Garage Cleaning, Valpo Visit

Liz and I drove over to Valparaiso to hang out for the day there. We did a bit of laundry, had lunch, caught up a bit.

I helped Bob clean up some things from his garage, threw a few things on a burn pile, and helped re-arrange some things to give him some more space. One item we ended up throwing out was an old, metal cabinet. As I was waiting for him to pull the truck around, I opened up the drawer and saw this guy.

Much later in the day, Liz went out shopping with Julie while Bob and I stayed home. We chatted about me possibly mowing his yard in the future, and we walked around the property – talking about different spots and paths to take (it’s a big space, and the property also includes a retention pond for the neighborhood).

A nice relaxing day, where even working outside was a delight given the sunshine and the great weather/breeze.

Later on in the evening, when I asked Bob for more info about the tool I had seen in the drawer… this was his reply:

It’s called a pump wrench.

Pumps are often in tight spaces and bunched together with other pumps and were usually connected to piping with round flanges. Leverage was only good on the exposed sides of the flange, making it hand to break a nut and bolt. These wrenches were shorter and the alternated curvature of the wrench gave the mechanic a better grip on the harder to reach assemblies.

I’m sure auto mechanics used them for the same reason.

You have to remember, this was the tool of choice before technicians had breaker bars, long handle ratchets and sockets with universal joints.

I’d say that wrench goes back to the early 1900s, although they were still purchasable through the 50s and 60s.

Related:
Garage Clearing and Box Cleaning in Valpo (With More Chicken Encounters Than We Expected)
A Day in Valparaiso (That Also Included Chickens)

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