Mechanics: what are your most common tools?

This makes no sense to me. If you can get a socket on a fastener, you have 360 degrees of access. The only time a 12 point wrench is adventagous, is when you have a fixed/non-ratcheting handle -- like a box end wrench.

 

Or a breaker bar (non-ratcheting). I can vouch for that situation, and I certainly have slipped 6-point sockets off the breaker bar and put them back on ¼ turn around to get a better angle ... too many times to count.

I would still rather do that than use a 12-point socket, especially because if I'm using a breaker bar in the first place, I'm probably expecting to have to lean on it hard enough that a 12-point socket might round off the bolt head.

-Chap

 

Chap pointed out one of those things that mechanics figure out within minutes of working with tools, yet engineers can spend careers driving past without really cracking into.

It's amazing how many factors of tool design and construction can combine to make one work well and another not work well for a given role. Gaining access by recombining a square-driven 6-pt socket on a different square face is a real thing.

A ratchet is not the only driver you might put on the end of a socket. You may need more torque, like a flex handle with a cheater pipe over it. That won't give you the range of rest fits that a ratchet handle will.

 

Gone are the days of working on cars, today it's just changing from summer wheels to winter wheels, so a compressor, and a long torque wrench, and if you change your own oil ramps and of course a pump up lightweight lift.
Anyone changing belts and pulleys and head gaskets already has tools, ah, a good pressure gauge.

 

Bite your tongue!

Along those lines, if you were going to build a ratchet driver for use with hex sockets, and you figured you could successfully machine the ratchet head with anywhere from, say, 18 teeth to 28 teeth, for the widest choice of rest fits, how many teeth would you pick?

-Chap

 

My first on road vehicle was a 56' all wheel drive Scout, to adjust the Dwell you lifted up a sliding metal piece on the side of the distributer and inserted an Allen wrench and watched the strobe. To adjust the timing you twisted the distributer watching the strobe until the timing Mark was lite up, carried a hand drill and some stones to hone out the clutch piston reservoir periodically, also the brake master cylinder reservoir, gone are the days.

 

So, I just used my Impacta screw driver for the first time yesterday after we talked about it. I had a screw jack (not hydraulic) I picked up on one of my local dump trips. It is a cast iron bottle type jack that has "Toyota Motor Company" cast into the body and it was old as dirt. I grabbed it because I have not seen a vintage Toyota jack before and it looked amazing. Old school quality. Cast iron and machined parts throughout. It sat there in my garage for years until yesterday I needed to raise a landing of my auxiliary staircase on the house to shore up a post. The space for jacking was almost perfect for the Toyota relic plus a 10" piece of 4x4 scrap. The old jack did its job with aplomb (it's rated for 2 tons as per the casting), but I felt that I was really working hard to turn the handle. Probably due to 1000 year old grease and whatnot in there. So after I was done using it I decided to take it apart and give it a little love. It was held together with 3 large JIT screws with lock washers and some rust and grime to hold it all together. I tried to just turn them loose and no joy. So utilized the impact feature of my new JIT Imacta driver. It worked like a charm, though I did have to hit it a few times. I definitely felt the twist and spring action. Got those screw loose with no damage to the head whatsoever. It was actually quite amazing. This is my first ever JIT tool. I always used phillips and always damaged the heads at least a little. This is a great tool and maybe mine wasn't as stuck as yours, Mendel, but it worked great.

As for the jack, boy, is it a nice quality tool! Inside I found a lot of hardened rusty colored grease, bevel gears, screw shafts and ball bearings. All 100% intact and serviceable. I soaked everything and used a lot of WD40 to clean all the orange rust colored gunk. there was no rust on iron and machined steel (the shaft and screws) to speak of. The old grease protected everything even as it lost its lubricating properties. I re-loaded everything with grease after a thorough cleaning and put it back together and it runs up and down effortlessly now. I also had to forge a crank for it as that did not come with the (free) purchase It is a thing of beauty and a great example of Toyota quality.

So I guess my tool box also includes a forge, anvil, leg vice and a few forging hammers and tongs.

 

I think there's something wrong with mine then. Not worth the bother of refunds, meh: still a good screwdriver.

I liked hearing about your screw jack; I've looked into those a few times. Especially if I could find a wide base model, seems a good alternative to safety stands?

A pic I took a few years back, my wife and I took a camera walk through an old New Westminster neighbourhood:



(It's a bottle jack though.)

 

I've known mechanics who kept several ratchet drivers. "loose" ones with fewer teeth because they could withstand much more force, and "tight" ones with more teeth, smaller pawls, or multi-stacked offset ratchet wheels. Really useful when you've only got a couple degrees of swing due to insanely dense engine bays.

A tight one stripping teeth and throwing your hand can be very dangerous, so it's a thing I've always paid attention to when picking up an unfamiliar ratchet.

 

Exactly! This is why there is no logical arguement for the existance of 12 point sockets except for the very rare specialty use of them with 12 point fasteners.

 

I never buy 12 point anymore, mainly a (admittedly uneducated) concern they're more prone to round a bolt head.

 

If you want to ruin a good ratchet use it to break stuck bolts and leave your breaker bar in the toolbox.

 

If you don't have the key to the locking lug nuts and want them off, taking a 12 point 19mm socket and pounding them on the keyed lug allows you to remove them and replace them with regular lugs.

 

^ agreed, 12pt sockets work wonders in improvised fit situations. Terrible for fastener integrity but usually with those you're going for total loss fastener removal anyway, new hardware for reassembly later.

 

I have a set of 12 point Snap On sockets and have never had a problem removing any nuts or bolts.
Get quality tools is vital. It MUST be the size it is supposed to be. 19mm should be 19mm's.
Not 19.5 or 18.8! Buying "lesser quality", or CHEAP tools is what destroys the parts your want to remove.

 

Your intuition is correct. They are more prone to rounding nuts/bolt heads.

 

Might have missed it, but here's one that I use every time I work on one of my vehicles. One of the best Christmas gifts I've ever received and they're guaranteed just like the Leatherman tools. The battery door on my original broke and a call to them (talked to a real human), sent the old one in, replaced with a newer model.

H7R.2 300 Lumen LED Headlamp | LEDLENSER

 

I had a cheapie head lamp, something went off on it. I keep meaning to get another. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

I love headlamps. I have an Energizer that takes 3 AAA batteries and I use rechargeables. It is amazing how handy that set up is for so many things.

 

Just for entertainment purposes, let's pretend your engineers have determined they can make you a ratchet that's adequately stout with any tooth count in (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, or 28). So you're free to just pick the one that will give you the most angles to choose from to get your hex socket onto the bolt head.

Anyone? There are some hints in #40.

-Chap