How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

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Re: How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

Post by mudbox » Wed Nov 12, 2014 4:19 am

pjones wrote:Does anyone know what the "Trade" stands for on some RIGID wrenches.
I believe it's just Trade {RIDGID} Mark showing that RIDGID is the trade mark...? :?:
-Jason


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Re: How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

Post by pjones » Wed Nov 12, 2014 4:49 am

Perhaps.....but I believe there is more to it than that. I have always preferentially chosen RIGID wrenches marked in this manner for the reason mentioned above....whether correctly or not :)
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Re: How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

Post by mudbox » Wed Nov 12, 2014 4:23 pm

pjones wrote:I have always preferentially chosen RIGID wrenches marked in this manner
I thought they were all marked like that 'Trade RIDGID Mark', then I found this one in the basement. I guess I bought it some time ago and forgot. :wink: An 8" so I had put it in the regular tool box. :?
Not marked with the 'Trade Mark'.
All the hallmarks of a wartime wrench.
Code on the jaw is H36 No dashes or dots. Seems more like a date code than any yet. Could be a happenstance. :?:
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Re: How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

Post by d42jeep » Mon Nov 17, 2014 12:36 pm

Here is another code from my new 14" Ridgid.
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14" Ridgid
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Code on jaw
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Ford GPW 76344 DOD 11/42 Built in Richmond, CA

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Re: How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

Post by TAWPTool » Wed Jan 24, 2018 11:11 pm

I know that this thread is a few years old, but I ran across it while researching to date a Ridgid pipe wrench that I just acquired. Oddly enough, in my bucket list is a goal to restore a WWII Navy Jeep! The dream lives...

Can anyone help me identify and possibly date this wrench? My home machine shop is mostly restored WWII machinery, so I'm hoping that this one will fit in.

Here's some pics...

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The inset number on the fixed jaw appears to be 7E.

Thanks for any info you can provide.

Guy in Sacramento

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How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

Post by lt.luke » Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:08 am

Deleted. Bad info
Last edited by lt.luke on Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

Post by Wingnutt » Thu Jan 25, 2018 7:50 am

TAWPTool wrote:
Wed Jan 24, 2018 11:11 pm
Can anyone help me identify and possibly date this wrench? My home machine shop is mostly restored WWII machinery, so I'm hoping that this one will fit in.
While some of the dynamic jaws have codes that seem to be dates, we don't have a foolproof definitive methodology for dating them to a specific year of production. Your pipe wrench is definitely WWII or earlier, though. It would be considered wartime. Postwar RIDGID pipe wrenches have an adjusting nut with a recess in the middle of the knurling and a rounded off end on the dynamic jaw.
lt.luke wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:08 am
From memory, yours is post war. The interlocked “DG” and the squared threaded section of the removable jaw are post-war features.
No. The interlocked "DG" was part of the RIDGID logo since a least 1927, and you have the shape of the end on the dynamic jaw backwards. Square is wartime or earlier; rounded off is postwar.
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Re: How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

Post by d42jeep » Sun Jan 28, 2018 3:02 am

We rarely see examples of postwar Ridgid pipe wrenches in this thread so here's one. This is the one to stay away from if you are looking for a WW2 pipe wrench. The story about this particular wrench is a little unusual. On Friday my wife and I were on our way to an estate sale. I had just parked the car and when she opened her door she found this pipe wrench lying on the side of the road right next to the car. Here are some pictures of the wrench as found and after some renovation.
-Don
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IMG_1089_sRGB.JPG
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Ford GPW 76344 DOD 11/42 Built in Richmond, CA

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Re: How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

Post by lt.luke » Sun Jan 28, 2018 5:56 am

I think I remember this right, the shape of the polished swash below the fixed jaw differs and can be used for age determination. The military required replaceable jaws, so look for a rivet to attach the lower jaw.


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Re: How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

Post by Wingnutt » Sun Jan 28, 2018 7:58 am

lt.luke wrote:
Sun Jan 28, 2018 5:56 am
I think I remember this right, the shape of the polished swash below the fixed jaw differs and can be used for age determination.
There was no swash on a RIDGID pipe wrench housing before the 1940 patent (2,192,702). See my chart at the post of page 2.
lt.luke wrote:The military required replaceable jaws, so look for a rivet to attach the lower jaw.
Long discussion on replaceable jaw inserts on the Fed Specs thread here.
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Re: How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

Post by henry501 » Sun Jan 28, 2018 10:44 am

Greg,

Actually there was a swash prior to the 1940 patent. If you go back to your post on page 2 of this thread and look at the patent photos you attached you will see a swash (raised panel) illustrated on the 1929 patent drawing. The difference is: the 1929 swash is more trapezoid or triangular shaped whereas the one illustrated in the 1940 patent is the long bent rectangle shape like on other WWII era examples posted elsewhere on this thread and Don's modern example.

All,

Having said all of the above... while I also agree that there is (as yet) no way to specifically month or year date a particular Rigid pipe wrench I do believe we can date them to an era based upon the illustrations in the various patent applications. To that end I guess it's now incumbent on me to back that up with photos from my rigid pipe wrench collection with cross references to the patent filing illustrations.

Finally, my additional research and collection would never exist if it weren't for the ground work laid out by Greg and others on this thread.

Thank you,
Henry

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Re: How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

Post by Wingnutt » Sun Jan 28, 2018 3:05 pm

henry501 wrote:
Sun Jan 28, 2018 10:44 am
Actually there was a swash prior to the 1940 patent. If you go back to your post on page 2 of this thread and look at the patent photos you attached you will see a swash (raised panel) illustrated on the 1929 patent drawing.
I wouldn't call that a swash plate, or at least not anything that could be confused with a later swash plate. But that's semantics. Luke's point was that the shape changed. My point is that the first instance of the plate that is still on the wrenches in its modern incarnation appeared in 1940. You can reach your own conclusions if you want.
henry501 wrote:...while I also agree that there is (as yet) no way to specifically month or year date a particular Rigid pipe wrench I do believe we can date them to an era based upon the illustrations in the various patent applications.
Nothing to do with belief. Of course they can be identified by era. That was the point of me tracking down all the patents and posting them in one concise chart showing their evolution, patent era to patent era.
henry501 wrote:To that end I guess it's now incumbent on me to back that up with photos from my rigid pipe wrench collection with cross references to the patent filing illustrations.
It's only the 1940 patent and era that really matters for this site.
henry501 wrote: my additional research and collection would never exist if it weren't for the ground work laid out by Greg and others on this thread.
What additional research? Did I miss it somewhere?
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Re: How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

Post by lt.luke » Sun Jan 28, 2018 5:48 pm

I did not do anything but benefit from the wonderful research and resulting tools put together by Greg with the help and found tools and publications of Greg and others, like Phil. While i have looked for things that would contribute, I have been unsuccessful.


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Re: How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

Post by Wingnutt » Mon Jan 29, 2018 6:17 am

Hey, everybody chipped in, especially good ol' Roger drawing our attention to the forged-in numbers that sure do look like date codes on some dynamic jaws. The problem with that is that they're dynamic, of course, and not foolproof for dating the handle and static jaw they happen to be inserted in when found. Although that would be overly picayune, in my opinion. When assessing a wrench with a vintage-looking static jaw and a dynamic jaw with a wartime date code, I think the benefit of the doubt goes to it being original to the static jaw and handle piece.

Lord knows I love a good research project, but I don't get the need in this case. We pretty much solved this one. The early RIDGID pipe wrenches don't look anything like the 1940 patent RIDIGD pipe wrench, and the postwar tells (again, rounded end on dynamic jaw, split-knurled adjusting nut) should easily rule out the postwar wrenches. Unless you're prone to brain farts, like I am! :)
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Re: How do you date a Ridgid pipe wrench.

Post by henry501 » Mon Jan 29, 2018 6:12 pm

Greg,

Swash plate -- agreed... semantics as to the name "swash", "swoosh" or "trapezoid shape".

As to further research, yes, sometime back I dug into the individual patent pages for each of the iterations you showed up thread and was sure that I found something in the 1954 patent drawings that gave me concern.

So... I just went back and looked at the drawings that accompanied the 1954 patent (2,680,396) and the 1940 patent (2,192,702) and observed that the illustration of the wrenches in each seem similar if not exactly the same. However, on page 2 of the 1940 patent there are a couple of different "spring elements" illustrated. Then in the 1954 patent there is also illustrated a unique "Spring and guide member" for the movable jaw. To that end it appears that the wrench in each patent drawing is similar if not the same to the other but that the "spring guide members/elements" are distinctly different. So...my conclusion is that based upon those drawings what, to outward appearance, looks like a 1940 (and WWII era) Ridgid pipe wrench may in fact be a 1954 wrench.

Thus it seems that the only way to be sure a Ridgid pipe wrench that LOOKS like it is WWII era is not a post war wrench is to see what type of "spring and guide member" is present since the 1954 "spring guide member" is quite different than the one illustrated in the 1940 patent.

For example, if my observations and logic above hold true can you or any of the rest of the gang tell from these photos which wrenches are not 1954?
IMG_1938.JPG
Ridgid pipe wrenches 14, 10 and 8"
IMG_1938.JPG (141.71 KiB) Viewed 2266 times
IMG_1939.JPG
Ridgid 8" close up
IMG_1939.JPG (164.13 KiB) Viewed 2266 times
Thank you,
Henry
Last edited by henry501 on Mon Jan 29, 2018 9:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.


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