Tool Talk
Wrench Forum => Wrench Forum => Topic started by: mrchuck on November 04, 2013, 03:58:54 PM
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I am familiar with the Dowidat wrenches.
However this one is different to me as it has a small brass hammerhead on the edge of the 20 mm.
I have found 4 of these wrenches, and they are all the same and shape, which is very good or better.
Any one seen one of these before?
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A new one to me. Wonder what the application is?
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that IS a puzzler.
Dowidat is known to me as an auto tool kit provider, so I lean in that direction.
I was thinking as tool to tap hubcaps back on,
but a 20 x 23 open end isnt often seen in car tool kits
and a small hard hammer would tend to dent the tin on the caps.
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Dowidat makes wrenches for the euro auto industry. They also provide kit tools to the auto and motocycle OEMs. I have a few of their tools, but can't say I have ever seen a DOE with a brass hammer head. It must be for a special application that I am not aware of. The fact that it is a brass hammer head suggests it is for tapping something in place without leaving any hammer-tracks. Maybe for driving a motorcycle axle in or out, or to adjust the axle location fore & aft?
Perhaps Papaw will know or have some ideas; he's a scooter man and a bmw owner.
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Perhaps Papaw will know or have some ideas; he's a scooter man and a bmw owner.
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Nope- never seen one.
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Looks exactly like a custom wrench to tighten/loosen a drawbar on a vertical mill.
Got one myself for use on a Bridgeport, but inch and not metric.
Someone could have made up a few for friends or possible sale.
(Note the brazed construction.)
Just a guess.
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leg17,
You may be right on the application, I can't argue that as I have never operated a mill of any kind.
But, your note regarding the "brazed construction"... I'm not seeing it. Not even kinda. Where do you see it?
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Looks homemade to me.
Get some proper rod and a brass wrench you can solder, and solder it.
Bronze rod from the auto parts is not as easy to pull off when the parts are delicate. Big heavy parts the bronze is just right. You heat the whole project just about cherry red until the brass flows. But it flows really near the melting point of yellow metal.
So when the solder is flowing on brass work, you better be real real careful,
or that yellow wrench will be a puddle, and so will the hammer head.
You are taking the work to the razors edge of melting.
It may be brazed with brass, but I would be suspecting ---------silver--------- if I were you.
Silver solder is just about tits. There is absolutely nothing unlovely about silver. It solders almost anything to anything, with little danger to the work, and when everything is j-u-s-t right, ....
it flows like sweet honey and sets like a hard rock. Silver is fantastic, in a word.
Well.................. the cost of a date with the girl may have you looking around for other alternatives pretty quick. It costs a................... fortune.
Yeah yeah sure the first time you use it you are willing to spend anything, but then the second time comes around and the third, and soon your jewelry quality solder is flat gone. Its going to cost you a case or two of beer to replace it. A genuine bite to the ass.
Now what?
In between silver and bronze solder, there is tubing silver solder, which is really for plumbers and air conditioning guys, and others who work with higher pressure tubing. Its got some silver (up to 20% the most expensive) and some bronze, and other metals in a mix.
It works really really good, if its the old fashioned stuff with a tiny bit of cadmium in it. (tiny tiny bit, but its important)
Cadmium is dangerous. If you screw with it, it'll kill you, soon.
But if you let it kill you, you are too dumb to be allowed tools in the first place.
Like anything else that actually works, its dangerous and you take proper actions to keep safe. Safety first. Suit up when called for!
If you make sure you are safe, its really remarkable solder. Oh geeze it flows near as good as pure silver, and sticks any two kinds of metal together you would want. And costs about 1/3 as much as pure silver.
The "safety" refrigeration solder, available anywhere, (no cadmium) works too........ up to a point,
but it will never be as versatile. You'll see if you ever compare the two.
If you pay attention to your peas and Q's the old "dangerous stuff" is a dream on skates.
Almost like real silver.
You have to dig though the dusty places to get it though.
If I was a betting man, I would bet this tool is soldered together with refrigeration solder that has a trace of cadmium in it. Somebody do a chemical analysis.
yours Scott
PS Be sure to click and blow up the picture. It sure looks silvery to me.
S
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I have wire brushed the brazed area where the brass hammerhead is attached , and it is brass brazed 100%.
No silver soldering, just brazing rod.
So, the mystery continues.
I am now fighting my way thru several German tool websites trying to get answers.
I want to send the photos to them. No success as of now.
I am sure they are "factory made", and not added by some doofus mechanic.
All 4 of them are exactly equal.
I found them out in Bishop, CA. at a garage sale while we were visiting relatives last month.
They were mixed in with a lot of Plomb tools. Of course I left all the Plomb tools there because nobody collects them.
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Probably not " Homemade" , but modified by a machine builder to go along with the equipment.
Just a guess
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Interesting. From the photos, there doesn't appear to be a DIN marking, so maybe it was an export only item not sold in Germany? That might rule out it's having come in a tool kit from any of the German car makers. There is an old post (October 2010) on The Garage Journal Board where the poster talks about buying a Dowidat wrench "with a brass hammerhead brazed to the end" from a box of them at an army surplus store. The best part is he says it had an NSN number, 4933-01-033-0324, stamped on it.
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What I've learned since my last post: Assuming the Garage Journal poster did find one of these wrenches with an NSN number, the first four digits are the Federal Supply Class - 4933 is Weapons Maintenance and Repair Shop Specialized Equipment, the next two digits are the country of origin - 01 is the US, the last seven digits are the item serial number. So it may in fact have been a purpose built tool for some sort of weapons system. If it was made in the US and not in Germany, that would explain the lack of a DIN marking.
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Thanks RWalters.
Best info to date.But I have never heard of any USA weapon that was made in Germany using 20 and 23 mm bolts, barrels, etc. Even thru the Korean war and Viet Nam.
I will try some more research.
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I hear you, it's confusing to me as well. Metric fasteners would imply non-US origin of whatever it was used on, but maintained by US personnel?
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>4933-01-033-0324
hmm
FLIS says that number is for a plastic bushing...
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I got that too on FLIS. If you look close, it's giving you NSN 5970-01-033-0324, the plastic bushing, not NSN 4933-01-033-0324. In other words, the closest match it came up with was the same country of origin code, same serial number, different FSC. My guess is once an item is discontinued, it no longer shows up on FLIS and if you search for it you get the closest numerical match.
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nsn-now also says it is a bushing, is obsolete, and replaced by another number (5970-00-451-5970) which is also a bushing.
The prefix number is odd for a tool, usually the prefix is a tool prefix even when it goes on some system (like armament)
hmm..
(flis does seem a bit confused)
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rusty,
Not to be argumentative, but if you go to www.FarSmarterBids.com there is a link about midway down the left hand side of the home page that says FSC Codes, from there you can get to a list of all the FSC Codes. 49 is the Federal Supply Group code for Maintenance and Repair Shop Equipment and under that 4933 is the FSC code for Weapons Maintenance and Repair Shop Specialized Equipment. This still presumes that the GJ poster has the same wrench as mrchuck and transcribed the NSN number accurately. As for NSN Now, I'm not that familiar with the site, but I would guess it has the same limitations as FLIS, if an item is no longer in the supply chain, you won't find it there. I don't know of any website to search "dead" NSN numbers. My guess is that the wrench was factory built for a purpose, likely military, that was pretty obscure and is now obsolete. The fact that nobody here recognises it says a lot.