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Metric Crescent Wrench

G

Gandalf

Well Known Member
So engineers do have a sense of humor.

As most everyone here knows, Section 23-02 Fig. 3 calls for a metric crescent wrench to twist the longeron. Well I twisted the longeron with my SAE crescent wrench. Just wondering how many folks here used a metric crescent wrench and if they thought it provided a superior result? :)

Name Withheld

From OwensWorld

If you are on a construction site, assembling things or backstage setting up a show, you are being too nice if you don't mess with the greenhorns.

You have to do it. Everyone gets hassled their first time out and why shouldn't you pass on the legacy?

One really great prank is to ask your gofer to get you a metric crescent wrench. Now you know just as well as I do that the wrench will adjust to any nut, but the flunky doesn't know that. Call them aside, look them straight in the eye and say, "Look, I need a metric crescent to finish the job. Go get one."

They might be sharp enough to suggest that the wrenches are adjustible, but that's where you look them in the eye and say, "This wrench only goes to 3 inches, I need one that goes to 10 centimeters. Now quit monkeying around and go get it!"

Of course, you'll know that 3 inches and 10 are the same thing, but they may not and really, that's the fun of the prank in the first place.
 
In the Marines it was sending the new guy for 100 yards of flight line, or a jar of ball lube. Supply would send them up to battalion who would send them back asking which color or if left handed would be ok, and the merry go round would continue from there. It wasn't a successful razzing if he didn't make several round trips. Sending him to the engineers tent for left handed wrenches or hammers was popular as well. I remember yelling at a kid for bringing me a right handed instead of left handed wrench and showing him the difference by holding two wrenches back to back. He went to the motor pool, supply, even asked the C.O. Poor kid fell for everything.... really should have joined the Navy. :)
 
Spray can of Grid leak bias

Don't forget the Prop wash, Keys to the F-15, a box of Fallopian Tubes and my personal favorite was sending an Airman back to supply to get me a Spray Can of Grid Leak Bias (of course that was back when I worked on C-130's). Such fond memories.

Tom
 
Left handed hammers are always in short supply. The Black and White chequered paint used on may RV tails is at a premium in most paint shops too.

When sending the apprentice down to collect such paint ask them for a long weight as well, they are in the plumb bob section.

:D
 
With all those bug splatters on the prop, the new guy has to go find "prop wash". It's usually in the basement of the hangar and comes in 5gal pails.

I've also seen guys go looking for a can of dihedral, they're usually student pilots though.
 
Gandalf said:
Of course, you'll know that 3 inches and 10 are the same thing, but they may not and really, that's the fun of the prank in the first place.
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I don't know about your measurements, but my 10 centimeters is closer to 4 inches..... seems I recall a multi-million dollar failed space mission that was caused by such an error in translation.:(
 
wrench

In the Navy we called tie downs which were rebar poured into the concrete flightline, "pad eyes".

New guy was told to run back and get a "pad eye wrench".

Didn't even tell him where to get it he'd just get run all over the hangar being told he was holding up the flight.
 
When I was a Navy Ensign on a sub the Captain called me in an asked me to find him some DC light bulbs. I remember thinking "boy this guy is stupid" and proceeded to try to explain as diplomatically as possible that light bulbs don't care it it's AC or DC. It was almost a week before I figured out it was just part of the new guy initiation.
 
We used to send new guys to get several yards of "flight line" also.
I do own a metric crescent wrench. Pictures could be posted of necessary.
 
ColoRv said:
Left or right handed? :)
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I know you said this a a joke. And I always thought of it as one.
However, believe it or not, I HAVE a left handed crescent wrench.

I never thought about it until I found this one has left hand threads. You turn the adjustment opposite from normal crescent wrenches. It is very frustrating to use.
 
N
Surface Navy: Bucket of steam, Relative bearing grease, Preventer stretcher. I didn't know what a preventer was (rigging on a cargo ship masts) and fell for it.
 
As a young Navy avionics tech, I was a bit of a wise-arse. I'd already gotten the dope on flight line initiations. After several tries to get one over on me, the guys in the line shack finally sent me off to put a spare part in the fly-away kit that had already been put on the helo due to depart that day for a 2 week detachment. The "fly-away kit" turned out to be a 48X48X48" crate sitting on the cargo rails inside the helo. When I leaned over to put the part in the crate, a couple of guys rushed me. They put me in the crate and strapped it down. They didn't let me out until we were airborne. Thus I made my first detachment. And it led to me volunteering to fly as an aircrewman, one of the absolute coolest jobs in the Navy.
 
John RV8 said:
I do own a metric crescent wrench. Pictures could be posted of necessary.
Click to expand...

John... I went ahead and took pictures of an SAE crescent wrench and a METRIC crescent wrench. I think the differences are self evident as one opened to 1 inch and the other opened to 2.54cm. Oh and my joints ache after bending the first longeron.

SAEWrench.jpg

metricWrench.jpg
 
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No Boy Scout training?

All you guys had to get to the Navy to learn these life lessons? Boy Scouts, at the tender age of 11, taught me all I needed to know about "left handed smoke shifters" and "snipe hunts". Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!

(Also ... I hate crescent wrenches generally, both the metric and SAE type, though I've never tried the left handed ones ... or the left handed dog-leg rivet sets. I hear the Avery ones are 'da bomb!)
 
In a little deviation on this thread, I have done this before:

As an engineer in a manufacturing environment, when presented with very poor maintenance practice, I have commented that " round tip screwdrivers and smooth jaw channel-locks should be issued " to protect the machinery :mad:

Interestingly, on inspection of a european toolbox for a recently received machine, I found........smooth jaw channel locks :eek:

I've seen differences between US and Euro tools before. This appears to be a variation on the old "F" shaped "monkey wrench". It works ok, but I still prefer the traditional "gotcha" crescent wrench (metric or otherwise) :)
 
Ouch

We had guys running all around the hangar for keys to the basement and such. My favorite was telling the new guys to get a PRC (pronounced Prick) E7 radio. GOOD TIMES!!!!! :) The crewchiefs were not to be messed with though. MY former boss might of put a big glob of RTV in the pisser tube on the co-pilots side of his aircraft on purpose one day.... he said it was quite funny watching the co-pilot holding it and trying not to spill it the rest of the flight. The Commander had been informed before hand and could hardly keep a straight face. I cannot confirm nor deny that I ever did anything as a Blackhawk crewchief similar to that ;)
Best,
Brian
 
rzbill said:
.....

I've seen differences between US and Euro tools before. This appears to be a variation on the old "F" shaped "monkey wrench". It works ok, but I still prefer the traditional "gotcha" crescent wrench (metric or otherwise) :)
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Called a shifting spanner in the UK when I was a kid...:)
 
Working around the fuel systems, I have sent off the newbie for the "O-Ring stretcher". After the possible leak is fixed, he must blow as hard as possible into the pitot to "Pressurize the Tanks" for a leak check. If you could only see how red their faces can get.:mad:

And one of my favorites, taking an “exhaust sample” from the tail of a running F-16 with a hefty trash bag.
 
Mel said:
I know you said this a a joke. And I always thought of it as one.
However, believe it or not, I HAVE a left handed crescent wrench.

I never thought about it until I found this one has left hand threads. You turn the adjustment opposite from normal crescent wrenches. It is very frustrating to use.
Click to expand...

I've been using crescent wrenches for over 50 years, and I still have to use trial and error to adjust them.:confused:
 
Firm Grip

When I was a kid, the butcher at the Piggly-Wiggly grocery store sent the new employee to the Western Auto store for a small jar of "Firm Grip." Seems he was going to go fishing after work and used it on his hands so he could just grab the fish instead of using a rod and reel. Well, when the young kid got to the Western Auto store, the guy there caught on real quick, said he had just sold the last jar of "Firm Grip" but he thought the plumbing store up the street had some.

Seems this was not the first time they had pulled this trick and the poor kid went to 4 or 5 stores before he finally caught on. :)

No, I was not involved, but I do remember when it happened.
 
We would tell new flight attendants that we had a lav overheat light on in the cockpit and they needed to flush ice. Another fun one was requesting a cabin air sample with a spare trash bag.

As a newbie at the FBO in high school I went to four other FBO hangars on the field looking for prop wash. My manager called ahead to all of them to let them know what was up. I knew I had been had when the third one couldn't keep a straight face.
 
ifixf15 said:
Don't forget the Prop wash, Keys to the F-15, a box of Fallopian Tubes and my personal favorite was sending an Airman back to supply to get me a Spray Can of Grid Leak Bias (of course that was back when I worked on C-130's). Such fond memories.

Tom
Click to expand...

we sent a new C130 propman "jeep" airman for a bottle of prop wash. he went to Tsgt Euwing (prop shop ncoic, non comissioned officer in charge, and the Tsgt had a spray bottle of prop wash and gave it to the airman and told him to tell us in the engine shop, "this is an order, go wash the props on 987 and 824........................ we washed props! lol

the second best one we would take a new engine man out to a C130 and open up an engine and let him hear the ignitors firing and told him if u ever hear that noise get away quick because after 3-4 seconds the engine starts!!! then we would wait a day then give him another lesson, we would tell him he had to go up the intake and inspect the inlet vanes and probes . he wold try and ask, hold me in here. well we said we werent touching his butt for anything but we would "T" the prop and he could use a blade to keep him in there. so we did. then we had someone in the cockpit hit the ignitors and when he heard the noise ....................you talk about a monkey and a football LOL we laughed our butts off. oh the fun we used to have.
 
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The problem with the initiation games is it makes the new guys not trust you when you need it. When I was a brand new junior officer on a sub I was checking the rig for dive in the torpedo room. The checklist called for checking the supply ventilation damper and the hatch closure. It didn't caution you that closing the hatch with the supply damper open would pressurize the compartment and set off the nuclear weapons tamper alarm! The torpedo men were notorious for their hazing of newbies so of course I ignored their vague warnings as more "messing with the new guy". I shut the hatch with the damper open, and one of the torpedo men managed to wrestle it open just before the alarm was set to go off.

Of course none of that stopped me from harassing the new guys on the next patrol! :)
 
Navy guys who cruised the Med will get this. I was on a carrier.

In the summer bridge officers would send a young midshipman up to the signal bridge with orders to lower the mast, on command, while passing under the power lines in the Strait of Messina. When the command came and the midshipman pressed the button and nothing happened, hi-jinx ensued.
 
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Alton,
Looks like I need to take a picture next week. On first attempt, I did not find an image on the web of the wrench I was trying to describe. In my post I did refer to the "F" style adjustable which is the Ford wrench as you say but the Euro wrench that may be the "Shifta" per Gil and Dave is different.
 
Charlie Noble

If you want the whole ship to be in on the gag, you send the new guy to find Charlie Noble. On my first ship in the Coast Guard this poor kid went up and down the ship asking everyone where he could find this missing seaman. Little did he know that the term Charlie Noble refers to the smokestack for the galley.
 
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