[GreenKeys] Re: Telephone Can Wrench

[Steve Cichorsky]

>>>>"A 7/16" socket wrench to be precise. A pair of needle nose pliers work 
>>>>too!"<<<<
To be even more precise, 7/16" and 3/8" deep sockets at opposite ends. Those 
sizes were also "standardized" by the Telco industry for use on a lot of 
other hardware than just station protector covers, fuses and terminals.
While metal WECo protector covers lent themselves to the "can" moniker, 
station protectors manufactured by Reliable and Cook that were manufactured 
in a elongated (tall), round or rectangle shape really hit home with 
craftsmen who tagged them with the vernacular term of "Can." And of course 
as has already been mentioned, the wrench used to access them was termed a 
"can wrench."

====================================
>>>>>"Re: [TCI] Why the "Can" in Can Wrench?
More than anyone other than a TCI member wants to know about using can 
wrenches.
If you aren't interested hit delete now before being too bored. To many 
readers
what's below may be old news and "duh...". But others, especially those who
are collectors but not former telephone workers, may be interested in some 
more
arcane trivia about the can wrenches.

The old can wrenches were NOT solid units (like later ones), they were a
combination screwdriver & socket wrench. The glass middle section (in really
old ones brown non-metallic middle section) had posts out each end, that
actually ended in flat-bladed screwdriver ends deep within the sockets. The
'socket wrench' part was spring held firmly in place so normally it would 
work
like a solid unit and just as a wrench...you might not even realize there 
was a
screwdriver blade buried inside the wrench part. But you could also unlock 
the
socket from the handle-and-screwdriver, so the wrench and embedded 
screwdriver
could operate independently.

Many of you are familiar with the old porcelain or Bakelite protectors that 
had
long fuses...each of which had a threaded end and a nut, to hold them in 
place
on the protector. Can wrenches were used to loosen and tighten these nuts 
when
you wanted to replace a blown fuse...or in later years, to strap the fuses 
out
when on-site doing anything else, while you were there (to eliminate blown 
fuse
troubles in the future, without having to swap out the protector to a newer
style.)

Where the screwdriver-in-the-can-wrench came into play was to install or 
remove
similar fuses in old fuse protected inside terminals. ISTR that those fuses
were slightly different. The end that screwed into the rear of the terminal 
was
threaded, but without a nut. And it screwed into a threaded hole in the rear
conductor. The end of the fuse that was attached to the front of the 
terminal
was threaded with a nut, but the end of the threaded section was notched for 
a
flat bladed screwdriver.

This allowed you to hold the fuse itself steady with the embedded 
screwdriver
while using the wrench to unlock/loosen the nut...if you didn't hold the 
fuse
steady with the screwdriver, if you used a wrench on the nut you were likely 
to
twist the entire fuse and pretzel the conductor strip the nut was locked to. 
By
holding the fuse steady with the screwdriver part, you were putting torque
against the screwdriver instead of along the whole fuse. Once you had 
loosened
the nut with the wrench, you then spun the handle and screwdriver part to 
back
the rear end of the fuse out of its threaded hole.

I used to run into these old long-fuse-equipped inside terminals on a 
regular
basis when working the older sections of Passaic NJ in 1971. (Many were also
equipped with the shorter 'sneak current' fuses as well.) I don't think I 
ever
saw one again when I transferred to CA in 1972 ... but I was working then in 
a
suburban rather than old urban area, Walnut Creek, Orinda, Lafayette, and 
Moraga
(mostly) in the East Bay area due east of San Francisco and Oakland. I would
not be surprised if the same old fuse equipped terminals were still around 
in SF
or Oakland, but that's not where I was working.

Another piece of old lore: Sometimes you'd run into a broken can wrench, 
where
it had been dropped and the glass center section had broken. I'd carry one 
of
these around to use just like a stubby screwdriver, for those cases when I'd 
run
into a protector can that didn't have sufficient clearance below to use a
standard can wrench on its nut. Sometimes remodeling on the outside of the
house had reduced clearance...For whatever reason I don't remember usually
having an adjustable wrench with me, and it was easier to use a stubby can
wrench than try to mangle the nut loose with a pair of long nose.

I remember the first time I saw someone with a 'new' can wrench...one that 
was
solid and the same diameter the whole length, with just the metal can 
wrenches
at its ends. My first reaction was "that's stupid, how will you deal with 
the
terminal fuses?" My second reaction was that it had been maybe 15 years 
since I
had run into a terminal fuse as described above, so maybe it wasn't that big 
a
deal after all. :}

I'm sure many of the long term TCI contributors may be able to tweak what 
I've
written here and there....but that's how I remember the old fuse equipped
terminals being setup, and why can wrenches were really combination
wrench/screwdrivers.

Paul H.
prhkgh at ...
----- Original Message -----
From: Tony Pelliccio
To: Arthur Bloom
Cc: Singing Wires
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 8:22 PM
Subject: Re: [TCI] Why the "Can" in Can Wrench?


A 7/16" socket wrench to be precise. A pair of needle nose pliers work too!

----- Original Message ----
From: Arthur Bloom <m35prod at ...>
To: brooke at ...; singingwires at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 9:36:28 PM
Subject: Re: [TCI] Why the "Can" in Can Wrench?

Terminal boxes are locked with a recessed nut that can only be operated by
using a socket wrench. ...