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Science-Technology Title: Brilliant Solution: Inventor Creates LED Wrenches Gone, at last, are the days of bribing your best friend with pizza and beer to hold your flashlight as you tinker (or fumble) with a wrench in the dark recesses of your car. Grab yourself a set of Hi Beam-Light Wrenches and you can use one hand to hold the wrench and the light, leaving your other hand free to hold anything else — including your beer. San Diego gearhead and inventor Clifford Wright has come up with the brilliant idea of adding LEDs to wrenches, creating a tool that lets you see that damn bolt tucked up behind the starter. It’s one of those simple solutions to a frustrating problem we wish we’d thought of. Wright, like many of us, finds joy tinkering in the garage and is familiar with the encumbrance of providing light in tight spaces. Necessity led to inspiration while working under his 1985 Ferrari 308, and he thought someone ought to find a solution. “Why can’t I,” he thought. And so he did. light-wrenches_smaller1 Photo: Bossco International Wright launched Bossco International — the company is named for his loyal rottweiler — in 2007. After two years of R&D, design and redesign, the hardy chro-moly light wrench made its debut. The rechargeable wrenches feature a five-hour burn time with high-beam, low-beam and blink settings perfect for the garage, roadside repairs and even warning oncoming traffic of your stranded heap. The metric-English open-end box wrenches sell for $100 for a set of seven. Wright began his career as a biomedical engineer and attributes his tinkering tendencies to a childhood spent working alongside his late father Buddy. Buddy Wright was an antique-car mechanic working on Ford Model Ts, Dusenbergs and other classics by day and the neighborhood fix-it man by night. “He could fix anything and it would drive me crazy,” Wright said. “Dad used to fix neighborhood cars and paint them in the backyard.” Wright believes he is becoming just like his father, valuing his father’s lessons and perfectionism, and becoming the fix-it guy for his own neighborhood. He’s got his own shop helper and apprentice — his 8-year-old son, who started out early sliding his car seat under the car and “helping Daddy.” At the moment Wright is awaiting a response from the product review team at Craftsman and hopes to earn a spot on ABC’s Shark Tank, the reality show where entrepreneurs convince millionaires to bankroll their ideas. He’s looking for investors willing to cough up $2 million in exchange for a 30 to 40 percent stake of the venture. If you want a piece of the action, speak up. He’s welcoming all comers. What else is in the pipeline? Wright says he’s working on an automotive jack that will work on dirt, gravel and any other lousy surface. Capable of lifting any car anywhere, “it’s so easy a little girl could operate it.” No, we don’t condone keeping a little girl in the trunk in case of emergencies. Wright’s father, known for his wit and making any odd tool needed for a specific job, once told him, “Son, you’re not the sharpest tool in the box, but you’ll get there.” Now, at 46 years old, Wright has gotten there with nominations for San Diego Entrepreneur of the year and a Top-100 Inventor of the year, he knows exactly what his father would say about his newest invention: “Thought of it. Done that.”
Poster Comment: I want a set of those wrenches.
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