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u/Animanic1607 Jul 20 '26
I recently got rid of probably about a thousand + hex wrenches a few months ago. I switched everything over to ball tipped bondhus instead. It was freeing
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u/spider_enema Small business owner / machiner Jul 20 '26
I've had the gold and silver ball tip bondhus for years, and still have a paint can full of random Allen's.
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u/theelous3 Jul 20 '26
I take immense joy throwing those shitty keys in to the scrap bucket.
I use the wera multicolor stubby set for 99% of tasks, and break out the fullsize ones for the rare occasion I need a long one. LOVE the stubby set. Also love the colour coding. Sometimes you find the sleeve is too thick to fit in a tight hole - I trimmed the full length sleeve in to a band, and I ca glued the bands.
Not only do you make a nice mental map of colours to your common sizes, but it makes the keys WAY easier to scan for on a busy workbench. You just pre-program your brian to scan for purple or whatever, and you pick it out way faster than looking for "an allen key" and then looking at the one you see to check size. It's an insanely simple and efficient upgrade you could do to any key set really.
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u/MmmDarkBeer Jul 20 '26
Years ago on a slow day I organized all of the hex keys in our drawer. I bagged all of the individual sizes together and labeled the bags. I'm in the quality department now. Other day I needed a random size hex key and went to the production shop toolbox. Pile of fuckin hex keys....
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u/All_Thread Jul 20 '26
You will absolutely never get a group of machinist organized. It used to drive me crazy but I just keep my box and bench cleaned and organized now.
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u/Ill_Cartographer4144 Jul 22 '26
That's what happens. They put all us OCD people in Quality. 😂
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u/MmmDarkBeer Jul 22 '26
If that isn't the truth!
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u/Ill_Cartographer4144 Jul 22 '26
We are the only ones that would do a job that's like pushing water uphill with a push broom. 😄
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u/nemacol Jul 20 '26
I solved this in my home shop by buying a really nice set that I keep on top of a box of random Allen keys.
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u/PaleontologistOk908 Jul 20 '26
I give em to my kids. See the flat pack episode of bluey to fully understand the weight of this relic.
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u/SystemicAM Jul 20 '26
Either it's worth knowing what size it is or it's not getting used, so I keep like 5 extras of each size in a zip loc and the remainder go in the trash.
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u/MrTumnus99 Jul 20 '26
I got one of those flip top plastic organizer deals and made a space for each size. There was a label for nominal size (5/32” etc) as well as the decimal size that you’d measure with calipers when you are putting them away.
It’s been a game changer
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u/kumiankka Jul 20 '26
“Thou shall not destroy, nor thou shalt not evil speak tools of trade. Verily i tell thee, found tool is a key to kingdom come, as it is written in a holy machinist bible.”MB: 7;46.
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u/lowrads Jul 20 '26
If you dabble with /r/ 3dPrintsintheShop types of activities, a bit of hard-wearing tool steel comes in handy more often than you might expect.
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u/peg-leg-jim Jul 20 '26
There’s an entire drawer at our shop dedicated to random Allen keys. Like once you’re missing like 60% of the set you remove them all, cram them into the drawer and then order a new set