Ratcheting things up a notch. Sockets and ratchets, a quick guide.

Continuing with posts on the subject of tools. Today we will look at ratchets. Having recently equipped several technicians with all new tools, I feel at an advantage to offer some advice. It was not an easy task replacing twenty years worth of people getting very attached to their stuff, add to that, delivery times, price, quality, value for money and all the other things mere mortals must deal with.

Size matters

The basic, common sizes of ratchets are 1/4”, 3/8” & 1/2”, there are larger 3/4” & 1” models too, but unless you are working on large machinery you are unlikely to use them day to day.

The size of ratchets is always described in inches, it refers to the size of the square head that the individual sockets fit onto. I use the 1/4” model almost daily, as these days I don´t really get involved in heavy duty repairs if I can avoid it. The 1/4” is useful up to about 13mm or 1/2" socket size.

If 6 was 12

The two main types of sockets available, with either six or twelve internal faces for gripping nuts and bolts. Generally speaking six point is preferred as they have less tendency to damage the nut or bolt heads. I own both sets, in my experience the smaller ratchets are not really suitable for very difficult to remove fixings, you cannot apply enough force and end up hurting your wrists.

Twelve point sockets have more of a tendency to round off fixings, six points grip more of he flatter areas, I have found that what causes damage to fixings is using the wrong size socket, one with too much loose play, it should be a nice snug fit.

The long and short of it

Two lengths of socket are available, standard and long. The long or long reach sockets are very useful to electricians, quite often studs on electrical fittings are very long, this is to allow various connections to be made to one stud, the problem is until all those connections are made, standard length sockets “bottom out” and cannot reach the nut.

A useful feature on the sockets themselves is the knurled band or diamond pattern, this allows you to turn the socket buy hand, works well when the nut or bolt is loose. When working around boats and their inherently corrosive environment, I find the dull finish seems to last much longer than shiny chrome.

A toothy grin

The number of teeth inside of a ratchet is important, the more teeth means you have to turn the ratchet less to get the fastener to move, less degrees of the circle effectively, this becomes really useful in tight spaces, you really want a ratchet with a minimum of 72 teeth, meaning each tooth equates to 5 degrees of movement, there are ratchets available with a much higher tooth count.

Breaking up is hard to do

When is a ratchet not a ratchet? When it´s a breaker bar, a breaker bar is an articulated socket bar with no ratcheting function. These come in all the usual sizes, I have found them most useful in the larger sizes (1/2" and up), they are often longer than ratchets and really allow you to get a swing on stubborn nuts and bolts.

Accessories

There are lots of different accessories for ratchets, you can buy some very good sets, with all manner of sizes of ratchets, sockets and accessories. The most common accessories are;

• Extension bars, two types, either fixed or the “wobble” bar type, the wobble ends allow some play in the interface between the socket and the extension, very useful if you haven't got a direct straight line to what you are undoing.

• Bit holders, to hold screwdriver bits, very useful when a normal screwdriver won´t reach or you need to work in an unorthodox position.

• Universal joints, to allow awkward angles to be made.

• Adapters, these allow you to step up or step down the ratchet to be used with sockets for another ratchet size.

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