New handtool from Black & Decker

[reConx]

Originally Posted by papadan

Now thats a BONER

[Andy_M]

I agree that without a ratcheting head this will not be convenient to use.

Even if it DID ratchet, these one-size-fits-all tools generally are of limited usefullness because the heads are just too large to fit into places designed for socket access (yes, engineers DO design things to fit standard tools - wrench clearance charts are in engineering handbooks!!).

Gotta wonder what is the real advantage to these gizmos. A socket rack and a ratchet doesn't take up much space and will pretty much always work. Coming from the auto business, you have a selection of different ratchets, breaker bars, torque wrenches and then your sockets, 6 point, 12 point, 8 point, short, intermediate, and deep. Add some extensions, a wobble, a flexible extension, maybe a U-joint... and you can mix and match to thousands of combinations and do about anything. With this thing, you best hope it fits. Odds are it won't. It's just not versatile or flexible enough to justify itself IMO.

As an aside, the one "novelty" tool that I really do use is the Gearwrench ratcheting box end. These are, I think, all still patent-protected so the Craftsman, Blue Point (SnapOn) and Blackhawk (MAC) are all licensed from Gearwrench. I have metric & standard Blackhawks I got off the MAC truck years ago when they first came out --with the flex head, which IMO is absolutely the way to go. I reach for these 80% of the time, now... I'm sure the Snap On and Proto sets are not happy. But of course if you need to lay on the wrench hard you still go for the regular box end. Gearwrench works where other ratcheting box ends don't because the head isn't much larger than a standard box end and usually (not always) fits where a box end fits. These have become a must for automotive work.

[MonkeyGeorge]

I'm with Andy M on this one. The last "new featured" wrench that I found useful was the ratcheting box end wrenches. My main concerns are getting to the bolt/nut and making sure it doesn't round off the head due to misalignment or low quality. And it better be stronger than my ability to crank on it, because I know from experience that busting your knuckles when a tool breaks is no fun.

Having to grab a different wrench for a different sized bolt/nut just isn't a problem that I find myself needing to solve, other than having a handy tray to set one size on while I grab the other one.