By now, many people are familiar with socket wrenches and appreciate them for their ability to save a lot of time and effort when tightening and loosening nuts, bolts, screws and other tightening elements.
Not everyone knows, however, that there are entire sets of socket wrenches. Each set is different, it can contain different types of keys, sockets and accessories depending on the task for which it was composed. Buying an entire set of socket wrenches really allows you to work with the certainty of always having the tool you need at hand.
But what elements are included within a set of socket wrenches? What are the differences between the different types of wrenches and sockets? Below you will find the answers to these and other questions.
The keys
Let’s start with the protagonists of each set of socket wrenches, those present in every set on the market (such as those you find by clicking here), those without whom all the other elements in the case would be unusable.
Inside the most supplied kits it is not uncommon to find several keys: some have a longer and thinner handle, others are short and thick, others have an articulated head that allows you to orient the ratchet in various directions.
Although they may all seem substantial differences (and, in some cases, they are) the real element that differentiates one socket wrench from another is precisely the ratchet mechanism and, more specifically, the toothed wheels that are located inside it.
Usually, there are at least two in each set of ratchet wrenches: one with a mechanism with a few teeth (about 24) and another with many teeth (up to 72). From the outside, they may look identical, but they really aren’t!
Ratchets with few teeth are created to withstand great efforts: being few, the teeth are thicker and more resistant. These are ideal for loosening stuck nuts and bolts, for example, or for tightening fasteners firmly. However, they have a limit: to turn they need to have a lot of room to maneuver around.
Conversely, when the ratchet has many teeth, they are thinner and more delicate. To shoot from one tooth to another, however, very small movements are enough. This feature makes keys with few teeth optimal for working in limited space conditions, for example when mounting a concealed kitchen.
Sockets in socket wrench sets
Let’s now move on to the sockets, the metal couplings that allow the wrench to do its job, the link between the ratchet mechanism and the head of the fastener, responsible for transmitting the torsional movement.
There are many sockets that you can find in a set of socket wrenches and they all differ essentially in two characteristics: the size and the profile.
The most common size of all is the 1/2 which ranges from 8 to 32 mm and is enough to do almost any task at home or in the workshop. For large fasteners, such as those of machinery and plants, a larger size, such as 3/4 measuring from 19 to 46 mm, is required. On the contrary, for “fine work”, we will have to take a much smaller size than the standard one, such as the 1/4 which goes from 4 to 14 mm.
The word “profile” refers to the shape of the inner walls of the compass and can only have two shapes: hexagonal (six-sided), or dodecagonal (12-sided). The difference between the two profiles is similar to that between ratchets with few and many teeth.
The hexagonal profile allows for a greater grip on the head of the fastener and, consequently, for greater effort. In contrast, the twelve-sided profile is able to screw or unscrew nuts and bolts with slower, but gentler movements.
In some sets of socket wrenches you can also find the Super Lock (hexagonal) and Spline-drive (dodecagonal), created to allow an extreme lock, or the Torx with the star profile for the screws.
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