Socket Drive Sizes - Metric yet?

Well you left out the 5/16" and 5/8" drives from the past. :-)

Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX

Greetings:

Every socket drive that I have seen sold in Europe is based on inch system. This includes major tool dealers such as Hahn & Kolb, etc.

Regards, Jim Brown (Germany)

What about tire sizes? Even imported cars use 14" 15" tires etc. Don't they? ? Enquiring minds... And gas pipe threads are based on English pipe thread sizes.

Any other examples?

(My point is, some things seem to stay english, even in the metric world. )

Pete

It was explained to me years ago that all heating, plumbing, HVAC are in Engish sizes because of the wonderful literature (technical books) that existed about 100 ± years ago. To wit: Steam Tables, Thermodynamic studies etc. etc. It was simpleer to adopt the English system and not have to republish all the great books.

Ivan Vegvary

And sparkplugs have been metric for years. Blew me away when I measured the threads on an antique sparkplug made in America for domestic use and found out they were metric. ERS

IIRC at one time sparkplugs were also NPT.

Jim

Yeah, they've got metric: 6.35 mm, 9.52 mm, 12.70 mm and 19.05 mm are the usual square drive sizes in Europe and Asia.

Tove

Ahh but........tires (or is that tyres...lol) are a 'bastard' sizing system. The width is specified in mm and the diameter is specified in inches.

Larry Green

You remember right Jim, and some of them also disassembled for cleaning!

Here's one like that I picked up at an antique shop in Minnesota a few years ago. A copper gasket seals the porcelain to the body.

Dual ground electrodes too!

Now why didn't *I* think of that?

Jeff

Before someone jumps on me, the copper gasket seals to the metal band fused to the porcelain, OK?

Jeff

You mean 8mm and 16mm drives? :-) (Close enough so with the typical fit of a socket drive, you could probably not tell the difference. :-)

Actually, I think that I have seen some metric drives, but they were hex, not square. No -- I didn't buy them, as they were also cheaply made.

Enjoy, DoN.

Tove Momerathsson wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@infinet.com:

If you do your math...

Gee, you noticed that too! Coincidence? Nahhhh.... ;-)

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What is something like that worth? I think I have one in a box out in the shop. I didn't realize it came apart.

I bought two from a roadside antique/junque shop. IIRC I think I paid about $12 for the pair. They were pretty well rusted and the hexes somwhat rounded off. I kept one and gave the other to an rcm poster there in Minnesota.

I'm sure a virgin one in its original box would have a higher value to a collector, and as I've discovered since the advent of the internet and eBay, there are collectors of EVERYTHING. You could always list it on eBay with a high enough reserve to make you happy if it sold.

Jeff

That really doesn't make any sense at all. What does make sense would be sticking to the English system to make it possible to replace or retrofit new pieces into an old system.

Sort of like putting up new plywood on an old house, when the studs are 18 inces on center and the new metric plywood is 1.5 meters, or about 50 inches, wide.

Sticking to one system doesn't eliminate all of the problems. Such as replacing two by lumber in an old house that was built with +3/4" or +5/8" sizes with the new +1/2" standard.

It sounds as though socket drive sizes and plumbing standards are some of the few areas where practical considerations have prevailed against the metrication-at-any-cost idiots.

John Martin

Sorry, meant 16 inches.

John Martin