Wondering thru Harbor Freight one day last year I spotted this set of 12 stubby combination wrenches on sale for about a buck each. The set had six Metric 10mm, 11mm, 12mm, 13mm, 14mm and 15mm and six SAE 5/16", 3/8", 7/16", 1/2", 9/16" and 5/8". Looking into my crystal ball, I really couldn’t see my ever needing them. But, you know how it goes, you can’t walk out of a Harbor Freight store empty handed even though you know it’s probably gonna turn out to be a piece of crap when you get it home. I always feel guilty and sort of hurry to the car hiding my face behind my collar when ever I buy a tool at HF, you don‘t want any of your buddies to know you bought any of those “cheap“ HF hand tools now, do ya!
But I did bring a set home and thru them in the “not so good” tool drawer where they lay for most of a year.
The past few weeks while I was installing my newly rebuilt 216 into my ’50 I ran into a few of those tight spots that in the past I’d just work around. My old reliable Craftsman combos that I’ve had since I was a high school kid worked, kind of, in most of those circumstances, if I’d angle them down a bit. I guess over the past 50 years the thought had crossed my mind of cutting a couple of inches off the spares in my vintage set but being a preservationist by nature I never could bring my self to do that.
Well anyway, I started reaching for these cheapo HF stubbies lately and it seems now that I’m using them half as much as I do the long wrenches. And as ashamed as I am, I have to admit it, they are a pretty nice set of wrenches for $15.99.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/137067838/large Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
