|
Posted by Christopher Tidy on September 23, 2006, 1:05 pm
Please log in for more thread options
Hi all,
Thanks to everyone who gave me their opinion on these sockets. I bought
a set and they arrived yesterday. I gave them a pretty good test on the
rusted bolts on my air raid siren and also using various scrap bolts
clamped firmly in the vice.
They solved the problem with the air raid siren bolts. One bolt came
undone and the other broke off, but at least it is disassembled. At
first I thought I had damaged one of the sockets, but it turned out to
be a piece of flash left inside the socket from the forging process.
After use I couldn't see any damage to the lobes, so it looks like
they're made from a good, hard tool steel. The piece of flash was
surprisingly ductile too, so I don't the sockets would crack.
Overall I'd give them 7 out of 10. I have three reservations:
* Individual extractors only fit one size of hex head. They aren't very
forgiving when it comes to size. 1/2" works on 13 mm, but won't work
on 12 mm, for example.
* They don't work well on totally round fastener heads. They do what
they say on the box well - undoing hex head fasteners - but I tried
them on some slotted screws with a domed head and they really
struggled to grip.
* They're expensive.
I hope someone else find this information useful when tool hunting!
Best wishes,
Chris
|
|
Posted by bugbear on September 25, 2006, 6:11 am
Please log in for more thread options
Christopher Tidy wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Thanks to everyone who gave me their opinion on these sockets. I bought
> a set and they arrived yesterday. I gave them a pretty good test on the
> rusted bolts on my air raid siren and also using various scrap bolts
> clamped firmly in the vice.
>
> They solved the problem with the air raid siren bolts. One bolt came
> undone and the other broke off, but at least it is disassembled. At
> first I thought I had damaged one of the sockets, but it turned out to
> be a piece of flash left inside the socket from the forging process.
> After use I couldn't see any damage to the lobes, so it looks like
> they're made from a good, hard tool steel. The piece of flash was
> surprisingly ductile too, so I don't the sockets would crack.
I've had good results with this:
http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp?pf_id=23330&filter_cat=&manufacturer_id=Stanley&name=&user_search=1&sfile=1&jump=16
An exquisite (and, in hindsight, obvious) hybrid
of mole grips and adjustable spanner.
Not always applicable, but an excellent tool on occasion.
BugBear
|
|
Posted by Tony Jeffree on September 25, 2006, 6:38 am
Please log in for more thread options On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 11:11:03 +0100, bugbear
>I've had good results with this:
>
>http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp?pf_id=23330&filter_cat=&manufacturer_id=Stanley&name=&user_search=1&sfile=1&jump=16
>
>An exquisite (and, in hindsight, obvious) hybrid
>of mole grips and adjustable spanner.
>
>Not always applicable, but an excellent tool on occasion.
Thats neat - gets over the obvious problem with Mole grips that the
jaws don't meet parallel for most AF izes.
Regards,
Tony
|
|
Posted by Christopher Tidy on September 25, 2006, 3:54 pm
Please log in for more thread options bugbear wrote:
> Christopher Tidy wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Thanks to everyone who gave me their opinion on these sockets. I
>> bought a set and they arrived yesterday. I gave them a pretty good
>> test on the rusted bolts on my air raid siren and also using various
>> scrap bolts clamped firmly in the vice.
>>
>> They solved the problem with the air raid siren bolts. One bolt came
>> undone and the other broke off, but at least it is disassembled. At
>> first I thought I had damaged one of the sockets, but it turned out to
>> be a piece of flash left inside the socket from the forging process.
>> After use I couldn't see any damage to the lobes, so it looks like
>> they're made from a good, hard tool steel. The piece of flash was
>> surprisingly ductile too, so I don't the sockets would crack.
>
>
> I've had good results with this:
>
>
http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp?pf_id=23330&filter_cat=&manufacturer_id=Stanley&name=&user_search=1&sfile=1&jump=16
>
>
> An exquisite (and, in hindsight, obvious) hybrid
> of mole grips and adjustable spanner.
>
> Not always applicable, but an excellent tool on occasion.
Indeed. In this case the access was so poor (needed a socket on a long
extension) that I couldn't have used any kind of locking wrench. Gedore
make a type of parallel jaw locking wrench too. The design is different
to the Stanley, but the idea is the same. I think it's about £25 to £30.
The regular Stanley adjustable wrenches I've seen are pretty good.
Better than my King Dick wrench, which cost about the same money, but
probably not quite up to the quality of a Bahco.
Best wishes,
Chris
|
|
Posted by DoN. Nichols on September 25, 2006, 9:54 pm
Please log in for more thread options > bugbear wrote:
[ ... ]
> > I've had good results with this:
> >
> >
>
http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp?pf_id=23330&filter_cat=&manufacturer_id=Stanley&name=&user_search=1&sfile=1&jump=16
> >
> >
> > An exquisite (and, in hindsight, obvious) hybrid
> > of mole grips and adjustable spanner.
O.K. So "mole grips" is what we call "Vise Grips" (a brand in
the USA, and I believe the inventor of the design).
[ ... ]
> The regular Stanley adjustable wrenches I've seen are pretty good.
> Better than my King Dick wrench, which cost about the same money, but
> probably not quite up to the quality of a Bahco.
So -- "King Dick" is still around? I remember that they were
the makers of the screw jack which came with my MGAs.
Enjoy,
DoN.
--
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---
|
|
|
Yahoo! 
Google 
Windows Live 
del.icio.us 
digg 
Netscape 
XML Sitemap
>
> Thanks to everyone who gave me their opinion on these sockets. I bought
> a set and they arrived yesterday. I gave them a pretty good test on the
> rusted bolts on my air raid siren and also using various scrap bolts
> clamped firmly in the vice.
>
> They solved the problem with the air raid siren bolts. One bolt came
> undone and the other broke off, but at least it is disassembled. At
> first I thought I had damaged one of the sockets, but it turned out to
> be a piece of flash left inside the socket from the forging process.
> After use I couldn't see any damage to the lobes, so it looks like
> they're made from a good, hard tool steel. The piece of flash was
> surprisingly ductile too, so I don't the sockets would crack.