Good deal on 2 sets of inch/metric ball-end hex keys -- $11

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/06/29/good-deal-on-2-sets-of-inch-me.html

1 Like

It is a nice piece of design that the ball end is on the longer side. This is good because you can’t put as much torque on a ball end, so if you need to really torque it you have a longer handle and more bearing surface.

2 Likes

I’ve yet to ever see a non-metric hex bolt in the wild. I don’t know why they make inch-based hex wrenches. Maybe Harley Davidson motorcycles use them?

2 Likes

So wait, do I or do I not want ball ends?

6 Likes

my harley uses metric. - but I have seen SAE socket head cap screws in all sorts of equipment, … oddly, most lately? in server racks.

and I am a fan of the Bondhus set because - Made in America — not for a nefarious political agenda, I just try to support American manufacturers every chance I get.

2 Likes

On my bicycle everything is metric except for an imperial hex bolt on the set screws for the disk brakes. It drives my crazy!

1 Like

“Reverse the hex!”

(It’s probably not Imperial.)

Fender and Gibson guitars that are made in America do, their lower priced instruments that are made in the far east use metric. Martin, though, which are all US-made use metric.

I bought these last time they were recommended here and have had no reason to regret it.

Well, 25° of people want them and 75° of people don’t.

3 Likes

Here’s a metric buttload of inch-sized hex head screws. We use them in our telescopes in Arizona.

5 Likes

These are good as long as you don’t routinely use them for high torque applications. I’ve stripped a lot of hex bolts.

2 Likes

I’m kind of partial to xcelite tools. Made in the USA and indestructible. Also insulated from electrical hazards. My dream tool set is all xecelite.

1 Like

They’re used frequently in aerospace. NAS1352 screws are all over the place.

You see these frequently on old American cars, older appliances, and such. Worse yet, it can often be a mix which is irritating as hell - especially if you keep your metric and SAE tools separate.

See that in itself is sort of. Tangentially. Part of the heinous political agenda. Because your American made products are often made from non-american made components or materials. And your non American made products are even more often made from American made source materials. You’re pretty often supporting American manufacturing whether it says “Made in the USA” or not. The whole push to buy things that are manufactured in their final stage in the US is a political thing, that’s mostly about demonizing trade/ imports whatever.

LIke I’ve been reading a lot about CPU manufacturing lately. Most high end or current gen cpus are made in the us. The dies are printed here, often for IP reasons. The bulk of the manufacture is state side. But they’re packaged in Asia for the most part. Some times Europe. The chip is already made, but cutting the die into individual chips, connecting it to a heat spreader and mounting it on PCB, printing logos and boxing takes place outside the US. So they’ll almost never be labeled as manufactured in the US.

I happen to have a box from an old CPU sitting near my desk. This is what it says about its manufacture:

"AMD Processors are diffused in one or more of the following countries and/or region: Germany, Singapore, and Taiwan.

AMD Processors are made in one of more of the following countries and/or region: China Malaysia and Taiwan."

But, again having paid attention to the subject lately, its almost certain the chip itself was produced somewhere in the US. And China, Malaysia, and Taiwan are pretty specifically the countries where AMD doesn’t have dies made, but has them packaged. Despite the “made” appellation. When the base chip is rarely pressed outside the US its apparently (or was at the time, older box) somewhere in Europe. Germany, Ireland. The US is mentioned nowhere on the label.

A shaped hunk of steel is way less complicated. But how much do you want to bet Bondhus’s steel and or plastic doesn’t come from the US. And its possible Tekton’s does.

3 Likes

solid points … well taken

I need to have hope that at some point? I am supporting American makers, making things.

but? yeah who knows. and the political things aint helpin.

Certainly not.

But my point was largely that you’re often doing just as much to support American manufacturing by buying anything, as by buying things that make a stink about being Made in The USA. We don’t do a terribly large amount of final assembly. But we make a good amount of base components, raw materials and what have.

And labeling is a terrible mess. I work in the beer business. Its really surprising how much “imported” beer is brewed right here in the US. And a Russian fishing boat can get its catch off the coast of Japan. Freeze it in Thailand. Have it packed into retail cartons in Washington. And label it “Product of The USA”.

3 Likes

I for one will love the Deadpool Experimental Cosmology and Cooperative Ikea AR Polity Game maybe.

3 Likes

This is the content I come here for.

1 Like