful of some of them left! had to go buy sum yesterday! figgered that pallet load saved me prolly $1000. or more thru the years! (paid $25.00 when I bought them).

Just like the lug nuts on my truck!! Chevy 2500 hd 2001!
Don't quote me on this, but the 22m is large, the 21 is small, the 3/4 forget, 13/32, try, this try that, nope the 7/8, clue? Tied ever thing in the past, from Craftsman, Napa, Mac, to Wally World brand, and NONE of them fit the lug nuts in a secure fashion here!

Could be British Whitworth.

US standard for 3/8 heads and nuts is 9/16 but heavy could be 11/16. Square nuts 5/8", heavy square 11/16.

British standard 3/8 bolts Whitworth the hex is .592 to .600". 15.25 mm or 19.2/32. Definitely odd for US and metric wrench sets. Whitworth wrenches are usually marked with the bolt size, not the head size. So the Whitworth wrench for 3/8 bolts would be marked 3/8 which is clearly a lot different than the actual head size. Works for them, not for us.

World standards for metric hardware also varies by the continent.

And even phillips screw heads are different. What looks like phillips in Japanese and Chinese radios is closer to ISO metric and US standard phillips drivers wreck them. ISO metric drivers are loose in US phillips but fit the ISO screws tightly. Sometimes metric ISO phillips heads have a small dimple on the head as an indicator. ISO phillips drivers are hard to find in the US, though last I looked McMaster-Carr carried them. I got a ships sparks who traveled to SE Asia to get me a set and they are handy when working on radios from that part of the world.

Gerald J.

First off, a crescent wrench is now called a; women's open end combination wrench set!

Buddy has sockets with burrs in then to catch bolts and nuts that are rounded off or rusty.  Get you a set of them and they'll do the trick.  Just gotta tap them on and off the bolt/nut

I just bought some 9/16" bolts. They are still made. The new Dexter axle I got a month ago has slots for 5/8" bolts and round holes for 9/16" in both mounting plates.

Gerald J.

So you're having a few issues with your "bargains" .... Just think of all of the money you are saving

GARY(OH/IN) wrote: I never heard of a Crescent wrench until I left the farm and got around other humans. Dad would holler "get the adjustable about 10 times a day". I had for years and lost an older Craftsman 10" adjustable (oops, I mean Crescent) that was real thin and very handy. Anyone know where I might find a thin replacement?

We never called an adjustable wrench by its Brand name either, or a copy machine a "Xerox". Apparently those were the dominant manufactures in their day, so they got the claim. I've been fortunate to have good Pawn Shops close to my work. With the down turn in the economy, death and retirement of craftsmen and manufacturing in the area, a lot of different, odd, quality, etc. tools have been available. I have bought several made in the USA adjustable wrenches there just because this one opens a little wider, this one is a little heavier, or in your case, this one is a little thinner.

When I taught Vo-Ag, we had tool identification.

Clay...when dad bought (well any farmer around here) one of those wrenches...it was always a "cresent" as at that time, that's the oly company that made them around here! when you said you needed a "cresent" wrench, everyone knew what you were talking about! there have been and still is companies that try to copy them or make them better...but seldom never do! just like the "vise grips" that also is a brand name and like the cresent wrenches they are also still being attempted to make them better or copied by other companies...and if yo ask for "vise grips" everyone knows what you are talking about!

I don't wear jeans,,,,,,,,, only sissies do! I wear either levi's or overalls, even though the tag says Faded Glory, and they used to say Towncraft.

yep shameless,always call them a cresent,and always will,thanks to my father,and probably his father ,a lot easier to yell out to someone on the ground to get a cresent and throw it to you when your on top of a harvester or under a machine.

Edited by JPG AUSTRALIA - 19 Jul 2015 at 7:15pm

Around here, we call the adjustable a monkey wrench, although it is not the original design of Mr. Monkey. His was more of a pipe wrench looking thing but with smooth jaws. AKA the knuckle buster.