[Lowfer] Help - Tool Advice?

[Mike Hanz]

Ed Phillips wrote:

> There is another way I've used to make spanners which might work.  
> Take a piece of sheet steel [or even aluminum in a pinch] of the right 
> thickness to fit the grooves, cut the outer dimension to the outer 
> dimension of the grooves and then cut away metal in the center to 
> create the rest of the prongs.  If the thing has to fit around a 
> center rod it will be necessary to bend the prongs but in any event 
> this will probably work.  I made an aluminum spanner like that to take 
> the back off my first Accutron watch over 30 years ago and it still 
> works fine and I suspect the back of the watch is screwed on at least 
> as tightly as the ring holding the mike connector in place.  Secret is 
> to make sure everything fits tightly and the ends of the prong are 
> sharp and a little bit of touchup with a file will do that.


There are a hundred ways to make a spanner, and Ed's suggestion is one 
of the best!  Its only drawback is that it only engages two of 
potentially four force application points in the particular case that 
started this thread.  For most purposes, it won't matter, though.  It's 
a lot easier to file to a needed profile, as well!  The use of aluminum 
or brass is more forgiving in the majority of applications.  There's 
absolutely nothing wrong with simple solutions...

  - Mike