robobass writes:

1: Do you really use a 14mm socket? Do you actually encounter 14mm
hex heads? Give me one example.

I'm essentially retired, but in the late 60s, back when "foreign car"
meant something and shops that worked on N. American marques shunned
them, I worken on foreign cars.

Perhaps half were Volkawagen. The remainder included Borgward, DAF,
Alpha Romero, Panhard [1], Fiat, Mercedes, Porsche, Renault, Amphicar,
Lancia, Saab, Volvo as well as a very heterogeneous mix of British [2]
cars. Never saw a single Japanese car. (College town, y'know? Lot of
eccentrics and we were the only folks who could work on their
eccentric cars.)

Now, 50 years on, I don't recall exactly which bolts or nuts were 14mm
but my 14mm 1/2" drive socket and my 14mm boxend & openend wrenches
show a lot of wear. Valve adjustment screw locking nut on 60s VW
engines? Yeah, I think so.

The only specific item I can think of just now is a locking bolt on my
4" metal-cutting bandsaw. But all that wear came from came from the
auto work.

Of course, all the cars I worked on were made before you were born.
Maybe some standards or conventional choices have changed.


[1] I actually owned a 2-cyl air-cooled flat-opposed, front wheel
drive Panhard for awhile. Very cool car. Would like to have
ralleyed it. Swapped it even for a McCulloch chain saw.

[2] Yes, I even have a few Whitworth wrenches, solely because of
Whitworth nuts on some Brit starter motor power cable studs.

--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada