Why is this socket like this?

[cfk]

1/2" drive Craftsman easy-read 6pt sockets that I bought years ago as a full set..

These three sockets are 7/8", 15/16", and 1".. why is the hole in the 15/16" smaller than the other two?

Its the only socket in the whole set that is that way, and it doesn't fit on my peg-style socket tray.

 

[Old Man Roger]

I would drill it so it fits.

 

[AEAdam]

I would drill it so it fits.

Good luck with that. Even a craftsman socket is probably high 40s Rc. Cobalt M-42 min. Carbide better.

To answer the question, it’s because the manufacturer didn’t give a ****. Cheap sockets aren’t always unusable. But quality comes in many forms. For me it’s the little things.

15/16“ is an important (std) size. If it bothered me, I’d probably replace it with a better quality (unmatching) socket.

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

Personally, I would just change the diameter of the peg.

 

[woody 73]

I just fell off my chair reading this post, I am having to drill out two holes to fill that stupid peg holder, those sockets are killing my drill bits left and right, **** happens.

 

[RTM]

I just fell off my chair reading this post, I am having to drill out two holes to fill that stupid peg holder, those sockets are killing my drill bits left and right, **** happens.

Take a dremel, razor knife or soldering iron to the peg instead?

 

[nadogail]

When Quality Control is an unknown concept, Stuff Happens.

 

[kaymccampbell]

You know why they look like that.
The way I deal with it is to put a carbide burr in the die grinder, and enlarge the hole. Not much stops carbide.

 

[Spud McGee]

Chuck it up in the lathe!

 

[cfk]

Personally, I would just change the diameter of the peg.

That's actually what I did (although its pretty ugly now), but then I got to wondering why its the only socket in the entire set that has a smaller diameter hole than the rest. I thought maybe that was the size where they switched to a smaller hole, but that theory was proven wrong when the smaller sockets all have a bigger hole.

 

[kbeefy]

I have a couple sockets that don't fit, I thought it was the cheap socket rack.... now I have to look!

 

[ecotec]

Just drill the hole in the socket out, shake out the swarf, spray it with Fluid Film and put it in the socket tray…

 

[Pig_Pen]

I have some 3/8 Craftsman sockets like that. If figured there was a design change or something when they were replacing the tooling. Whatever the reason it was probably intentional and not QA related.

 

[oneleglance]

My guess is to help center a spark plug, 15/16 is one of the sizes for spark plugs if I remember correctly and the smaller hole might help with NOT breaking the ceramic

 

[AEAdam]

My guess is to help center a spark plug, 15/16 is one of the sizes for spark plugs if I remember correctly and the smaller hole might help with NOT breaking the ceramic

Just looked at my craftsman sockets. There is evidence of a drill operation on the hex side. The hole is just smaller than the inside (flats) of the hex so that the broach will clean up that surface.


For smaller sockets, I.e. smaller than the drive, that hole can be thru.

Okay: I think the drive side broach didn’t go deep enough for any of your sockets. It’s not a defect. It’s not that the bored hole is too small either. You can see it’s OD. It’s that the drive broach stopped too soon, before that material was cleared out.

That could have been a cost savings, but I would think the square broach would have preferred to go through.

Very interesting. Want to go look at Snap On now.

 

[T45]

I just was looking at some vintage Stahlwille sockets on ebay.de earlier today...and some had various broaching styles within the set. I've also see some odd-ball interior stuff on Omega/APEX industrial sockets on ebay here in the states. Don't think its anything considered to affect performance, but then again...affecting the OCD is probably another story

 

[AEAdam]

People here sometimes seem to think anyone can make sockets. They are actually pretty complicated. There’s a lot that goes into them. They also seem to think steel is just steel. All the same. That’s a little like saying beef is just beef, doesn’t matter where it came from, or how you prepare it.

 

[Steve_P]

It's like that because it's not a critical feature and has no effect on the function of the socket. Yes, I know someone is now going to create a scenario where you need to pass a 2' long piece of threaded rod thru it for some reason....

You've probably had that socket for 15 years and just now noticed it because it won't fit on your Hansen pegs. If you have Ernst racks like I do, you still wouldn't have noticed it . BTW have some of those sockets also. And of course I've never looked at them either to see if the thru holes are all identical. Would it be better if it was consistent and the entire set was too small to fit on the racks? I get it, they should all be the same, but maybe that was made on a different day, or machine, or...

 

[Barnabas]

My guess is to help center a spark plug, 15/16 is one of the sizes for spark plugs if I remember correctly and the smaller hole might help with NOT breaking the ceramic

Many older vehicles used fatter spark plugs that used a 15/16" socket. There are special deep sockets with the small hole and foam lining to keep you from breaking the spark plug. This looks like a compromise to make a regular deep socket also work for spark plugs.

 

[AEAdam]

It's like that because it's not a critical feature and has no effect on the function of the socket. Yes, I know someone is now going to create a scenario where you need to pass a 2' long piece of threaded rod thru it for some reason....

You've probably had that socket for 15 years and just now noticed it because it won't fit on your Hansen pegs. If you have Ernst racks like I do, you still wouldn't have noticed it . BTW have some of those sockets also. And of course I've never looked at them either to see if the thru holes are all identical. Would it be better if it was consistent and the entire set was too small to fit on the racks? I get it, they should all be the same, but maybe that was made on a different day, or machine, or...

I feel like the Hansen racks, with their annoying pegs that have caused GJers to look inside their sockets, (holes, paint, missing chrome) and their the sizes marked (socket skips) have SINGULARLY caused a lot of angst here.

There is probably several gigabytes of discussions here all stemming from the introduction of Hansen racks.

 

[AEAdam]

Many older vehicles used fatter spark plugs that used a 15/16" socket. There are special deep sockets with the small hole and foam lining to keep you from breaking the spark plug. This looks like a compromise to make a regular deep socket also work for spark plugs.

Good thoughts, but I have a couple c’man 15/16” and none of them look like that, I just see a square drive straight thru, like the pic above ( which isn’t a 15/16” I know, but it’s newer “laser etched” than my 1990s 6 and 12pts).

Really doubt this is a manufacturing “defect”. This looks like the way they chose to make these.

 

[Steve_P]

I was in the garage earlier and looked at some sockets. My ~20 year old 1/4 and 3/8 USA etched and roll stamped chrome USA Craftsman have the square drive broached thru; this makes sense as it seems like the easy way to do it vs blind. Some, maybe all, 1/4 and 3/8 deep SK and Williams have thru holes; I didn't see what's what, or measure to see if they'd fit on a Hansen peg. I did notice that I have at least one female square pipe plug socket that's blind broached from both sides- no thru hole. Oh, the horror!