[mark]

Like most on here I've got lots of spanners.
Sticking with metric sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my spanner
work is with 10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.


So what are the other ones for in spanner sets, ie., 9mm, 11mm, 12mm, 14mm
and so on. Are they just there to make the numbers up or make it harder to
find the one you want?


mark

[[email protected]]

mark wrote:
Like most on here I've got lots of spanners.
Sticking with metric sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my spanner
work is with 10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.


So what are the other ones for in spanner sets, ie., 9mm, 11mm, 12mm, 14mm
and so on. Are they just there to make the numbers up or make it harder to
find the one you want?

Isn't the standard size for M8 14mm?

I find the most frequently used sizes (across flats) are 8mm, 10mm,
12mm, 13mm, 14mm and 17mm.

--
Chris Green
·

[Adrian]

On Tue, 03 Mar 2015 17:07:47 +0000, mark wrote:

Like most on here I've got lots of spanners.
Sticking with metric sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my spanner
work is with 10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.

So what are the other ones for in spanner sets, ie., 9mm, 11mm, 12mm,
14mm and so on. Are they just there to make the numbers up or make it
harder to find the one you want?

Not everything uses those few "preferred" hex-head sizes. I use 11mm - M7
- a lot on old Citroens, and they crop up in other places, too. 14mm gets
a lot of use. 8mm is preferred M5, but 9mm does crop up occasionally.

Mind you, since buying an old Land-Rover, I've been pleasantly surprised
at how many Dibnah sockets and spanners I've accumulated over the years.
Gawd knows where from, but I'm not complaining.

[The Medway Handyman]

On 03/03/2015 17:07, mark wrote:
Like most on here I've got lots of spanners.
Sticking with metric sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my spanner
work is with 10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.


So what are the other ones for in spanner sets, ie., 9mm, 11mm, 12mm, 14mm
and so on. Are they just there to make the numbers up or make it harder to
find the one you want?


mark


I use M17 sockets/spanners a lot for fixings.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

[Dave Plowman (News)]

In article ,
Adrian wrote:
Mind you, since buying an old Land-Rover, I've been pleasantly surprised
at how many Dibnah sockets and spanners I've accumulated over the years.
Gawd knows where from, but I'm not complaining.

Is it BSW and BSF mainly - or Unified? Some UK makers took ages to finally
change to Unified. Especially on engines etc which may have been a pre-war
design, basically.

--
*I don't feel old. I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's time for my nap.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

[Adrian]

On Tue, 03 Mar 2015 18:17:45 +0000, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Mind you, since buying an old Land-Rover, I've been pleasantly
surprised at how many Dibnah sockets and spanners I've accumulated over
the years.
Gawd knows where from, but I'm not complaining.

Is it BSW and BSF mainly - or Unified? Some UK makers took ages to
finally change to Unified. Especially on engines etc which may have been
a pre-war design, basically.

UNF. Except for the bits that are metric. (1980)

[Adrian]

On Tue, 03 Mar 2015 17:39:14 +0000, The Medway Handyman wrote:

I use M17 sockets/spanners a lot for fixings.

Do you mean M17, or do you mean 17mm? 17mm would normally be M12. M17
would be one weird ******* non-standard thread, and probably about a 25mm
head?

Preferred hex-to-thread chart
https://www.boltdepot.com/fastener-i...ric-bolt-head-
size.aspx

[Capitol]

Adrian wrote:
On Tue, 03 Mar 2015 17:07:47 +0000, mark wrote:

Like most on here I've got lots of spanners.
Sticking with metric sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my spanner
work is with 10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.

So what are the other ones for in spanner sets, ie., 9mm, 11mm, 12mm,
14mm and so on. Are they just there to make the numbers up or make it
harder to find the one you want?

Not everything uses those few "preferred" hex-head sizes. I use 11mm - M7
- a lot on old Citroens, and they crop up in other places, too. 14mm gets
a lot of use. 8mm is preferred M5, but 9mm does crop up occasionally.

Mind you, since buying an old Land-Rover, I've been pleasantly surprised
at how many Dibnah sockets and spanners I've accumulated over the years.
Gawd knows where from, but I'm not complaining.

You can still buy those in the US.

[Bill Wright[_2_]]

Adrian wrote:

Not everything uses those few "preferred" hex-head sizes. I use 11mm - M7
- a lot on old Citroens, and they crop up in other places, too. 14mm gets
a lot of use. 8mm is preferred M5, but 9mm does crop up occasionally.

11mm fits small 'f' plugs.

Mind you, since buying an old Land-Rover, I've been pleasantly surprised
at how many Dibnah sockets and spanners I've accumulated over the years.
Gawd knows where from, but I'm not complaining.

I have a lot of spanners from my dad's workshop. Some of them are so big
I wonder if he used to work for Brunel.

Bill

[Bill Wright[_2_]]

The Medway Handyman wrote:
On 03/03/2015 17:07, mark wrote:
Like most on here I've got lots of spanners.
Sticking with metric sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my spanner
work is with 10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.


So what are the other ones for in spanner sets, ie., 9mm, 11mm, 12mm,
14mm
and so on. Are they just there to make the numbers up or make it
harder to
find the one you want?


mark


I use M17 sockets/spanners a lot for fixings.



U bolts for chimney lashing kits are 17mm.

Bill

[Adrian]

On Tue, 03 Mar 2015 20:34:29 +0000, Bill Wright wrote:

I have a lot of spanners from my dad's workshop. Some of them are so big
I wonder if he used to work for Brunel.

A few years ago, I had to buy a couple of 50mm spanners, to undo some
large and esoteric suspension nuts. A couple of days ago, my neighbour
needed to borrow something to fit a non-return valve to his septic tank
plumbing. Guess what size he needed...?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

In article ,
Adrian wrote:
On Tue, 03 Mar 2015 18:17:45 +0000, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Mind you, since buying an old Land-Rover, I've been pleasantly
surprised at how many Dibnah sockets and spanners I've accumulated
over the years. Gawd knows where from, but I'm not complaining.

Is it BSW and BSF mainly - or Unified? Some UK makers took ages to
finally change to Unified. Especially on engines etc which may have
been a pre-war design, basically.

UNF. Except for the bits that are metric. (1980)

Ah. That's not what most would call an old Land Rover. ;-)

--
*Great groups from little icons grow *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

[Chris Bartram[_2_]]

On 03/03/2015 17:07, mark wrote:
Like most on here I've got lots of spanners.
Sticking with metric sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my spanner
work is with 10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.


So what are the other ones for in spanner sets, ie., 9mm, 11mm, 12mm, 14mm
and so on. Are they just there to make the numbers up or make it harder to
find the one you want?


mark


Certainly 100mm, 13mm, and 17mm are the most common, but other sizes
crop up. One VW I've had needed 15mm on part of the front brakes, and
they're relatively hard to come by, and not in most sets.

[Chris Bartram[_2_]]

On 04/03/2015 00:48, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:


Ah. That's not what most would call an old Land Rover. ;-)

My neighbour has recently bought a properly old one- a Series 1. It
arrived trailered, with structurally significant rope holding it
together....

[Chris Bartram[_2_]]

On 04/03/2015 07:48, Chris Bartram wrote:
On 03/03/2015 17:07, mark wrote:
Like most on here I've got lots of spanners.
Sticking with metric sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my spanner
work is with 10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.


So what are the other ones for in spanner sets, ie., 9mm, 11mm, 12mm,
14mm
and so on. Are they just there to make the numbers up or make it
harder to
find the one you want?


mark


Certainly 100mm, 13mm, and 17mm are the most common, but other sizes
crop up. One VW I've had needed 15mm on part of the front brakes, and
they're relatively hard to come by, and not in most sets.
****. *10mm*. 100mm would be interesting.

[nightjar]

On 04/03/2015 07:52, Chris Bartram wrote:
On 04/03/2015 07:48, Chris Bartram wrote:
On 03/03/2015 17:07, mark wrote:
Like most on here I've got lots of spanners.
Sticking with metric sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my spanner
work is with 10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.


So what are the other ones for in spanner sets, ie., 9mm, 11mm, 12mm,
14mm
and so on. Are they just there to make the numbers up or make it
harder to
find the one you want?


mark


Certainly 100mm, 13mm, and 17mm are the most common, but other sizes
crop up. One VW I've had needed 15mm on part of the front brakes, and
they're relatively hard to come by, and not in most sets.
****. *10mm*. 100mm would be interesting.

I used to have one that I think was 75mm, to remove the inspection plugs
in the ends of the air receivers for my compressors. It needed two hands
to lift it.

--
Colin Bignell

[Adrian]

On Wed, 04 Mar 2015 00:48:12 +0000, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Mind you, since buying an old Land-Rover, I've been pleasantly
surprised at how many Dibnah sockets and spanners I've accumulated
over the years. Gawd knows where from, but I'm not complaining.

Is it BSW and BSF mainly - or Unified? Some UK makers took ages to
finally change to Unified. Especially on engines etc which may have
been a pre-war design, basically.

UNF. Except for the bits that are metric. (1980)

Ah. That's not what most would call an old Land Rover. ;-)

grin At least it's not one of these silly boingy ones.

[fred[_8_]]

On Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 8:16:17 AM UTC, Nightjar wrote:
On 04/03/2015 07:52, Chris Bartram wrote:
On 04/03/2015 07:48, Chris Bartram wrote:
On 03/03/2015 17:07, mark wrote:
Like most on here I've got lots of spanners.
Sticking with metric sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my spanner
work is with 10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.


So what are the other ones for in spanner sets, ie., 9mm, 11mm, 12mm,
14mm
and so on. Are they just there to make the numbers up or make it
harder to
find the one you want?


mark


Certainly 100mm, 13mm, and 17mm are the most common, but other sizes
crop up. One VW I've had needed 15mm on part of the front brakes, and
they're relatively hard to come by, and not in most sets.
****. *10mm*. 100mm would be interesting.

I used to have one that I think was 75mm, to remove the inspection plugs
in the ends of the air receivers for my compressors. It needed two hands
to lift it.

--
Colin Bignell

Contraplan, office furniture manufacturers of Rugby (Now defunct) used to supply tables with bolt in legs. The nuts were Whitworth. They had to be done up as tightly as possible to keep the table stable and only about 1/4 turn of swing was available. Real ******* and it had to be the right size spanner or the nuts quickly rounded.

[charles]

In article , fred
wrote:
On Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 8:16:17 AM UTC, Nightjar wrote:
On 04/03/2015 07:52, Chris Bartram wrote:
On 04/03/2015 07:48, Chris Bartram wrote:
On 03/03/2015 17:07, mark wrote:
Like most on here I've got lots of spanners. Sticking with metric
sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my spanner work is with
10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.


So what are the other ones for in spanner sets, ie., 9mm, 11mm,
12mm, 14mm and so on. Are they just there to make the numbers up
or make it harder to find the one you want?


mark


Certainly 100mm, 13mm, and 17mm are the most common, but other sizes
crop up. One VW I've had needed 15mm on part of the front brakes,
and they're relatively hard to come by, and not in most sets.
****. *10mm*. 100mm would be interesting.

I used to have one that I think was 75mm, to remove the inspection
plugs in the ends of the air receivers for my compressors. It needed
two hands to lift it.

-- Colin Bignell

Contraplan, office furniture manufacturers of Rugby (Now defunct) used to
supply tables with bolt in legs. The nuts were Whitworth. They had to be
done up as tightly as possible to keep the table stable and only about
1/4 turn of swing was available. Real ******* and it had to be the right
size spanner or the nuts quickly rounded.

what's wring with a good quality AJ?

--
From KT24 in Surrey

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

[Brian Gaff[_2_]]

I can recall a greenhouse needing the smaller sizes but not had experience
of others.
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"mark" wrote in message
o.uk...
Like most on here I've got lots of spanners.
Sticking with metric sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my spanner
work is with 10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.


So what are the other ones for in spanner sets, ie., 9mm, 11mm, 12mm, 14mm
and so on. Are they just there to make the numbers up or make it harder
to find the one you want?


mark

[The Other Mike[_3_]]

On Tue, 3 Mar 2015 17:07:47 -0000, "mark" wrote:

Like most on here I've got lots of spanners.
Sticking with metric sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my spanner
work is with 10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.


So what are the other ones for in spanner sets, ie., 9mm, 11mm, 12mm, 14mm
and so on. Are they just there to make the numbers up or make it harder to
find the one you want?

There are preferred sizes defined in the standards but they are not mandatory,
so sometimes a smaller head is used, saving weight or reducing assembly time or
improving access.
--

[Dave Plowman (News)]

In article ,
Adrian wrote:
On Wed, 04 Mar 2015 00:48:12 +0000, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Mind you, since buying an old Land-Rover, I've been pleasantly
surprised at how many Dibnah sockets and spanners I've accumulated
over the years. Gawd knows where from, but I'm not complaining.

Is it BSW and BSF mainly - or Unified? Some UK makers took ages to
finally change to Unified. Especially on engines etc which may have
been a pre-war design, basically.

UNF. Except for the bits that are metric. (1980)

Ah. That's not what most would call an old Land Rover. ;-)

grin At least it's not one of these silly boingy ones.

You mean one with springs? ;-)

--
*You can't trust atoms - they make up everything.
Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

[Adrian]

On Wed, 04 Mar 2015 11:51:28 +0000, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Mind you, since buying an old Land-Rover, I've been pleasantly
surprised at how many Dibnah sockets and spanners I've
accumulated over the years. Gawd knows where from, but I'm not
complaining.

Is it BSW and BSF mainly - or Unified? Some UK makers took ages to
finally change to Unified. Especially on engines etc which may
have been a pre-war design, basically.

UNF. Except for the bits that are metric. (1980)

Ah. That's not what most would call an old Land Rover. ;-)

grin At least it's not one of these silly boingy ones.

You mean one with springs? ;-)

Indeed. Over-rated, they are.

(Mine's on parabolics, so the ride is merely abysmal, rather than non-
existant)

[Gazz]

"The Other Mike" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 3 Mar 2015 17:07:47 -0000, "mark"
wrote:

Like most on here I've got lots of spanners.
Sticking with metric sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my spanner
work is with 10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.


So what are the other ones for in spanner sets, ie., 9mm, 11mm, 12mm, 14mm
and so on. Are they just there to make the numbers up or make it harder
to
find the one you want?

There are preferred sizes defined in the standards but they are not
mandatory,
so sometimes a smaller head is used, saving weight or reducing assembly
time or
improving access.

i think a 16mm spanner is my least used size of a full set i have from 4.5mm
to 8mm in .5mm increments, then from 10mm to 19mm in 1mm increments,
i have at least 2 of 10, 13, 17 and 19mm spanners as they are the most
likely to be needed on a nut and bolt at the same time.
i then have 1 each of 22, 24, 26, 27, 30, 34 and 36mm spanners,

The larger sizes are common on the heavy campervans i once owned, they were
the reason i have a few odd sockets like a 27mm thin wall extra deep reach
one for injectors, a 3/4" drive 19mm socket used for the wheel nuts on a VW
LT (1/2 inch drive sockets either split or snapped the breaker bars square
off when trying to undo them)
And the 63mm socket used on the rear wheel bearing nuts of an iveco daily,
plus a few hex key sockets in the 20mm range, and an oddly bent short shaft
14mm spanner for the awkward nut on iveco injector pumps.

That's all small fry compared to the spanners and sockets used daily at the
commercial garage is did my YTS years at, including a torque wrench with 2
handles set at 60 degrees or so, so that 2 fitters could push and pull on it
together to get the thing to click at the set torque.

[Muddymike[_2_]]

"Gazz" wrote in message ...



"The Other Mike" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 3 Mar 2015 17:07:47 -0000, "mark"
wrote:

Like most on here I've got lots of spanners.
Sticking with metric sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my spanner
work is with 10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.

I find regular use for my 2BA spanners.

Mike

[Bob Eager[_4_]]

On Wed, 04 Mar 2015 12:49:17 +0000, Muddymike wrote:

"Gazz" wrote in message ...



"The Other Mike" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 3 Mar 2015 17:07:47 -0000, "mark"

wrote:

Like most on here I've got lots of spanners.
Sticking with metric sizes, I've noticed that the majority of my
spanner work is with 10mm and 13mm sizes which corresponds to M6/M8.

I find regular use for my 2BA spanners.

I have a 4BA box spanner (posh one with a shaft and handle, more of a nut
spinner I suppose) that I've had for about 40 years.

I know this because it still has insulation tape rolled round it to
extend the box part; I made it into a jig for dismantlin door locks at
university.

Why? To re-order the pins so that the cleaner's master key wouldn't work
any more. They were sadistic and used to wake us up far too early. I
think we did a whole floor once.


--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £30a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

[Dave Plowman (News)]

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
I find regular use for my 2BA spanners.

I have a 4BA box spanner (posh one with a shaft and handle, more of a
nut spinner I suppose) that I've had for about 40 years.

Ages ago on a whim I bought a Kamaza socket set (1/4 and 3/8" drive) which
has metric, unified and BA sizes. It was on offer in my local motor factor.
One of my best buys ever.

What I'd love to find is a set of deep BA 1/4" drive sockets. 0-8.

--
*I don't know what your problem is, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.