TSO customer preference question: Hex Driver - Ball or straight Hex

[TSO_Products]

Hello FOG - listening to customer as we do, we ask for your input regarding the 3mm and 5mm Hex Drivers we supply with our tools.

Request for responses from FOG readers:

TSO's applications involve occasional or frequent adjusting or tightening do not require maximum torque tightening of the socket head fasteners used in the following tools:

Which Hex Driver style do you prefer:
          Ball Hex Driver________

          Straight Hex Driver____

As you know, TSO listens.

The only problems we have seen in the past was a supplier mix up in the 3mm blade diameter.
We have taken steps to standardize our smaller fasteners to work with 3mm hex drivers on all smaller fasteners but tooling custom fasteners not available commercially.  We will develop several upgrade options in the fourth Quarter 2020 for tools already in customer hands.

GRS-16 series Guide Rail Squares
MTR-18 and PTR-18 Triangles
TPG-series Parallel Guides, FlipStops and TPG Adapters
DBF-45 series BigFoot

We look forward to your quick responses!

Hans and Eric

 

[Chris Cianci]

Ball hex driver for me,
I love your products and service and your relentless commitment to help us
Best

 

[Michael Kellough]

Ball

 

[knuckles]

Ball.

 

[Doug H]

Ball hex

 

[AstroKeith]

Ball hex, like the nice 3mm one that comes with the Festool MFS 400 & 700.

 

[vkumar]

Ball Hex

 

[MikeGE]

Ball hex.  I wish the Incra products came with ball hex.  Because they are imperial hex keys, I have a difficult time finding ball hex replacements.

 

[Cheese]

+8 ball hex

 

[grobkuschelig]

„Ball“ hex driver here as well.

From the German perspective, I can recommend the Wera ones.
Festool is shipping „Witte“ drivers with the MFS for example, but I have already broken a couple of those and replaced them with Weras which have been feeling studier and held up to the use better.

I‘m sure you will pick quality, as always!

 

[Mario Turcot]

Ball of course  [wink]

T-Shape or Hand-Grip medium length

 

[rmhinden]

Hans and Eric,

I generally prefer ball hex drivers, but think 3mm ball head might be on the small side.

I have a set of metric and imperial T-handle hex ball drivers that I prefer over the ones that come with other products.    For example, Bondhus 13187 Set of 8 Balldriver and Hex T-handles

I note that while all of the sizes above 3mm are ball ends, 3mm and below are straight.  I assume that the ball ends in small sizes are too weak.

Hope this is helpful.

Bob

 

[vkumar]

Excellent point [member=66813]rmhinden[/member] . Didn't think of the fact that 3mm is quite small.

 

[Michael Kellough]

3mm is small but Hans says the torque required is low.

 

[hdv]

[member=70363]MikeGE[/member]: I had the same problem with SAE Allen keys in Europe. A couple of years ago I bought a SAE set from Tengtools and I am very glad with them. Maybe you can get those in Germany?
https://tengtoolsusa.com/collection...-tthex7af-7-piece-t-handle-af-sae-hex-key-set

I know Wiha have SAE sized Inbusschlüssel as well. See
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Wiha-72596-Hex-SAE-Pieces/dp/B01BXBWXW2

and
https://www.amazon.de/Wiha-35393-Pi...N9B6BC/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=sechskant+SAE&qid=1594227683&s=diy&sr=1-4

 

[TSO_Products]

Terrific responses!  very much appreciated

we look for more data and any reports of difficulty tracing to the 3mm Ball in particular other than the manufacturer's size mistake or other manufacturing defect.

We specifically do not want to provide T-handle Drivers:
T-handles are slower to make multiple turns with
T-handles provide the ability for greater un-needed torque application which is undesirable

Hans

PS: Forggot to mention the GRC-12 Guide Rail Connector also uses the 3mm Hex Driver

 

[DeformedTree]

3mm allen/hex is very small.  The problem is they strip out when going to torque on the fastener. It's one of the reasons torx exist. Which for anything really should be the answer.  On small sizes they are far more durable and is one of the reasons basically everything mass produced anymore uses torx on small screws.

Ball ends at 3mm and down being hard to find it understandable, you will be really asking to strip the allen socket.

Torx patents have expired and fastener standards bodies have now adopted them, thus they are no longer a special or expensive fastener.

 

[AstroKeith]

I don't call 3mm small. With a good quality driver there shouldn't be any issues. If there are then its being over torqued I would say. A 3mm key will be for a small screw, which means low torque applications.

Or possibly the screw is made of poor material.

I agree with TSO stating that T-handles are not recommended.

Anyone who has the Festool MFS set will know that the ball ended driver is essential to tighten the screws.

 

[Roachmill]

Balls are best (when you're not straining them).

Thanks for letting me type that!

 

[Dusty.House]

I have a kit of 2/2.5/3/4mm Ball head Wera for my 3D printer. No complaints at all, so I would definitely vote for ball.

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