The pipe wrench is an adjustable wrench used for turning soft iron pipes and fittings with a rounded surface. The design of the adjustable jaw allows it to rock in the frame, such that any forward pressure on the handle tends to pull the jaws tighter together. Teeth angled in the direction of turn dig into the soft pipe. They are not intended for use on hardened steel hex nuts or other fittings because they would ruin the head; however, if a hex nut is soft enough that it becomes rounded beyond use with standard wrenches, a pipe wrench is sometimes used to break the bolt or nut free. Pipe wrenches are usually sold in the following sizes (by length of handle): 10, 14, 18, 24, 36, and 48 inches, although smaller and larger sizes are available as well. They are usually made of either steel or aluminium. Teeth, and jaw kits (which also contain adjustment rings and springs) can be bought to repair broken wrenches, as this is cheaper than buying a new wrench.
Read more about Pipe Wrench: History, Pipe Wrench in Different Languages
Famous quotes containing the words pipe and/or wrench:
“I am dead against art’s being self-expression. I see an inherent failure in any story which fails to detach itself from the author—detach itself in the sense that a well-blown soap-bubble detaches itself from the bowl of the blower’s pipe and spherically takes off into the air as a new, whole, pure, iridescent world. Whereas the ill-blown bubble, as children know, timidly adheres to the bowl’s lip, then either bursts or sinks flatly back again.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
“That is what we must make people feel... the catch in the throat, the wrench to steady the nerves, the determination to carry on.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)