If You Feel Like You Might Drop It, You Can Use A Socket With A Grip Function To Hold The Bolt and Nut in Place.

Anyone who has carried a bolt or nut so far that the thumb and forefinger are almost pinched, and then let it fall, can relate to the disappointment and frustration. Sockets that can hold bolts and nuts by magnetic force or friction are very useful in such cases. Let's focus here on the convenience of the grip socket, which uses a spring and ball and can be used on nonferrous metals and plastic nuts that magnets will not work on.

Bolt nuts that fall as mercilessly as when you wish it wouldn't fall

The image is an example of an automobile. It is very unstable, with not even a gap to put the tip of a finger on the end of the socket when removing the bolt for fixing the door mirror, which is attached behind a panel assembled in a bag shape. One option is to have a magnetic pickup tool waiting right next to the socket and immediately attach it to the magnet when it is about to fall, but if that fails, it will fall headlong.

Although this socket is not made by Koken, the friction of the spring and steel ball grips the bolt two widths wide, allowing it to be attached and detached without dropping it. When tightening the bolt, carry it to the female thread on the door mirror side in this state, turn the extension bar with your finger to confirm that the threads are engaged, and then tighten it with the ratchet handle to prevent galling and other problems.

A bolt or nut cannot be turned with a wrench or eyeglass wrench, even though it can be visually checked. This is a situation frequently encountered in the maintenance of motorcycles and automobiles. In the factory where new motorcycles are assembled, parts are installed in order of proximity to the frame, similar to the construction of a house where the foundation is built on a foundation, pillars are erected, and walls are affixed.  Therefore, once completed, the first component installed is difficult to remove.

To turn a bolt or nut that is inaccessible, it is certainly easier to work by removing in advance the parts that interfere with the tool's access. However, it is troublesome to remove every single part in the front, so we want to loosen the bolts and nuts in the back, which are hard to reach, in order to reduce work time. If you can't turn it with a wrench or glasses, a socket wrench comes into play, but the harder the bolt or nut is to reach, the more tension you will feel when working on it.

Even after loosening the bolt to some extent with a socket wrench, if the bolt nut is in a place where the fingertips cannot reach, you must continue to loosen it with the socket. It is good if the bolt nut is inside the socket at the moment the screw is pulled out, but it is worse if it falls out of the socket at the moment it is pulled out. It would be a problem if the bolt or nut fell out of the socket at the moment it was pulled out.

There is similar tension and risk when tightening as well as when removing. Ideally, whether it is a bolt or a nut, the first few threads should be tightened with fingertips to ensure that there is no galling of the threads, and then retightened with a tool.

However, if it is not possible to reach the mounting location with a finger pinch, the only way to carry it is to insert it into the socket. At this time, if you guide it to the very edge while holding your fingertip on the border between the socket and the bolt, and let it fall at the moment when it is finally about to reach the female thread, you will be disappointed.

The work shown in the image is from an automobile, but the mounting bolts for the door mirrors are completely mounted inside the door panel. Therefore, a socket tool is essential for attaching and detaching, but since it is not possible to touch the bolt with fingertips, the attaching and detaching process must be done carefully. If the bolt comes off the socket, it will drop to the bottom of the door panel, which is assembled in a bag shape. If it falls completely to the bottom, it can be picked up with a pickup tool, but it can be tricky if it gets caught on the power window linkage on the way down.

To prevent such problems, there are techniques such as stuffing masking tape in the hex holes of sockets or using grease as glue, but there is also the smart way of using tools that have been provided with drop prevention measures in advance.

Koken's nut grip sockets that can be attached and detached with light force while providing resistance

Nut grip socket made by Koken. A spring wrapped around the socket pushes a small steel ball to clamp the head of the bolt or nut and prevent it from falling. The key point is that the steel balls are placed near the entrance of the hexagonal hole to hold even low-head bolts and nuts.

Even for bolts and nuts that are within fingertip reach, it is often easier to attach and detach them by carrying them inserted in the socket. The combination of a nut grip socket + spinner greatly improves the efficiency of work other than main tightening.

This is a T-type universal wrench made by Koken with a nut grip socket on the end of a super long T-type handle with a shaft length of 600mm. Although the socket-replaceable type is more versatile, it would be quite a pinch if the socket came off in an unreachable place, so this wrench has a universal joint connecting the shaft and the socket.

While a longer shaft has the advantage of allowing work from a distance from the bolt, a longer shaft may interfere with another location. A universal joint is used to handle such situations.

In the situation shown in the image, the combination of a socket + extension bar and a ratchet handle would limit the swing angle due to the handle hitting the frame or engine. So, using a long shaft wrench, you can turn the T-shaped handle continuously without being disturbed by anything. On top of that, the socket at the end has a nut grip so that a loose bolt will not fall off even if it is pulled straight up.

Some riders interested in tools may know that there are sockets that can hold bolts and nuts. Among them, sockets with built-in magnets set inside the socket are the most popular. Similarly, many users love nut grip sockets.

The name "nut grip" is a registered trademark of Yamashita Kogyo Kenkyusho (ko-ken), a manufacturer specializing in socket tools. It features a small steel ball set on the opposite side of the hexagonal hole in the socket and held down by a spring to provide resistance to the bolt or nut to prevent it from falling. The fact that it does not rely on magnetic force allows it to be used with materials such as stainless steel, aluminum, and resin, which magnets do not attach to, and has the advantage that chips and metal do not adhere to the inside of the socket.

If the spring that holds the steel ball is weak, there is a risk of it falling off. If it is strong, the holding force is stronger, but the resistance when attaching and detaching is greater and there is concern about damage to the bolt and nut. However, when the socket is pushed into the bolt or nut, there is a definite clicking sensation, and when it is removed from the socket, it does not stick out strangely but comes off easily and smoothly.

Even in places where the bolt is mounted downward, i.e., where the socket is completely downward, it can be pulled up without the need to put a finger on it, and when tightening it, the entrance of the female thread can be carefully explored without fear of falling off. In the bolt attachment and removal of the bag portion of the door mirror introduced above, the socket and bolt are worked moving horizontally, but this provides an excellent sense of security in places where dropping the bolt would burn one's hands in retrieval.

Combining a nut grip type socket with an extension bar also has the advantage that it can be attached and detached without interference from parts assembled around the bolt and nut. The image shows a KOKEN T-type wrench that combines a nut grip socket with a universal joint at the end of a 600 mm long shaft, which allows the user to quickly turn the handle from far above the ground and pull up a bolt that has come off, even in situations where a ratchet wrench would limit the handle swing angle. The removed bolt can be pulled up and retrieved as it is.

However, just as you would use sockets of different lengths depending on the work you are doing, you can use the nut grip type for highly commodious sizes to attach and detach bolts and nuts that you might drop. By owning a nut grip type, you will be able to attach and detach bolts and nuts that you might drop without anxiety.