Whitworth Spanners

[V8grunt]

I've got more Whitworth spanners than you can shake a stick at Norm, You could have took them of my hands for free!

Car boot sale coming up in 2 weeks time i thinks!

[stephenh]

AF spanners dont fit Whitworth nuts and bolts in my experience.

I did have a set of Whitworth 1/2" drive sockets, but they went to my brother-in-law last Christmas, to use on a vintage car he bought.

Dont know where you'd get a set now, except an auto jumble. Mine were old.

[Norman Verona]

Still made and have ordered a set from a chap in Ipswich. Sockets and combo spanners

Many thanks all

[s2rrr]

Whitworth refers to the thread form of the nut/bolt. If you scan the web you will find the AF ( across flats) equivalent sizes which is closest to the actual whitworth spanners. They will probably be like rocking horses droppings any way. I think I still have a basic set in my tool bag and they occasionally come in useful for the multitude of different fittings etc I come across.

The vast majority of nuts & bolts fittings are hexagonal and made to the various standards applicable. But with a decent set of AF and metric sockets and spanners you could cover most nuts and bolts. I recall the old mini flywheel bolt was 1 1/2" or 7/8 whitworth so they are interchangeable within reason. The trick is to find the best fitting spanner and get a print out of the AF equivalent sizes. Open ended spanners are not as secure as ring spanners etc as rings have more driving surfaces but in some cases an open ended spanner is the only one you can use. Just use the tightest fit possible. You can also get sockets with 6 or 12 faces. It has been mentioned about BSP but you also have UNC, UNF the AF spanners, BSF, metric etc etc. Its not necessary to get a spanner for each thread form but I guess in some case their will be unique sizes which buck the trend. We haven't touched torx either which is another kettle of fish. I have even heard people referring to metric adjustable spanners and put that in the tartan paint file. If the spanner is good and secure with the most contact area it shouldn't cause any grief. I believe I tightened the XE crankshaft bolt with an AF size socket and that was to a remarkably high torque ( by angular movement), no drama and lots of care as a slip would have caused some swearing and possibly blood loss.

Cheers Bob