Socket Grip Adapter

[BuffaloJohn]

I had some hex bolts to install in one of those upside down, twist your hands, can't see where you are going, I'm too old for this situations.

I could get a bolt started, but not enough room to turn it, so I got a socket and I could get that on the bolt head, but it was too narrow for me to turn. I found these 1/2" to 3/8" drive adapters which I can't say I have ever used, but they came in a set.

Grip was a little better, but now I was dealing with a smooth cylinder to grip and oil/grease didn't make that easy to turn. So - why not Knurl it?

Sure, why not? It is easy! Nope - the adapter was gripped on the tip of the three jaw chuck and the knurling wheel barely fit onto the adapter but the side bars of the wheel were a problem. I tried, but just a little pressure and the adapter popped out of the 3 jaw chuck. So I looked through the 1/2" extensions and found one that was the least wobbly and chucked up the extension and popped the adapter on the end. Now the knurling tool had space to work.

First tried to do a knurl and move the cross slide to get the full adapter face, but that just worked the adapter off the extension, so I figured - it won't look pretty, so lets just knurl a spot, back out and move over and knurl some more. Correct. it wasn't pretty, but it worked:



I did both of what I had. When I put the adapter on the socket, I had grip, even when oily and in the bolts went!

[mklotz]

Would a flexible socket extension have worked?

[BuffaloJohn]

Would a flexible socket extension have worked?

The bolts were just started and when I tried other ways, I just couldn't get my hand up there well enough to hand tighten without knocking the bolts out (which I did a few times) or risk cross threading (without a decent purchase on the socket, I couldn't feel well enough the difference between hard to grip and resistance to turn). I had to get multiple bolts in and skootch things about with my other hand. Using an extension (flexible or rigid) was harder to get in as it got in the way of my hand or other bits I was snaking my hand through.

[Frank S]

I learned a long time ago that pretty doesn't make things anymore functional.

[motorhead]

Like the old Hot Rodders used to say, " Chrome don't get you home!" I now know what my next batch of knurling projects will include!

[sossol]

I had a situation like that and cut the handle off of one of the cheap socket wrenches with a head barely bigger than the ratchet mechanism and ground the chrome off. I haven't used it as a wrench since then, but I keep it just in case.

Neil

[tonyfoale]

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