Knuckle Buster

This In the Pipe is, again, a Tool Time tale. It’s also a tale featuring a new product of the tool manufacturer mentioned in the last post (but not the first of its kind) plus some of the author’s observations on earlier versions of this tool type. This time, instead of a basin wrench (Photo 1, below) it is a tubing cutter.

Photo 1: Notice the price? This is NOT the one/type that I recommend you purchase. (See the last blogpost.). It’s a collector’s item.

And again, the featured object is a re-hash of a previously marketed widget. (In the present case, last seen at Will-CALL counters when Ronald Regan was President.) One of the widgets (Photo 2A & 2B, below) had/has been a long-time successful member of their product line. And again, the author’s respect for this tool line causes him to pause, before making a thumb’s up or a thumb’s down decision on the newest offering, too soon... But, I do wanna tell you a few things about other related offerings too.

Photo 2A: The longer I have one of these (they all get lost, not warn out) the more dear it is to me.

Photo 2B: It’s painted so I can find it in either piles of dirt or amongst the days ‘sweep out.’ I would go back under a house and crawl a good distance to retrieve it.

The new featured widget, the Ridgid “2-in-1 Close Quarters AUTOFEED® Cutter,” (Photo 3, below left), the author used as an earlier design, in a slightly changed form, thirty-years ago when manufactured by a different firm. At the time of first spying it on the Will-Call-Counter at a plumbing supply, the author thought: “Better than sliced bread.”  Well, it didn’t turn out that way. Prior to the arrival of the first incarnation of this tool, plumbers had only limited means to cut copper tube ‘in-wall’ and under floors and other “hard-to-reach” locations. All of which pose dangers to the knuckles of the hand that is operating. Although, there did exist an already jiffy little soldier (just mentioned above) to employ for this task. In his books and writings the author has referred to this little warrior as a/the “knuckle-buster.” (Photo 4, below right)

Photo 3: It’s handsome. The author might buy one to give the ‘worry beads’ a break.

Photo 4: This is what a spanking new (and clean), original knuckle buster looks like. It’s a crime to have to use it.

My tool bucket has at least two knuckle busters aboard, and I could probably find more if I dug to the bottom. The bucket does not contain a new Ridgid, (Photo 3, above left). Why?  It has to do with the necessary design of the tool. (I already tried out the original progenitor and after initial use found that I rarely did again.) To accomplish, with one hand, what it takes two to do (operate) the knuckle buster, the newest offering accomplishes more with fewer one-hand movements, but takes significantly longer to do its job.
 
The author remembers countless occasions where he’s cut and or abraded his knuckles making repairs to copper pipe in walls when using a knuckle buster (Photo 4, above right). It’s not the tool that causes the injury. It’s the operator’s limited/compromised vision and/or inattentively operated hands (including knuckles). Sharp splinters, wire lath, old wood lath nails, gashes in heads of hand driven, set nails, and sheet metal edges of carpenters’ specialty ties are some of the adversaries awaiting the repair/remodel plumber when cutting pipe in existing structure. And that is what I initially hoped this “long handled” design would spare me. What it advanced on one front it fell short on another. I will tell you about it following.
 
 
Silver Knight?
 
One look at the new Ridgid close quarters tool and I think most people would see that at its heart it is a knuckle buster inside an additional, ratcheting housing. The two biggest drawbacks of this design (as experienced) are these:

1. The knob on the adjustment screw to open and close the jaws of the cutter often collides with ‘rough’ (interior) wall (wood sheeting, plywood, and now mostly particle board of some stripe). This is because most plumbers like to run their water in the centerline of lower and upper plates. The ‘why for’ is not a secret to anyone: to keep their precious pipes as far away from trouble as possible. Some of the troublemakers: Errant sheet rock nails and screws. Sharp splinters (also in the case of PEX), and improperly set steel framing accessories.
2. If the copper tube you need to cut/splice has been run close to other piping or framing, there’s no room for the projecting adjusting knob of this design of cutter to pass around in the 360 degree’s needed to cut the pipe. It comes up against other piping or framing limitations. My early version did work, given generous operating room. But the author was not satisfied with the speed of the ratcheting cutting action.

Also, Photo 5 below left, AutoCut, is what has successfully challenged the original Ridgid knuckle buster, the heart of the new offering. It is not made for equal longevity but the now attitude: “use-and-toss the cheap,” entrenched by Big Box Store trade has vetted it. This ‘newer-comer’ design works surprisingly well and is six times faster cutting than the conventional knuckle buster or traditional cutter shown in Photo 6, below right.

Our cheapie in Photo 5, below left has no knob to hang up on obstructions. You can use slide-jaw pliers to rotate, in-wall, when the going gets tough. It cuts quickly with automatic cam action. And, at big box stores so much cheaper than a US or Japanese made knuckle buster like Ridgid’s ‘Sherman Tank’ C-Style models mentioned and illustrated, downstream.

Photo 5: This lightweight does heavy work.

Photo 6: Slow but indestructible.

Big Improvement
 
It might sound a bit improbable to many of you but there has been a marvelous, SIMPLE improvement in Ridgid’s Model # 104, the basic work horse knuckle buster. Look carefully at the next two photos, Photo 8A & Photo 8B, below.

Photo 8A: Round knob

Photo 8B: Oval-ized Handle

Everything at first looks exactly the same. One picture is one of my old 104’s and the other is the new version. When your eyeballs land on the adjustment knob of the new version, wa la. Original is round. The newbie is oval. Might you ask why such a small difference makes such a big difference?  It made a huge difference.
 
The round knob of the original #104, at times, cannot be tightened enough with fingers alone (especially on Type L copper tube) so a small pliers is applied. If the knob were square (Pete’s recommendation to the company 30 years ago) a small Crescent wrench would have made it much easier to use. The round knob is knurled and many times, under perfect conditions, only fingers do fine; but, you will run into the need, sometime, to add a gripper tool.
 
Now, look at the oval knob of the new #104. Just this little tweaking of shape eliminates the need for an added tool. That extra out-of-roundness gives stout thumbs tremendous advantage. With time of use, there would be measurable labor savings too.

For “new entry” plumber/participants, this old man would tell you to buy the Ridgid models C34 (Photo 7, below left) and C10 cam action close quarters cutters and a Ridgid 151 Quick Acting tubing cutter (Photo 9, below right). The C34 does ½-in. and ¾-in. tube and the C10 does 1.0-in. I would recommend these to ‘first timers’ even over the simple, slow but dependable action of the familiar (Photo 6, above) time-tested design.

Photo 7: A Heavy Weight

Photo 9: If you could have only one tubing cutter, it should be this ‘151 Quick Acting’ model.

One especially appreciated (Photos 10A & 10B, below) is a German designed small tube cutter. Its cutting wheel all but disappears into the handle and allows the operator to cut ¼-in. and ⅜-in. copper refrigerator “reefer”tubing, all the way up to and including 1½-in. Type M and Type L copper pipe. It’s a product of Germany and on my particular one the name Rothenberger lies on the twist knob. The author has no recollection as to where he procured it, but he knows that it’s the second one he’s owned.

Photo 10A: Just a ‘finger nail moon’ of cutting wheel visible.

Photo 10B: Slow but versatile. ¼-in. to 1½-in. tube, in one small package.

Well, stay ‘at it’ long enough and you’ll discover it’s best to have a ‘collection’ of certain tool designs, and this area of tubing cutters is a good example. (Larry Weingarten’s best collection is that of his pipe wrenches.)  If you have the $$$ to fritter, PtP would have to say the new Ridgid AUTOFEED® would ‘round out’ a collection.
 
Until Next Time…(don’t accept any wooden Nickels)…
 
P t P