Hansen Gas Mate II adapter wrench

Going through old bits and the like here, I found my homemade gas adapter wrench, thought I share this with one and all, but a little backstory on how it came to be.

Years ago, some gas grill makers had a quick detach adapter, you could use the grill with natural gas at home or connect it to your 20# propane tank, with a adapter on the tank like this one:

Attachment 24092

Problem was this: The plastic plug you used to install it was made to have the head break off at the correct torque for installation. Once it was used you couldn't remove the adapter, so for filling your propane tank, or moving the adapter to a new tank, you were out of luck.

So necessity and boredom being the red-headed stepchild of invention, I took a 3/8" Phillips screw, put it in a drill to turn down the head diameter with a bastard file, took a nut and ground off every other point, put the whole thing on a 3/8" coupler nut, a few other bits, and a wrench was made!

Attachment 24090

I know it doesn't look like much, but over any holiday weekend, it put a LOT of $5 and $10 bills in my back pocket at the hardware store, for moving their adapter between tanks. Had one of the other guys take it when I wasn't looking, he was all pissed off because it wouldn't work for him - didn't tell the idiot the fittings were left-hand thread!!!

Murph