# Turnbuckle belt tensioner **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 13, 2023, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turnbuckle-belt-tensioner/988496 "2023-08-13T04:23:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2023, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turnbuckle-belt-tensioner/988496/21 "2023-08-14T14:53:58Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > But you don’t need to be concerned, I can show you one weird trick to convert screwdrivers from right to left handed in the field. I know that one, an old machinist taught it to me. People are just amazed when I show them! ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2023, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turnbuckle-belt-tensioner/988496/22 "2023-08-14T19:13:16Z")
[Richard McKenna](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_McKenna), of _The Sand Pebbles_ fame, had a collection of short stories, [_The Left-Handed Monkey Wrench_](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128140.Left_Handed_Monkey_Wrench). The eponymous story had a main plot but a side-story was a chief machinists mate asking a seaman for one. The victim fell for it and everyone had a good yuck at his expense. Thereafter, whenever he appeared in the background he was always fiddling with a bit of metal. At the end of the story, the chief needed to tighten some pipe and asked for a monkey wrench. The kid slapped one in his hand, he thumbed the adjuster, and the wrench slipped off of the pipe barking his knuckles. The seaman had made a wrench with a left-handed thread on the adjuster. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turnbuckle-belt-tensioner/988496.md?page=1)