You mean Allen key!
My collection is growing
Submitted 10 months ago by orhtej2@eviltoast.org to [deleted]
https://eviltoast.org/pictrs/image/dcaa6d71-c226-42da-8a0a-19678cac66c1.jpeg
Comments
funkajunk@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Shrubbery@piefed.social 10 months ago
“Allen Key” is a trademark, “hex wrench” is the generic term.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_(brand) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_key
funkajunk@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Doesn’t stop me from calling every set of motor-driven stairs an “Escalator”.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 10 months ago
May be a trademark, but it’s a generic trademark
Mercury@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Very nice. Now let’s see Paul Allen’s key.
Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de 9 months ago
You know that a company can loose its trademark if the term is widely used in society to describe a product category instead of the product of that company?
You only help big corporations by enforcing not to use the trademark name for a product category.
Don’t be a capitalism enabler!
(Warning satire)
MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net 10 months ago
> Eyeballs a hex screw to tighten up a door handle
> Grabs a likely suspect out of the drawer
> Doesn’t work
> Gets another
> Doesn’t work
> Third time’s a charm
> Doesn’t work
> Gets the full set of hex keys in the same room as the drawer“Hey hon, the door handle’s fixed.”
lengau@midwest.social 10 months ago
The key is to buy enough different pieces of furniture that you wind up with a separate set.
Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
Makes sense, you keep the furniture too after all
BanMe@lemmy.world 10 months ago
No no no. Throw that away, first thing you do. Have a driver set with every size Allen key, you insert bit into a screwdriver handle and it ratchets. No more bloody knuckles, or pulling it out every turn because your key hits another part. Makes furniture go together so much faster.
The_v@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Almost there…
A small cordless drill with a torque setting plus a driver set. A short flexible bit holder for the tight spots.
Drop the torque setting all the way down then use the drill for most of the work. Then finish tightening with a reacheting screwdriver.
BanMe@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Between the size of the drill and the constant adjusting of torque I really prefer hand tools here. You can feel when the screws and cams are in place.
Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de 9 months ago
🫣silly me thinking wrong upon “pulling it out every turn”
I like birth control…
JeanValjean@piefed.social 10 months ago
Marrying
https://www.harborfreight.com/8-piece-right-angle-screwdriver-92630.html
with
has been a game changer for assembling flat pack furniture. As a result, the hex keys just get tossed in a bucket of other hex keys,
rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
heh, I just dug one of those out of the scrap bucket and epoxied it into a drain plug in my truck that I finished rounding out in spectacular fashion.
I wasn’t the asshole who started rounding it, but I sure was the asshole that finished the job. Replacement with an actual hex head on it is sitting on the workbench. No more water trap woes if the cheap hex wrench stays glued in that fucked up part
shalafi@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I JB Welded a sawed off Allen wrench to my shitty Amazon bipod last week. Now it’s “quick release”!
gerowen@lemmy.world 10 months ago
And they’re always the softest mild steel they could find so it’ll cam out, destroy the head on a bolt and force you to go dig your good one out anyway.
Headofthebored@lemmy.world 10 months ago
softest cheese.
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 10 months ago
They’ll save your good one from 10 or so uses, and if there’s just 4 screws you can keep one and use when the next item has 16.
Or cut the cammed-out part for a shorter one with 10 more uses!
sorrybookbroke@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
I ductape it to the furnature when possible so if I need it it’s there
ryedaft@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Good designs have a little pocket for manuals and hex wrenches
flandish@lemmy.world 10 months ago
file a side flat and boom instant (hand) router blade.
shalafi@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Hold up. Tell more.
sobchak@programming.dev 10 months ago
TheJesusaurus@piefed.ca 10 months ago
Agreed
marcos@lemmy.world 10 months ago
If you don’t have a dozen 1.5mm hex wrenchs, is you life even worth living?
Sunforged@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
I can’t split up the fambly.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 10 months ago
here’s a tip. take some painters tape and tape the tools to the bottom of the thing you put together so it’s always there when you need to tighten or dismantle it for moving.
MadPsyentist@lemmy.nz 10 months ago
or have a toolbox so everytime you need to loosen or tighten absolutly anything in the house its in one spot. The toolbox.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 10 months ago
you must live alone.
thing with toolboxes and other people, shit is always missing or never put back away.
zephiriz@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
Yes but what weird proprietary tool thing goes with what weird off brand IKEA wana be proprietary piece of furniture. You think I got time to try everything in the tool bag no I’m just grab the Phillips and strip the fuck.out of whatever it is get mad then glue it. Get mad that doesn’t work then chuck it out the window. /s Do I need to say this?
bigbabybilly@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I hate that they include these. But only since I built a home with 2 workshops and filled them with quality tools. 20 year old me was thankful for these shitty Allen keys.
BilSabab@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I was shocked when i found a box full of them. Just couldn’t comprehend how many of them can be. Probably 50 if not more. If you pack it in a sock - it would knock someone out.
And then my dad said - you think we bought all that furniture in one go? That shelf - one. That bookcase - one. That bed table - three and so on. Years later when we moved out to our new apartment and started buying new furniture - i noticed that these wrenches keep on piling up naturally.
kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
Tape it to the underside, thank yourself when you’re taking it apart and already packed or lost your tools
sundray@lemmus.org 10 months ago
I bet these could be turned into wind chimes.
Heikki2@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Curry working to cut them off so I can use them in my drill
Akasazh@feddit.nl 10 months ago
Usually the steel on those aren’t very good. Why don’t you have a simple bit set they includes Allen sockets?
blackjam_alex@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Help. I need tungsten to live.
dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
his name is allen
1985MustangCobra@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
i used to have so many of these things, then they disappeared. Mabye there’s a ghost in here who has ghost ikea furniture.
InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 10 months ago
They are programmed to return to the factory after 5mo. Can’t waste that shareholder value letting it sit in some drawer weighing down our Q3 report.
1985MustangCobra@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
lmao
shalafi@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Found one on the trail yesterday and stuffed it in my pocket. Long story, but I was packing 20lbs., scared, in a hurry, threw it back down. “Oh FFS I don’t need another one.”
Zink@programming.dev 10 months ago
After doing a bunch of carpentry this year, now I have metric and imperial sets of nice long hex bits for my high torque impact driver.
Something is gonna move, one way or another!
kamen@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Yep, on top of the dedicated tools I’ve bought on their own.
romanticremedy@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
One benefit of having bunch of them is providing them to friends/family when they help u assemble furniture.
Faster than having just one person doing all the jex wrench related tasks because the tasks are now parallelized.
Onyxonblack@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
During the future apocalypse a survivor might stumble upon this treasure trove of Allen wrenches. They could melt them down and forge a blade of some sort!
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 10 months ago
I also get hex wrenches from buying guitars!
hanrahan@piefed.social 9 months ago
20 x 4mm ?
thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Grind them to what you need www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVXBiA56eyc
pet1t@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Cleaned up my garage yesterday. Found about 15 of them, I guess
Opisek@piefed.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
It’s just that I’m confused whether it goes in with the aluminum or unsorted trash, so I never throw it out.
Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
Flat pack furniture has been propping up the hex stock industry for decades now.