Girard Finger Spinning Ratchet
By Benjamen Johnson
When using a ratchet, sometimes the nut or bolt is loose enough that you can’t rotate the ratcheting mechanism, but tight enough that you can’t quite turn it by hand. Some ratchets provide a little thumb wheel just for spinning the socket with your fingers — but Girard Development designed a more elegant solution: a ratchet with a finger spinner on the back.
Their 3/8″ standard drive ratchet features a 72-tooth ratcheting mechanism. The direction pawl’s additional position of neutral allows you to quickly turn the socket with the spinner. A flexible plastic grip covers the handle to make the stubby ratchet more comfortable.
For $15 this ratchet might be a curiosity, but it’s an inexpensive one.
Girard Finger Spinning Ratchet [McFeely's]
Via Amazon
March 20th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
I find my ratchets with an integrated thumb-wheel invaluable. And I can see one clear advantage that they would have over this item–one handed operation. That said, it still looks like a neat little piece of kit.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Holy gimmick Batman! That’s almost as bad as my ratchet with the direction selector built into the handle:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/eschoendorff/ratchet.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/eschoendorff/ratchet2.jpg
March 24th, 2008 at 6:53 am
I think the Stanely/Husky Rotator or the B&D Tri rotating, whatever the call it, will work better than this. Any time I use a stubby the area is usually to tight to get my hand in there. Now with this one I would be required to have my finger rotating around the head of the ratchet ? I think I could save $15 and just hold the socket with a finger and move the ratchet a few inches with my other fingers and problem solved. Never been a fan of the thumbwheels on ratchets though.