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Tap Sockets/Drivers

I`ve got a few sets of tap sockets , the tool trucks that drive around ( rape vans ) is where I bought them , Snapon , Mac , Matco
 
Susquatch said:
I'd love to know how that happened too. But I have noticed that all socket drivers are 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 3/4, or 1". There might be bigger out there too. But nobody sells a metric drive that I've seen.

It's really hard to believe, but chock one up for consumers!
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That's one of a few places where the inch standard won out.

Some import cars have/had wheels with 4x114.3 bolt pattern. Translated it turns out to be 4.5 BC.

My favorite cars are the 4th generation Honda Civics. The rotor in the distributor is retained by an M3.5x.8 screw. While standing in the hardware department looking for some socket heads in that size, I realized it was not even close to anything standard. Some not so quick mental calculations revealed that it is a 6-32 they just translated to metric. WTF?
 
I had to go back to AliExpress June 2021 to find the first set I bought.
1710003624527.webp


And then in Dec. 2021 I bought the smaller ones.
1710003675719.webp
 
MrWhoopee said:
That's one of a few places where the inch standard won out.

Some import cars have/had wheels with 4x114.3 bolt pattern. Translated it turns out to be 4.5 BC.

My favorite cars are the 4th generation Honda Civics. The rotor in the distributor is retained by an M3.5x.8 screw. While standing in the hardware department looking for some socket heads in that size, I realized it was not even close to anything standard. Some not so quick mental calculations revealed that it is a 6-32 they just translated to metric. WTF?
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This happens often. I went to engineering school where everything was in Metric. The most common dimension was 25.4mm or 1". And the various multiples...

Sometimes metric units make calculations easier, they are all powers of 10, but it is also easier to make order of magnitude errors (off by a factor of 10) and harder to notice when you do.

Most of my professional time is spent checking the work of others (software and banking stuff) and in that capacity thinking about what the most common kinds of errors are, and how best to detect them is more important than the answers themselves

If I want to make one of these, I need to learn how to drill square blind holes. How do you do that?
 
Ive taken an old socket of apropriate size, heated it up and forged it to shape by tapping onto the square shank and striking the sides of it forming it nice and square.
 
Dan Dubeau said:
Nobody mention the old mechanic hack of pounding a nut on the square drive? I've picked up a few of those over the years in toolboxes I've bought. Pretty handy sometimes when you need to chase a thread in a far off land, and need to string together a bunch of extensions to get it there.
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No idea what you are talking about Dan. Can you be more descriptive or maybe a photo?
 
Meh, Those taps were bought in that tin, in that condition from the restore.

My own tap and cutter storage is much worse and would probably break the internet.....:D About 97.38% of working machinists and toolmakers I've worked with over the years are the exact same though......
 
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