"Susan P" wrote in message
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On 05 Nov 2006, shazzbat wrote:

"Guy King" wrote in message
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The message
from Susan P contains these words:

How useful for car work would one of these flexible extensions
be?

The amount of torque you can apply through one is minimal.


What Guy says is correct, but they are handy for getting nuts
started in awkward positions, they can then be tightened with
something more rigid when they've been run up to touch. Of the
three I'd prefer the first one.


Don't you think the first flexible extension might be so long and so
flexible that it is the weakest of the three?

http://snipurl.com/11a9r

Not really. They don't get subjected to pulling or pushing forces, but
torsional(twisting) forces. It will be considerably stronger than the human
arm on the end of it. If you look at the picture closely, you will see that
it is wound in the direction which means it will tend to close up when
tightening. This makes it become more rigid. It will be considerably less
strong in the other direction. At 1/4" square drive, it is only for small
nuts and bolts, and strength is unlikely to be an issue. I have got one I
kept when I left the army in 1980 and it still works a treat. It isn't the
greatest tool in the world, but as I said earlier it is handy for awkward
spaces.

Steve