Tool Talk

Wrench Forum => Wrench Forum => Topic started by: Papaw on November 07, 2012, 04:41:32 AM

Title: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: Papaw on November 07, 2012, 04:41:32 AM

Anyone recognize this wrench and logo? Looks like a Ford wrench. An emailer sent me the pictures.

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: anglesmith on November 07, 2012, 03:01:49 PM

Don't readily recognize the mark, but there is something familiar about it? In the last photo, MADE IN USA has the N and the S reversed!?
Graeme

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: gibsontool on November 07, 2012, 03:28:17 PM

I thought that looked familiar, dug thru some pails and found this guy. It's 11" long, open end is 15/16" and socket is 5/8 hex. It has an M inside a circle which is a Moore Foundry mark from 1908 or later and the lettering is T 5893.

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: gibsontool on November 07, 2012, 03:32:12 PM

Good eyes Graeme. I'm such a poor speller it all looked good to me. Jim

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: BRwrench on November 07, 2012, 07:27:28 PM

My guess is that it is an aftermarket Ford wrench.  I have seen several of those before.  It is my guess that the logo was meant to look like the Ford script at a glance.

Also T-5893 Is the factory number for the Model T Ford sparkplug head nut wrench.

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: Bus on November 09, 2012, 01:09:53 AM

The logo is "ORO" used by the Au-To Compressor Co Wilmington, OH. And it is an after market Model "T" spark plug and cylinder head bolt wrench. It sure looks like they were trying to made it look like the Ford script logo. There are at least thirty known brands of these after market wrenches.

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: EVILDR235 on November 09, 2012, 08:24:44 AM

Like Bus just said, just about every tool maker jumped on the bandwagon with this type of wrench. I guess Henry  made a very popular car. Flatheads forever.

EvilDr235

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: gibsontool on November 09, 2012, 10:33:36 AM

After reading the last few additions to this post I went and had another look and found 6 more similar wrenches and none say Ford.

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: johnsironsanctuary on November 10, 2012, 04:56:00 PM

I had the same thought as Bus. It reminds me of the logo on 'BOOL' hubcaps for Model A aftermarket.

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: Bus on January 21, 2013, 10:33:03 AM

Stan Schultz found this ad from a September 1919 "Automobile Dealer and Repairer" magazine for the Au-To Compressor Co. showing the Oro wrench.

(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd3/buswrench/message-board/oro-wrench-1919-ad.jpg)

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: northkid on January 21, 2013, 11:29:51 AM

Henry Ford not only had a popular product but he was a business man(kind of careful with his money). We are told he would get components for cars wherever the deal was the best! This was the same for his wrenches he needed.

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: mikeswrenches on January 21, 2013, 07:06:22 PM

There is an interesting book about Henry and the Ford family.  I think it was just titled "Ford", but it's been quite a few years since I read it so I am probably wrong on the title.  But one thing I remember.

Henry had parts coming from a supplier and he specified the size of the crate they were to be shipped in.  Upon arrival at the factory, the crates were opened, the parts removed, and the crates carefully disassembled.  The boards the crate was made of were then used as the floorboards in the Model T's.  Now that is being frugal!

Mike

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: Papaw on January 21, 2013, 08:39:35 PM

Reminds me of my father's trips to the family cabin in Arkansas back in the 60's. He would build a wooden camper on his p/u that on arrival in Arkansas would be disassembled and each piece was the correct size for the next addition to the cabin!

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: northkid on January 21, 2013, 10:37:54 PM

Cypress trees from Louisiana were cut to specs to make the crates for Henry Ford. Had them filled with Spanish moss to use as upholstery in the seats. Ford and his relative Kingsford then made the scrap pieces of lumber into charcoal briquets. Hence the start of Kingsford Briquets.
Need to find that book about Ford.

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: Branson on January 22, 2013, 09:15:47 AM

Quote from: mikeswrenches on January 21, 2013, 07:06:22 PM

Henry had parts coming from a supplier and he specified the size of the crate they were to be shipped in.  Upon arrival at the factory, the crates were opened, the parts removed, and the crates carefully disassembled.  The boards the crate was made of were then used as the floorboards in the Model T's.  Now that is being frugal!

Mike

That's what I heard, too -- many years ago.  I think my grandfather's brother told me.  The boards, he said, were also made into the beds of pickup trucks.

I don't call it frugal. I call it shrewd.  Nowadays it would be very "green," for the careful (and profitable!) recycling.

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench? More Oro car tools
Post by: Wrenchmensch on January 22, 2013, 03:55:17 PM

The Oro* brand appears, along with others (I have found Simmons Hardware, Le Compte Cycle Car Co., and Buffum Tools editions of these tools), on combination spark plug-headbolt wrenches.  The Oro brand also appears on the distinctively surfaced valve adjustment tool (see picture below).

*An Au -to Compressor Co. brand name

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: johnsironsanctuary on January 22, 2013, 06:04:37 PM

WM, your tool looks a lot like a valve spring tool. Kinda like the Perfect Handle valve spring tool.  The holes are for the chain to hook in and the 'C' goes under the valve with clearance to take out the keeper.

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: mvwcnews on January 25, 2013, 02:03:23 PM

I stumbled upon an ad for the wrench -- & stuck a copy in FLICKR.
( http://www.flickr.com/photos/mvwcnews/8409520723/ )

Title: Re: Aftermarket Ford wrench?
Post by: rusty on January 25, 2013, 07:08:10 PM

Patent office trademarks has some interesting hints also (what a strange combination of things to group under a trademark)

(Volume 291, #4, Pg 855, Printed Oct 25, 1921, avbl google books)