Superscale Spanner Wrench

[ccvstmr]

Fellow live steamers...

Do you have Superscale fittings on you loco? I ran into Barry Haig at TM a couple years ago and asked him why he didn't sell spanner wrenches for his parts. He didn't think there was a demand. I hate to use small pliers to tighten/loosen the spanner nuts This scratches the paint and chews up the nuts too.

Here's a solution...credit for this goes to "coalman601". Get a "cheapie" set of metric box end wrenches, or at least the 12mm and 14mm sizes. File two notches on the outer skin (to fit around your piping) where a hack saw can then cut through the wrench skin. You can use a Dremel tool with grinding disk too. Dress the cut edges with a file. I did this to a set of wrenches (see attached photo with 15, 14, 13 & 12mm). No...the end of the wrench did not spring apart after cutting through.

For the smaller spanner nuts (12mm wrench), I had to square off the notch between the teeth with a small file. As purchased, the triangular teeth on the box end wrench will not fit over the spanner nut edges. These work great! The injector overflow spanner nut may need a 16 or 17mm wrench.

One note, this practice works for 6 or 12 point spanner nuts only. Some check valves have 8 point nuts. For these, you'll wnat to make a half round spanner wrench with (1) tooth to engage the spanner teeth. Hope this helps! cb

[FredR]

Great idea. But one question. Line Wreches are used for tightening brake lines, fuel lines. Do they make metric sizes? If so, it would be a lot easier to buy one. But, I am going to go dig through my Non-Craftsman wrenches to see if I can make mine. Otherwise, I am going down to the local pawn shop to find a few.
Thanks for the tip.

Fred

[Jim_Nolan]

I Think "Snap on" got there before you. I cannot remember what they call them just that you need a 5 year loan to buy them.

But the look nice and shiny [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif"%20alt="[/img]

[Bryan]

This style of spanner/wrench is often called a "flare nut wrench", used for fittings on hydraulic lines... the most common sizes are 7/16" (1/4" tubing), 3/4" (1/2" tubing) and 7/8" (3/4" tubing)...

I know this is not going to be your price preference, but one example of imperial (inch) and metric sizes can be seen on the Snap-On site...

Imperial Flare Nut Wrenches

Metric Flare Nut Wrenches

[willy]

The better reason for doing it the way that ccvstmr did it is that flare wrenches are not good in the close confines of our locos (usually very thick on the sides).

I bought some ignition wrenches from Sears and made them for work on other areas of my loco as well (ie to get the timing on my locomotive diametrically opposed).

-willy-

[Bryan]

Guess the links were way too long and didn't work.... [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/confused.gif"%20alt="[/img]

Oh well, just go to the Snap-On website and look for "flare Nut Wrenches" under Wrenches...
Snap-On

[Dick_Morris]

All the flare nut wrenchs I've seen are six-point. My memory is that the Superscale nuts will only work with a 12-point, so you have to make your own. The instructions that came with my Superscale injector suggested the modified box wrench trick and gave the correct size. It worked great for me.