Straight Hex Key wrenches disappearing?

[Maurice Mcmurry]

What is the ball for? I've seen those and mistakenly bought some, and found them annoying, but can be used. I tend to go with T Handle from Elkland which don't have a ball end, which gives me more torque and it is easier to find the right size as they fit into a pre-sized hole.

The ball end type can enter the screw head from an angle. There are times when they are indispensable. Franklin guitars come with a bondhus T handle ball end for adjusting the truss rod nut, which is hidden in an angled tunnel.

[Ron Selzer]

I would not be without ball end T handle Allen wrenches at work. Have full sets of metric and imperial, also full sets of straight end, along with full sets of regulars. There is a place to use all of them
Ron

[Derek Meyer]

I have the Wiha hex key sets in both metric and standard.

https://www.wihatools.com/products/e...-inch-13pc-set

I also have the T-handle wrench sets they sell. I prefer those but they are not as easy to put in a tool bag.

[Warren Lake]

metric and inch all mixed up sitting lose from onsite work. Ball end for sure as I had to hit some customer stuff at an angle. Are there measures in .0000 for Metric and Imperial so i can sort them out and get them back to their plastic homes. Some you can tell pretty easily by fit to the plastic but not all.

[Chris Parks]

I used a lot of allen keys when we were racing and preferred the socket drive type like these. I have a 1/4 drive Bluepoint set that are simply the best ones I have ever used.

Kincrome 11 Piece 1/4" And 3/8" Drive Metric Hex Socket Set - Bunnings Australia

[Mark Leifer]

You can still find the old fashioned L shaped keys. Here is a page at Grainger, for example:
https://www.grainger.com/category/to...&filters=attrs

[George Yetka]

A couple companies have a retainer on the ball end now which is amazingly useful.

Most of weras keys are ball on the long square on the short. I believe the ideas is you run the screw till it starts to snug up and switch to the short for torque. You cant really over-apply torque with the ball because you lack leverage in that orientation.

For straight orientation with torque i usually use a 1/4" socket set of allen. They are square cut

[Brian Holcombe]

The best in my opinion are PB Swiss, they're very hard wearing. I like Bondhus as well, I have Bondhus I've been using daily for years that are still in excellent shape. Wera hex plus are fine too but I find them to be harder on the fasteners. I have an older German made Wiha set and they're fine but I much prefer PB swiss and Bondhus to the others.

Stahlwille, Koken and Nepros are excellent but I'm not sure if they make L wrenches, they have allen sockets which are excellent quality.

[Greg Quenneville]

I use PB Swiss too, and think their tools are fantastic, but see that they are now $85 for a set of metric, more for imperial.

[Brian Holcombe]

They’re pretty expensive, I tend to use them solely for shop tools. Felo is nice and a lot less expensive for anything else. It’s a brand I forget about often but they really hold up well.

[Joe Calhoon]

Has anyone used these Japanese hex wrenches from Eight Tool?
https://tbgarizona.com

they are getting good reviews on the machining forums. I have been putting these magnetic hex holders on all my machines. they are from Fireball Tool
Fireball tool.jpg

[Brian Holcombe]

Good idea to have them all of the machines. I haven’t used them but I’d expect them to be high quality coming from Japan.

Anymore I’ve built out a toolbox for every group of machines. I try not to have exact redundancy in the tools but there is a lot of crossover. If I have a standard wrench set in one, I’ll have long in the other, or offsets, etc. Same idea with all of the other tools. That way if you get a weird situation which requires a very specific tool, it’ll be in one of the boxes. The speciality tools tend to be immediately available right near the machines.

Every toolbox now has a full set of PB Swiss flat head screwdriver tips in the full size range. This is a lifesaver on old machines, the PB Swiss sizes are metric and the flats and ground parallel so they fit the slots very well. Nice especially in the odd situation where one is rusted in and requires an impact driver to get it loose.