Thin walled tubing wrenches for hydraulics?

I go to mine sites regularly. What I did with my modified tools was put them into a locking brief case and tagged and locked out the brief case. I haven't had the pleasure of dealing with MSHA so I don't know if it will work. Besides all of the mine sites will not let you in if MSHA is there and will ask you to leave when they show up. It's illegal, but they don't want contractors on-site if MSHA is around.
My first experience with working on a mine was in Round Mountain, NV. When I got there it was a week long sites specific training. And the guy that did the training went on vacation the week we got there. So we got paid to get drunk and gamble while waiting for the guy to come back from vacation. After the two weeks we were allowed into the mine for the service truck and contents to be inspected. Only one hitch was the outlet on the welder needed to be a g.f.i. outlet. When I asked why. I was told that if I was grinding in a puddle of water I would be safe. We are in the middle of the desert . The other insane thing was my dad wasn't able to use the crane on his truck. But since he built the truck he could task train me and after 3 days I could task train him. Oh and don't forget to have fall protection on anytime you are 4 foot off the ground. Even if there isn't anything to tie off to.

Haven't bought any snappy in years now, but when it comes to tubing/flair wrenches these are the only ones I will own. I don't like self induced misery from a
middle of the road wrench I bought because I was feeling cheap.

I did eight and half years in above ground coal mines. I just locked up my tool boxes and told them the guy that owns the boxes was gone. The issue never came up again. The radio system at the second mine was only used to let the crew know the guy was on site. They took care of tag outs and clean ups before the gentlemen ever got past the office. I have heard of a gravel mine inspector that went so far as to get the address of the homes of the field mechanics and go there to inspect those trucks. I can just imagine a night shift guy being woke up to someone poking around his service truck in the middle of the day at his home. I suppose he might be charged with trespass as he could have just told the owners of the company to bring the trucks to the mine site.
They are going to find something no matter what so often times we staged something stupid that could be chalked up to someone not paying attention. Maybe a black out curtain for the welding area or leave a tool room with a little bit of clutter. Lunch boxes on the seat of the field trucks was a good one. The fines were minor and the guy left with something to keep the dragons above him thinking he was doing his job.

Truck Shop said:

Haven't bought any snappy in years now, but when it comes to tubing/flair wrenches these are the only ones I will own. I don't like self induced misery from a
middle of the road wrench I bought because I was feeling cheap.

View attachment 240449

Click to expand...

Truth in advertising. "There is a difference "

I hope the link works. Its about what you can expect

Makes my blood boil when i hear of this nonsense.Natural selection has been erased.Now they are beating thinking for your self and taking personal responsibility for for your own actions out of us.

Well here's a fact-without the two shop made tools I have for removing Wabco air disc brake calipers on the drive axles of a Freightliner with Freightliner air ride suspension,
It takes a bunch more time because of limited area to work with.

What if.........you made the tool you needed, dressed it up all nice and pretty, take a pic of it and put it on Ebay. That way, when asked about it, you just bring up the Ebay pic to prove its normal and available! I like to look for ways to "put it to the man".

As wonderful as all that is the guy needs a 12 pt tube wrench.

I dont know why you cant just remove the other end of the hose, slide a 12 point box end wrench over that end, slide it up the hose to the valve block. Proving it will clear the crimp collar, which it looks like it would from the pic.

There is a way around it you just have to be smarter than the object your working on.

And, you can also use a flat punch on the left side of the flare nut flat and a couple of small hammer strikes, that nut will turn loose. I've done that 1000 times on this kind of stuff.

No offense to the OP but threads like this just drive me crazy. If I was standing there in front of that valve I'd have that off in 10 seconds. If one of my customers found me grinding tools for half a day to remove THAT hose...............I'd be sent packing.

Vetech63 said:

I dont know why you cant just remove the other end of the hose, slide a 12 point box end wrench over that end, slide it up the hose to the valve block. Proving it will clear the crimp collar, which it looks like it would from the pic.

Click to expand...

Vetech63... sliding a wrench up the hose didn’t work because the fittings were too close together (I’d still have to grind a wrench). I did make a tool and got the job done fairly fast. I posted trying to find if there were better tools or ideas available. I didn’t think of the punch idea, and hadn’t seen the thin box end crows foot. This was also, a project on my own equipment. As for taking all the fittings off, that could be done, but due to the blown hose, several other lines still had pressure as I couldn’t wing back up the sprayer. So removing line would possibly damage more and spray more oil all over.

I appreciate all the tips/ideas and discussion....

Vetech63 said:

No offense to the OP but threads like this just drive me crazy. If I was standing there in front of that valve I'd have that off in 10 seconds. If one of my customers found me grinding tools for half a day to remove THAT hose...............I'd be sent packing.

Click to expand...

No offense to you but it may be easy and it may not be. The hose could be a mile long and take alot of time to remove. It may come right off when its turned a 1/4 turn or it may have been screwed up the last time it was put on. Sometimes if i have a job like this and i know i will be doing it alot i will do what ever to get it off and build something that night to make it easyer.

Vetech63 said:

I dont know why you cant just remove the other end of the hose, slide a 12 point box end wrench over that end, slide it up the hose to the valve block. Proving it will clear the crimp collar, which it looks like it would from the pic.

Click to expand...

Are you sure yer an equipment mechanic, that statement sounds more like the engineers perspective .

jonno634 said:

I did make a tool and got the job done fairly fast.

Click to expand...

I was not aware this was already done. I see where you are coming from

Old Doug said:

No offense to you but it may be easy and it may not be. The hose could be a mile long and take alot of time to remove. It may come right off when its turned a 1/4 turn or it may have been screwed up the last time it was put on. Sometimes if i have a job like this and i know i will be doing it alot i will do what ever to get it off and build something that night to make it easyer.

Click to expand...

Sure! I agree of course. This is just me.....my way of what I would do, from my own business perspective. No offense was intended for anyone.

funwithfuel said:

Are you sure yer an equipment mechanic, that statement sounds more like the engineers perspective .

Click to expand...

LOL. I don't want to be one of the type I loathe at times

I agree,,, if it took half a day to grind a tool to for that you should be fired since it really only takes 10 seconds to remove it in the first place.

If it takes half a day to grind a wrench down something wrong with the grinder.

I would probably figure how much time to pull all the hoses against how much time it would take to modify the wrench. In the case of all those small hoses though, I would likely just use a hammer and punch as described above.