Advice required - Hex "allen key" sockets, impact or vanadium?

[TaKeN]

Evening all,

I need to remove a stubborn M20 Hex socket screw from the underside of our tractor, I managed to get two undone using some 1/2" Impact sockets with our Makita DTW450 but one just won't budge.

The plan is now to use a 3/4 tool with our oversized breaker bar. The question is, do I opt for the cheaper Impact tool such as this > http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BGS-17-mm...402917?hash=item41b61faae5:g:Ff0AAOSwx2dYCr6m

or do I buy the more expensive one such as this > http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Elora-155...992180?hash=item43d4435874:g:cRMAAOSw9GhYe~m4

or even this > http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gedore-62...727294?hash=item257fbaa0fe:g:jAQAAMXQKLdR0A5c

Google suggests that the impact are softer, and the vanadium is harder but brittle?

I just want the one that can take the most force without shearing! Thanks.

 

[bravheart]

Tried some of those to slacken/tighten the club tines on a Lely harrow, 17mm 3/4 drive for windy gun.
One was from Spaldings, don't know where the rest came from, but they were all rubbish.
IMO you will be better off with a top quality Allen key and a bit of scaffolding.

 

[AFM]

I would get impact Allen key, I use impact T star keys and they are way better than a standard tool!

 

[feazel]

you can get ones that are shorter than normal, might lower the chance of it shearing off.

the impact ones will be softer to reduce the chance of them shattering

 

[milkloss]

I'd try a full length 'proper' quality key first myself.

 

[feazel]

this is what I'm meaning, one of those on a 3/4" breaker bar should move anything

 

[massey765]

Sounds like a snap on .stahlwille.Britool jobby to me

 

[chipchap]

Give it an almighty wack with the biggest hammer you can first, the shock may well loosen it first. Tip I learnt from an ex army engineer.

 

[TaKeN]

Tried some of those to slacken/tighten the club tines on a Lely harrow, 17mm 3/4 drive for windy gun.
One was from Spaldings, don't know where the rest came from, but they were all rubbish.
IMO you will be better off with a top quality Allen key and a bit of scaffolding.

I found the spaldings page yesterday advertising those sockets for the Lely harrow! Did the windy gun snap the bit off?

My previous experience with 'Standard Alley Keys' is that they bend! Who do the best quality ones?

I would get impact Allen key, I use impact T star keys and they are way better than a standard tool!

1/2" or 3/4" ?

I'd try a full length 'proper' quality key first myself.

Any ideas on who's the best for quality?

this is what I'm meaning, one of those on a 3/4" breaker bar should move anything

Those look the job, my worry is that the softer impact metal will mean the end shears off.

Sounds like a snap on .stahlwille.Britool jobby to me

Are BETA tools any good? Their 3/4" Hex is the heaviest hex tool I can find at just shy of 300grams, weight means quality right?

http://www.motorsport-tools.com/bet...ive-hex-socket-driver-with-chrome-plated.html

Give it an almighty wack with the biggest hammer you can first, the shock may well loosen it first. Tip I learnt from an ex army engineer.

I think the Makita impact has given it the thrashing of a lifetime as the dust coming off it was quite worrying at one point, I'd rather not smack it with the hammer through fear of warping the head and no longer being able to get the hex in the slot.

 

[feazel]

BETA tools are mint in my experience.

The reason i mention shorter ones is that they should be stronger and won't twist up like a long one.

I second the good smack with a hammer

 

[milkloss]

Try the beta socket on a long bar and get someone to tap the back of it with a hammer while you're holding plenty torque on it. Not a thump of a club hammer, more of a fast tapping from a medium ball pein no more than 6" swing.

 

[chipchap]

We were removing the Allen head screws holding the main pivot on a matbro mast, near the windscreen. The engineer had a short length of hexagon bar welded into a hole in a piece of flat steel, as a handle.
A few good cracks with a sledge hammer did the trick; when it came free you could actually hear a different note!

 

[bravheart]

Spaldings twisted the end clean off

 

[tinman]

Give it an almighty wack with the biggest hammer you can first, the shock may well loosen it first. Tip I learnt from an ex army engineer.

above is the best advice here yet.
been at it for years here.
its a massive help.

as for an allen key/socket,
ive never used a BGS socket but i do have a small bit of some other stuff they do, the quality isnt bad in fairness to it, its above avg, german made i believe.
id use a allen key with a bar on it first tho, but if thats not an option you give it a good belt with a copper faced hammer and use any half decent allen socket on it and it ill fly off.

weight mightnt always mean quality, imo anyways.

 

[John 1594]

If you break the allen key

cut about 2" of the longer side off, slide this into a good, 6 sided impact socket of the appropropriate size, then use a breaker bar

trim the allen key so there is just enough lenght in it to allow it right into the bolt head and into the socket as well. You want it so the socket just touches the bolt when both hex's are enaged. This limits the twisting effect you might get if you had a longer bit of hex sticking out of the bolt

 

[TaKeN]

I finally sorted this out a few weekends ago, time for an update on what I used.

We already had this US Pro 1/2" Hex kit which are fairly chunky but couldn't shift the bolt with the Makita impact gun, for fear of breaking with a breaker bar (and not having anything that was strong enough as a breaker in 1/2") I had to make something that would take a 3/4" breaker bar but snap before the 17mm hex part did, so I rooted through the old tool box and found a broken Kamasa 1/2" extension piece where the female end had snapped at the walls and expanded outwards.

The photos should explain themselves, but I measured the OD of the female end on the kamasa, drilled the middle out of some 32mm nuts and tapped them over the end, I welded them on meaning a 32mm socket from our 3/4 tool set could used with the breaker bar and as a bonus the 1/2" female end that had snapped at the walls can now be used as a 1/2 extension again!



The broken bolts were already like that. The previous owner had sheared them off, leaving the remaining stuck one to hold the stabilizer bracket onto the back of the tractor...

 

[Gerbert]

I really really recommend Bondhus for allen keys. Only have a set of L shaped ball ends but they are awesome, only managed to break a small one and it was replaced for free.I managed to round of beta, gedore and various cheap makes but the Bondhus ones don't give a budge.

 

[tinman]

Ill second Gerbert's post,
i was looking for a good selection of imperial allen keys last year and after a fair bit of looking i settled for the Bondhus set, iirc they were about the only ones who did 12 different sizes in the one set.
excellent stuff in them.
cheap allen keys will only get you into trouble imo and good ones arent dear really.