Irwin "Bolt Grip" Sockets: Review

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

Reply to
Christopher Tidy
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I've had good results with this:

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An exquisite (and, in hindsight, obvious) hybrid of mole grips and adjustable spanner.

Not always applicable, but an excellent tool on occasion.

BugBear

Reply to
bugbear

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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

Reply to
Christopher Tidy
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O.K. So "mole grips" is what we call "Vise Grips" (a brand in the USA, and I believe the inventor of the design).

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So -- "King Dick" is still around? I remember that they were the makers of the screw jack which came with my MGAs.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Oh yes. And most of the tools they make are excellent. I have a King Dick socket set and some King Dick combination spanners - all very nice. The King Dick adjustable wrench isn't bad, just not excellent.

Best wishes,

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

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