A pipe or tube used to extend a wrench, breaker bar or vise handle, multiplying the force a person can apply. It breaks loose seized bolts, and it also bends wrenches, cracks sockets, strips vise screws and snaps studs, because the tool was never rated for that load. Using one on a machine vise handle is a firing offense in some shops.
Heard on the job
Don't put a cheater bar on the vise handle, if it won't hold the part by hand, your setup's wrong.
Insider tip
Vise handles are sized for hand force on purpose; a cheater on a vise cracks the casting or the screw sooner or later.
Also heard as
- cheater
- cheater pipe
- snipe