stuvy
Member
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Stick your digital calipers on the bolt.It’s fine knowing what size the sockets are but if like me you don’t know or are rubbish at guessing the size of the nut or bolt, most sockets come out anyway, thus marking sizes on the sockets is a bit pointless , at least for me anyway.
Always impressed by folk that just look at something and say that’s xx mm
Buy them anodized...I don`t know about you guys but I find it a bit of a pain sorting through sockets to find the one I want-even with the reading glasses. The size stamped on a socket always seems to be very faint and hard to see. Get a bit of oil or dirt on them and it is even worse. That is the ½ inch drive ones. Don`t get me started on the 3/8th or ¼ inch drive. Spanners are rarely a problem as the size is raised up clearly-even on the small stuff.
I`ve tried writing on sockets and it wears off, sticking masking tape on and writing on that doesn`t last long.
I suppose one way would be to drill a series of holes or recesses in a piece of 2x2 timber and write the size on the timber below each socket with a sharpie pen. All well & good if stood working at the bench, but what if you`re crawling about under a vehicle with oily hands.
Anyone got an effective solution?
It’s fine knowing what size the sockets are but if like me you don’t know or are rubbish at guessing the size of the nut or bolt, most sockets come out anyway, thus marking sizes on the sockets is a bit pointless , at least for me anyway.
Always impressed by folk that just look at something and say that’s xx mm
I'm rubbish at Imperial stuff though, I tend to just throw sockets at it until one feels tight enough.
I don`t know about you guys but I find it a bit of a pain sorting through sockets to find the one I want-even with the reading glasses. The size stamped on a socket always seems to be very faint and hard to see. Get a bit of oil or dirt on them and it is even worse. That is the ½ inch drive ones. Don`t get me started on the 3/8th or ¼ inch drive. Spanners are rarely a problem as the size is raised up clearly-even on the small stuff.
I`ve tried writing on sockets and it wears off, sticking masking tape on and writing on that doesn`t last long.
I suppose one way would be to drill a series of holes or recesses in a piece of 2x2 timber and write the size on the timber below each socket with a sharpie pen. All well & good if stood working at the bench, but what if you`re crawling about under a vehicle with oily hands.
Anyone got an effective solution?
I think I learned a natural feel for sizes from messing about with pushbikes when I was young. Back then, brake blocks were mostly 10mm, wheel nuts 15mm, cable clamps 8mm, bottom bracket / cranks 13 or 15mm, etc etc. Once you know a few, you can guess by filling in the ones you don't know. For example, if a nut looks a little smaller than a wheel nut, but I don't recognise the size as a bottom bracket size, it's more than likely 14.A lot of the information used to make a decent guess is taken from things other than just the bolt/but head. I.e; manufacturer - will it likely be imperial or metric? Maybe it's an old VW an you'll make a sensible guess it's an M8 with a 13mm head or maybe it's a Honda and that M8 might be more likely to be a 12mm.
Knowing the common thread sizes and their corresponding "normal" fastener sizes helps lots too. It's pretty easy to spot a 2mm difference between M10 and M12 for example.
I'm rubbish at Imperial stuff though, I tend to just throw sockets at it until one feels tight enough.