wrote:

Do the 4-sided openings in European sockets conform to the same standard
1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" sizes we use in America? Or do the Europeans use a
metric sized drive square?

Yep, standard 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 square drives which can be used with both
imperial and metric hex/12 point sockets.

That's strange that Europeans use a half-metric half-what-you-call-Imperial
standard of units.

To us, Imperial is a strange word, where it often means Imperial Japan or
Imperial British (meaning before WWII in our vernacular), but we never use
the word "imperial" in terms of measurement units (at least I don't).

I have seen "imperial gallons" where I have to ask what they are, since we
just have gallons and liters and nothing else (similarly with regular tons
and long tons I guess).

I guess, since the US is anything but imperial, that the term must be so
old as to predate the SAE, and to relate to Imperial British units?

Let me think about that.... (would it be double or half?).


You can place you hands on any part of a click type torque wrench to get
it to work correctly.

I thought all torque wrenches needed your hand in a certain given spot?


Upon a few moments of circumspection, I'm not sure, but I think you'd
get a
reading that is half what it actually is??????


No, the end of the torque wrench would move exactly the same distance.
The end of the extension would move by twice the distance as the end of
the torque wrench.

OK. I'm confused because I have a dial-type wrench which has a pin which
certainly is to prevent you from putting force at any other point for this
reason alone....