11mm box end wrenches

[Mike Self]

It's usually 10mm wrenches and sockets that go MIA.  I know where my 1/4" drive 10mm socket is--inside a hollow, bowed crossmember under the bed of my Frontier pickup truck.  I've been trying to retrieve it for two years--I can reach halfway across the crossmember with my magnetic pickup tool, but as yet haven't been able to snag it.  And because the tube is slightly bowed, I can't shine a light down into it to see where it's hiding.  And it was a Facom socket, the first metric socket I bought, back in 1963, when I found out there was no SAE equivalent for 10mm.  Back then even Sears didn't carry metric tools, so I had to get it from an industrial supply house.

 

Old VW beetles used 11mm nuts on their clutch cable adjusters...

 

mike  

[tzei]

I bet they're dingeling on hard pipes.

[JKKH]

2 hours ago, tzei said:

I bet they're dingeling on hard pipes.

Sisu-style!

[Diggindan]

12 hours ago, ray_ said:

Hard brake line fittings.

 

But getting a box end on there may be a feat!

 

Invest in a flare nut wrench for brake line fittings. Just sayin'.

[Frank-76]

Lol...

Made my day!

[TobyB]

Quote

 I know where my 1/4" drive 10mm socket is--inside a hollow, bowed crossmember under the bed of my Frontier pickup truck. 

Compressed air from the other side.

 

Make sure you have something set up to catch it, because it may come out of there at speed.

 

If air by itself doesn't do it, wad up a bit of paper towel to act as a piston.

Start small, but you eventually may end up with a relatively large ball of towel.

 

Or you can use air to blow a string (pull line) through the pipe, then tie something of the 

right diameter to the string and use THAT to pull the socket out in a more controlled fashion.

 

t

worked as an electrician once.

[Son of Marty]

You can also try a small super magnet on edge on the outside of the rail and drag your socket back to where you can reach it.

 

PS these little guys are the best stud finder I've found just lay on flat on the wall and rub it around until it sticks on a nail head and there's your stud.

Edited March 4 by Son of Marty

[conkitchen]

20 hours ago, ray_ said:

Hard brake line fittings.

 

But getting a box end on there may be a feat!

 

Perhaps that's where all the boxed end 11mm's go after installing new brake hard lines.

 

Edited March 4 by conkitchen

[tzei]

- Insanely furious sawing sounds -

”gonna get my *&€%ing tool outta here!!”

[02jake]

been in the trade for 40+years. i usually find 'em where i left 'em. Right in front of my eyes o-o

 

 

[BarrettN]

21 hours ago, Mike Self said:

-I can reach halfway across the crossmember with my magnetic pickup tool, but as yet haven't been able to snag it. 

 

mike  

Hit up a local shop that repairs PCs and ask them for a couple of dead hard drives. The magnets you can harvest from them are strong enough to make blood blisters if they snap together with a piece of skin between them. Laptop hard drives have smaller magnets - use a stiff piece of wire to fish a string through the member, tie on the magnet and pull it through. (it's hard to push the magnet through as it wants to snap down on anything ferrous. I have hot glued them to a rod when I had a straight shot and just needed uber-magnetism). 

[TobyB]

...i was serious about the compressed air...

 

t