On 2007-12-11, William Noble wrote:
I got an adjustable wrench at a club's auction yesterday, looks like this
one

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...photo hosting

on one side it says "THE ELGIN", on the other side it has a star logo that
says ELGIN vertically, and the G is the first letter of Genuine, and the I
is the first letter of Improved, and it says trade mark registered June 8,
1897, Jan 9, 1906, may 20, 1913

the jaws are obvious, but the small and large holes in teh handle are not
obvious - what the heck are they for? what was the purpose if this wrench?

Well ... I happen to have one complete -- thanks to pawing
around in several boxes at an estate sale. What is missing from the one
shown a

1) A threading die with a flange. The body of the die fits into
the large hole, and the flange keeps it from falling all the way
through.

The flange also has four square notches at 90 degree intervals
around the die.

2) A formed steel cover which fits over the flange, and hooks over
the notch at the end of the handle. It is secured by a
thumbscrew into the smaller hole near the rest of the wrench.

3) A sliding object under a raised part of the cover, with an end
which fits into the notches in the flange, and which is held
there by a spring.

There is another knurled screw sticking up through a slot in the
cover which allows you to pull the sliding object back to allow
the wrench to rotate around the die to get another bite on
driving the die.

The threads look like (though I haven't tested them) the ones
found on the corners of the square shaft which feeds though an
old door latch mechanism, onto which the doorknobs screw.

As for what it is for -- I agree that it must be for something
specific -- but I've never figured out what. I will be following this
thread in the hopes that someone can fill that information in.

Good Luck,
DoN.

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