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Module one: History and Safety
Module four: Specialist Electricians Tools
Module three: Core Electricians Tools
Module three: Core Electricians Tools
Spanners, Sockets and Wrenches.
Types of Spanner
Sockets and accessories
Using sockets and their accessories is a very good way to get at nuts and bolt heads in awkward places. They are also much faster to use than traditional spanners, particularly if they are used with a ratcheting handle.
Sockets are basically a hollow cylinder that fits over one end of a nut or bolt head. The inside of the cylinder has the same 12 point configuration as a ring spanner. The drive for turning the socket is via some sort of detachable handle.
The handle is connected to the socket via a square drive. A spring loaded ball bearing keeps them firmly held together while they are being used.
There are three different sizes of square drive available in the C.K range; ¼” 3/8” and ½". But why?
It’s all to do with the range of nut sizes the sockets have to deal with and the amount of torque that is likely to be put through them.
A ¼” drive is perfectly adequate for nuts up to 6mm, but it would not be strong enough to drive a 30mm socket. The 3/8” drive can deal with nuts from 6 to 24mm, whereas the ½” drive can be used on nuts from 10 to 32mm.
We mentioned earlier that these tools are good for access in awkward places, this is due to the range of extension bars and universal joints that can be assembled as needed.
The ratchet handles contain a one way ratchet mechanism which allows the socket to be turned simply by cycling the handle backwards and forwards without removing it from the nut or bolt. The direction of rotation can be simply swapped with the little lever on the top.
There is a push button on the top handle. It disengages the little ball bearing in the drive square, making it quick and effortless to take the socket off.
The ratchet mechanism involves teeth on a gear wheel. Ratchet handles in the C.K range have either 45 teeth or 24 teeth.
The reason for this is that the larger the number of teeth, the less the handle needs to be turned (working Arc) to pick up the next tooth, which is very useful for working in restricted places.
A 24 tooth handle will need to swing through 15 degrees to pick up the next tooth whereas a 45 tooth handle only needs to move through 8 degrees.
But, the more teeth there are, the thinner and weaker each individual tooth is. So there is a trade off between strength and working arc.
Now we know all about the types of spanners and what they are used for, let’s take a look at the C.K and Avit products in more detail.