Six versus 12 point sockets

Brent · 2007-05-27T08:26:56+00:00

A comment made in the giant Imperial metric debate about needing 2 sets of every type of tool prompted me to think of something I forgot to ask earlier What is the purpose of 12 point sockets? 6 points get a better overall grip on the nut and are less likely to wear off the corners than the 12's since the contact area is only only the edges of the fastener and i think only make contact with less than 1/2 of the hex nut. Every reference i'e seen to six point sockets says why they are better than 12's but i've never heard a "counter" advantage of 12 points in sockets. I know every manufacturer still seems to make 6 and 12 point sockets and they love selling identical pairs in sets except one set is 12 point one is 6 and then metric and imperial Does anyone know why they are around? is it historical or are there actual advantages to 12 point sockets? I'm VERY aware of the advantage of 12 points on a box or combination wrench since they allow for the wrench to get into a place with limited clearance better but wrenches in genreal dont have the ratcheting mechanism socket wrenches do (and those that DO have ratcheting in the boxed end of the combination wrench often look like toys I havent ran into a situation that 12 point sockets would be at an advantage over 6 points Could someone enlighten me to where the 12 would work better than a 6?

J

john 19 years ago

Actually Stilson invented the floating jaw pipe wrench. The rest of the pipe wrenchs are takeoffs on the Stilson design. The patent ran out a long long time ago so anyone can make a stilson type pipe wrench.

If you use a pipe wrench on a solid bar, is it still a pipe wrench oris it now a bar wrench or are you barred from using a pipe wrench on a bar by the pipe wrench nannies? :)

John

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H

Harold and Susan Vordos 19 years ago

Ain't he cute?

Yesterday he stood in his garage for a while, Now he thinks he's a car!

Sheeeesh!

Harold

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B

B.B. 19 years ago

There are lots and lots of reasonable counterpoints to just about everything you've ever posted. But you've made it clear time and time again that reasoning with you is a waste of effort. So you find yourself on the receiving end of the insults that you deserve. If that amuses you, prepare to be heavily amused.

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*

* 19 years ago

Harold and Susan Vordos wrote in article ...

According to the stats, you even outpost Cliff - the professional troll!!!

What's that you said about needing a life? ROFLMAO!!!!!

This post is generated weekly as a service to the participants of Rec.Crafts.Metalworking

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Analysis of posts to Rec.Crafts.Metalworking ============================================================================

(stats compiled with a script by Garry Knight)

Total posts considered: 1,150 over 7 days Earliest article: Mon May 28 00:55:04 2007 Latest article: Sun Jun 3 22:55:19 2007 Original articles: 78, replies: 1,072 Total size of posts: 2,684,175 bytes (2,621K) (2.56M) Average 164 articles per day, 0.37 MB per day, 2,334 bytes per article Total headers: 1,343 KB bodies: 1,277 KB Body text - quoted: 713 KB, original: 521 KB = 42.21%, sigs: 40 KB Total number of posters: 265, average 10,128 bytes per poster Total number of threads: 119, average 22,556 bytes per thread Total number of User-Agents: 34

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Top 20 posters by number of articles ============================================================================

1: "Harold and Susan Vordos" ..................... : 52 2: "Michael A. Terrell" .............. : 48 3: Gunner ................................. : 43 4: john .................................. : 41 5: Nick Mueller .............................. : 32 6: Cliff ...................................... : 25 7: "Tom Gardner" ...................... : 23 8: Wes ......................................... : 23 9: Don Foreman .................... : 19 10: Grumman-581 ............ : 19 11: Larry Jaques ................... : 18 12: snipped-for-privacy@d-and-d.com (DoN. Nichols)............................ : 17 13: ???hw??f ............................ : 16 14: clare at snyder.on.ca.......................................... : 16 15: "Joe AutoDrill" ........................... : 15 16: Rich Grise .................................. : 14 17: Lew Hartswick ....................... : 12 18: "Karl Townsend" .............. : 12 19: Bruce ................................... : 12 20: Trevor Jones ............................. : 11

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Top 20 posters by article size in Kbytes ============================================================================

1: john .................................. : 118 2: Gunner ................................. : 112 3: "Harold and Susan Vordos" ..................... : 105 4: "Michael A. Terrell" .............. : 104 5: "Tom Gardner" ...................... : 57 6: Cliff ...................................... : 51 7: ???hw??f ............................ : 45 8: Larry Jaques ................... : 43 9: Nick Mueller .............................. : 43 10: snipped-for-privacy@d-and-d.com (DoN. Nichols)............................ : 39 11: Don Foreman .................... : 39 12: Bruce ................................... : 37 13: clare at snyder.on.ca.......................................... : 36 14: John .................................. : 35 15: "Andrew Mawson" .......... : 30 16: Ignoramus4707 .............. : 29 17: Grumman-581 ............ : 28 18: Rich Grise .................................. : 28 19: Wes ......................................... : 27 20: Gerald Miller ............................ : 24

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And, I didn't even break the Top-20......

Not bad for a "troll"...........

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Six versus 12 point sockets

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