Monday, January 30, 2023

Monday Mystery, Kondu 23WX Wrench

 


While looking for information on the Kondu Manufacturing Company I found this wrench on Ebay. The seller describes it as a Western Electric 1/2 & 3/4 Open End Wrench part number KONDU-23WX. Measures 8" long. The open ends measure 1-1/8" and 1-5/16", note the curious stepped and round-ended jaws. The wrench is numbered 1/2 and 3/4. My guess is that this wrench might be related to the Kondu company and the 1/2 and 3/4 refers to conduit sizes in inches? Anyone with ideas? 



2 comments:

Beazld said...

Measure the opening. 1/2” conduit is around 7/8” OD and 3/4” is around 1-1/8” OD. That may give a clue to its use.

Dave said...

The "step" is sometimes formed so the same end of the wrench can be used on two different size nuts, as in the Klein Tools Lineman's Wrenches. But, this wrench is only marked on one side, with only two sizes, so I doubt that's the case here (interestingly, Klein doesn't mark the sizes at all on their lineman's wrenches; I always wonder if that's because they're saying "if you don't know the size, you shouldn't be up on the damn pole!?")

I'm going to guess that in this case, the step is to help keep the wrench flat on the relatively thin conduit nut.

Here's a great drawing of a worker happily using his 23WX wrench, along with an explanation of how the Kondu-Box eliminates the need for that pesky "time consuming die stock."

https://books.google.com/books/content?id=eqTmAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA73&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U3tKTSASCCE_0kzmyUecnuc_yLZow&w=1025