The Wera, PB Wera Joker –The Trump Card?


It seems to me that the Wera company has a wonderful knack of taking simple everyday tool products, applying some Wera magic in the R and D department, and then, when they come to market we wonder how we managed to do without them. Wera has done this for screwdriver bits with the BiTorsion and other series, and for socket sets with the ZYKLOP sets. Both of these have deservedly had a lot of commercial success because they are simply a lot better designed and with greater functionality than their conventional tool counterparts. I also have to confess to a prejudice


– I like well-designed products because they are invariably easier to use and they usually do a better and quicker job. They are also products that usually derive from advanced economies where knowledge and skills are often highly developed and dependent on efficient and cost-effective working. With this background, has Wera once again come up with a product that will increase efficiency and be safer and better than the run-of-the-mill? In some ways the Joker looks like


many other combination hand spanners apart from the slight bulge in the middle where the Wera trademark is embossed. But the looks don’t betray the functions, all the advances are subtle and actually rely on the user to use the tool in a real situation to realize the benefits. There are four functions that the Joker has that will set it aside from the pack:- the fastener holding function, the secure grip function, the anti-slip function and the small return angle function.


effort to hold the nut into the spanner jaw as I bent my arm a seemingly impossible three ways in order to re- attach the nut to the rear of the battery tray.


By contrast, I found out how


easy it can be with the Joker when I changed the cutters on my thicknesser last week.


so that all you have to do is focus on getting the fastener correctly tightened up. Anyone who has used a spanner like this will know that the improved safety implications are obvious. By looking closely at the


Joker’s jaw configuration it is possible to see the next bit of clever design. Called the “double- hex


Independent Review by Peter Brett


that the open-ended socket can be simply turned and lifted and then reset on the hex nut. With a more conventional spanner, the user would have to lift the spanner, reverse it, then set the spanner again, turn and lift and then reverse again until the nut was tightened. Indeed, in some extremely tight access applications it can be nearly impossible to get the spanner to the angle needed to attach to the bolt. With the ratchet ring on the other end of the Joker, it is even easier, as the eighty tooth ratchet mechanism again allows even tiny handle movements without having to lift and replace the spanner each time. I have heard that the open end of


Working in the depths of the machine, knowing that the nut is safely held in the spanner jaws and that all you have to do is find the bolt and screw the nut onto it safely certainly makes life a lot easier. The fastener holding function is a simple idea, but as done by Wera, makes a lot of sense. On one side of the open socket is bolted a special stop-plate that holds the fastener underneath so that it cannot slip through the jaws. This makes it possible to insert the nut into the jaws, place the spanner (even at arm’s length) onto the bolt, align the nut and then start


geometry” and combined with the hardened


gripping plate it allows a nut or bolt head to be


gripped in a number of


very small steps. The gripping plate has a few small, hardened teeth that will literally bite into the head of a difficult-to-shift nut or bolt when significant pressure is applied to the


the Joker can be used as a pipe union wrench because the Bi-Hex feature of the jaws means that there are four points of contact instead of two on the nut, so the soft material nuts can withstand the higher torques needed to shift them.


The Joker sets are made in


chrome molybdenum steel with a nickel chrome coating so


are highly resistant to corrosion, wear and the sheer brute force likely to be applied in their working


spanner shank. Unlike smooth faced spanner tightening it. It really should make fiddling I will deal with all of these in turn and explain more as I go on. The fastener holding function is


quite dear to my heart since only two weeks ago I was up to my elbows trying to change a headlight bulb in my car. Due to some shortsightedness in the car manufacturer’s design department, this entailed removing the battery and the battery tray in order to access the rear of the headlamp casing. If only I had had the Wera Joker with me, I would have not had to resort t some blutack in an


16 ToolBUSINESS+HIRE


around in the dark looking for dropped nuts a rarity. By simply turning the spanner over,


the limit stop function is accessed. Remember those times when you had to use a thumb or finger to prevent the spanner from slipping off the fastener (nut or bolt) as you reached over to begin turning it? The limit stop simply prevents the nut or bolt from slipping through the jaws of the spanner


configurations that tend to slip suddenly when too much force is applied, the teeth grip into the fastener, and the extra force that can be applied will most often enable the fastener to be loosened. I tried this feature on a rusty wheelbarrow nut that had been left outside for a couple of


years. I managed to shift it fairly easily without any danger of skinning my knuckles. Finally, the “double hex” jaws allow


very small steps of thirty degrees of handle movement instead of the more usual sixty degrees. In confined spaces this means


moment the


wrenches are available in 10, 13,17 and 19mm sizes and, if bought in a set, come in a desirable black nylon pouch. Retailers can look forward to a great display set for a trade counter too. While I am only a very amateur


mechanic, this is obviously a tool that will be of great use to almost all professional tool users, and I have had enough experience of spanners and wrenches to recognize the shortcomings of poorly designed spanners and also to appreciate the qualities of a well- designed tool like the Joker. To my mind, Wera has done it once again, applied a lot of innovative research and development to a basic tool and improved it in a quantum leap. Fantastic!


Reply No. 214 www.toolbusiness.co.uk lives. At the


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