48 point 1/2" Drive Britool Z5447 - Anyone know what this socket is used for specifically, thanks.
It’s been stated in this thread that Britool tools with a ‘Z’ prefix to the part number are items supplied to the MOD. Could well be, but I always thought that ‘Z’ numbers were allocated to any special pattern of tool.
I’ve seen quite a few ‘Z’ tools in the civilian world, mostly in the aviation industry, and I suspect most of them have always been there.
The most common tools I’ve seen are spline tools, both spanner’s and socket spanner’s, and it sounds to me like that's what you have here!
The coarser splines are standardised, and common on a lot of U.S. manufactured aircraft instead of regular bolt heads. The finer splines tend to be used more on the larger diameters, and are very common on British manufactured aircraft or engines. What you have sounds like a fine spline, so given the make of the tool, I’d suggest it’s a special for a (probably British) aero engine.
If you ever get to look round the engineers stores at any aircraft maintenance base, you usually find racks and racks of specialist tools like these, usually grouped by engine type!
A former employer of my Fathers maintained Rolls Royce Dart’s, Tyne’s, Avon’s, Conway’s, Spey’s and RB211’s, and the stores looked something like that end scene from ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ (well it did when you’re about 5). Most of it was unique to a particular engine, and most of it Britool!
I have a fairly comprehensive list of Britool part numbers and the tools they relate to, but it doesn’t include ‘Z’s.
I wonder what happened to all the company records. Given the importance they should probably be in an archive, but I wonder if they’re sitting around waiting for some idiot manager to chuck ‘em out!
