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What size ratchets do they use in Europe?

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  • What size ratchets do they use in Europe?

    Maybe this stupid covid just has my head spinning still, but what size ratchets do they use in Metric only countries? We still have 1/4" 3/8" 1/2" 3/4" etcetera.

    Are they different in Metric only countries?

  • #2
    I think it's a great question, it sure did make me wonder. I did a search and found this passage credited to Reddit: "In europe we use metric bolts and nuts, (and everything else) but the drive end of a ratchet (the square bit) is imperial. The common sizes are 1/4" and 1/2". 1/4" for tight spaces and other small work. 1/2" for normal use. Some specialized impact drivers are 1" for really heavy stuff.

    But we know not to believe everything we find on the internet. I also found this profound bit of knowledge credited to Whospilled: "Sep 27, 2021The most common ratchet size is a 1/4″ drive ratchet. The 1/4″ drive is the most common because it is used for a variety of different jobs including changing tires, changing oil filters, and so on."

    So don't forget, let's always use a 1/4 drive ratchet to bust our lug nuts loose. Check. Got it.
    Last edited by pdub; August 1, 2022, 02:07 PM.
    Charter member of the Turd Nuggets

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    • #3
      Originally posted by pdub View Post
      I think it's a great question, it sure did make me wonder. I did a search and found this passage credited to Reddit: "In europe we use metric bolts and nuts, (and everything else) but the drive end of a ratchet (the square bit) is imperial. The common sizes are 1/4" and 1/2". 1/4" for tight spaces and other small work. 1/2" for normal use. Some specialized impact drivers are 1" for really heavy stuff.

      But we know not to believe everything we find on the internet. I also found this profound bit of knowledge credited to Whospilled: "Sep 27, 2021The most common ratchet size is a 1/4″ drive ratchet. The 1/4″ drive is the most common because it is used for a variety of different jobs including changing tires, changing oil filters, and so on."

      So don't forget, let's always use a 1/4 drive ratchet to bust our lug nuts loose. Check. Got it.
      Read and wrap your mind around this if you think metric is confusing: https://britishfasteners.com/ Look under "Whitworth"
      Last edited by silver_bullet; August 1, 2022, 04:44 PM.
      Patrick & Tammy
      - Long Haulin' 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014...Addicting isn't it...??

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      • #4
        Whitworth is another world of British Chaos !!!!
        There's even a ODD Thread to Go With It !

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        • #5
          Whitworth! Whitworth? Only had one experience with Whitworth many years ago (around 72-73). It was a 250 cc BSA single cylinder motorcycle from about 63???

          A friend asked me to repair the engine, a blown head gasket. Not knowing anything about British motorcycles, of course I agreed to get it done. The 1st problem, Whitworth bolts holding the engine in the frame. The 2nd problem, 18, yes 18, bolts just to hold the engine in the frame. Got a hold of the correct wrenches and 5 or 6 hours later, the engine was on the workbench.

          Pulling the head, the nuts were metric, so no problem (or at least that's what fit properly). Got the engine reassembled, and back in the frame. 11 or 12 bolts never went back in! The bike ran fine, the engine never fell out, and whomever owns it now, if it's still around, doesn't have all the bolts. I threw them out in 83 when my mom sold her house and I was cleaning out the garage for her.

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          • #6
            I live in the rest of the standadised world, the part that uses the Metric System, what backward countries haven't adopted the world standard yet

            Yes 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" inch drives are the standard for the rest of the world.

            I use 3/8 for most of my work on cars. I have a great 1/4" metric 6 point set that will do almost every imperial size apart from a 1/4 nut. 1/2" set comes out for the suspension, wheels and heavier drivetrain stuff.

            Tim
            Melbourne Australia

            65 Hardtop Impala, 70 GTS Monaro, 93 "80" Landcruiser

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            • #7
              Originally posted by dave.g.in.gansevoort View Post
              Whitworth! Whitworth? Only had one experience with Whitworth many years ago (around 72-73). It was a 250 cc BSA single cylinder motorcycle from about 63???

              A friend asked me to repair the engine, a blown head gasket. Not knowing anything about British motorcycles, of course I agreed to get it done. The 1st problem, Whitworth bolts holding the engine in the frame. The 2nd problem, 18, yes 18, bolts just to hold the engine in the frame. Got a hold of the correct wrenches and 5 or 6 hours later, the engine was on the workbench.

              Pulling the head, the nuts were metric, so no problem (or at least that's what fit properly). Got the engine reassembled, and back in the frame. 11 or 12 bolts never went back in! The bike ran fine, the engine never fell out, and whomever owns it now, if it's still around, doesn't have all the bolts. I threw them out in 83 when my mom sold her house and I was cleaning out the garage for her.
              Soooo, the knights of Ni used whits? thus the term Nitwit?

              my lathe has whitworth capabilities. Prior to buying it a few years ago, I had no idea it existed.... apparently it's a boat thing (the lathe came from a Washington State Ferry)....
              Doing it all wrong since 1966

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              • #8
                Originally posted by 65RHDEER View Post
                I live in the rest of the standadised world, the part that uses the Metric System, what backward countries haven't adopted the world standard yet

                Yes 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" inch drives are the standard for the rest of the world.

                I use 3/8 for most of my work on cars. I have a great 1/4" metric 6 point set that will do almost every imperial size apart from a 1/4 nut. 1/2" set comes out for the suspension, wheels and heavier drivetrain stuff.
                pretty sure there's some rubbish on Mars because someone who used the metric system couldn't do fractions.... likely also the reason no one else has landed on the moon... metric works great for flat surfaces, not so much for radii
                Last edited by SuperBuickGuy; August 1, 2022, 08:59 PM.
                Doing it all wrong since 1966

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by SuperBuickGuy View Post

                  pretty sure there's some rubbish on Mars because someone who used the metric system couldn't do fractions.... likely also the reason no one else has landed on the moon... metric works great for flat surfaces, not so much for radii
                  I think the amount of things that can go wrong with the complexities of sending stuff out there there are bound to be things not going to plan.

                  I'm a big fan of what NASA does but they also have made their share of mistakes, it's the human that's the problem in most of the failures.
                  Tim
                  Melbourne Australia

                  65 Hardtop Impala, 70 GTS Monaro, 93 "80" Landcruiser

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                  • #10
                    NASA does and has used SI (of which metric could be considered a part of) though, most of the US scientific community works in SI but talks in Imperial/SAE. One of my undergraduate professors lost his PhD data when the Mars Climate Orbiter "lithobraked" instead of aerobraked.
                    I have no idea what you're talking about with metric not being good on radii, Radians aren't really a metric thing and work better in math form. They just are near impossible to visualize at anything more than large fractions of 2π.

                    Fun Fact: There are actually two camps in the SI world, CGS (Centimeter-Gram-Second) and MKS (Millimeter-Kilogram-Second). Certain stuff is just way easier in one system vs. the other but just like the improper unit conversion (or lack there of) in the Mars Climate Orbiter, the difference between things like GPa and kbarr is enough to screw up your experiment if both sides assume their preferred units.
                    Central TEXAS Sleeper
                    USAF Physicist

                    ROA# 9790

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                    • #11
                      Ah the metric system. I remember the push to make it the US standard in the 60's. Good idea, bad execution. Becoming a millwright in the 70's, wehad mostly imperial standards, with a few exceptions for European made components on the paper machinery the company made. So I was almost fully calibrated in imperial units. Then I went to college in the 80's.

                      Most professors were older, so they also were calibrated in imperial units, but threw the odd test problem at us to meet the standardisation efforts requirements. Then there was our physics proffesor.

                      To see how good we were at unit conversion, she gave us a test problem that required the answer be in furlongs per fortnight. All of the data was in mixed units, SI and imperial. And we still had to get the correct value!

                      This was way before smartphones and the internet, so we had to figure it out ourselves.

                      Let's see, a furlong is 1/8th of a mile, a fortnight is 14 days, a mile is, uhhh, how many meters? Well it's 5280 feet, and that's equal to 63360 inches. An inch is 25.4 mm, so we can get to meters.

                      A day is 86400 seconds, okay got a way to get to fortnight. Yeah she loved throwing curves at us. She wore essentially the same thing every day, blue skirt or slacks, blue blazer over a white blouse. Except for the days for finals. Then it was all black! Subtle but sneaky. The first time I saw it I laughed. She asked me to not say anything about it to my classmates because of her sense of humor. I was a nontraditional student, i.e. approaching 30, my classmates were not, all being 18 give or take a year.

                      Yes it worked on many of them.

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                      • #12
                        Well, thanks for all the replies. I though possibly there was a 10mm square floating around, figured it would replace the 3/8 since its basically .3937.

                        At least it makes me feel a little better about getting sucked into the metric system for liters all this time that those guys need to use 3/8ths all the time.

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                        • #13
                          We were promised a total embrace of the metric system by the '80s but I think what screwed up the U.S. fully adopting it was aerospace. The British and Americans were such world leaders in aircraft in the '30s-'70s era (not ignoring others, just saying) that their inches and fractions were what had to be dealt with, and the large amount of planes built that continued to fly and have to be serviced for decades ensured a legacy that couldn't be brought down so easily. With cars, there was no real reason to not switch when the normal turnover of the full U.S. fleet would be, what, fifteen years (my guess)?

                          So...whatever system of counting is best in theory, a day is divided into daytime and nighttime. Halfs. Then, morning and afternoon. Quarters. You spent "half-the-morning" on a task, now you're talking an eighth. Intuitive. Or, you have a particular distance to travel, you take a break in the middle. All intuitive, theory aside, people don't look at a distance and automatically divide it up into ten units and then break after they've counted to five. I do about a third of my thinking in metric (or .333 repeating, but see how awkward it is to state it that way) and the 2/3rds is just from habit but in some ways the ol' Imperial system just works better. I grant that much of my inch thinking is in thousanths, i.e. units of ten... .046 does work better than 3/64ths.

                          Now when it comes to a mile being 5280 feet that are 12" each I agree that whole thing could be improved upon...but when my casual stride is close enough to two feet that I can use it to measure with, the "foot" part stays anyhow.
                          ...

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                          • #14
                            Now let's talk biblical, not religious. What's a cubit? And some other weird units of measure. Or the shipping industry. Kegs, barrels, hogsheads, and a bunch more. Or the carpentry trade. Nails! 2 penny, 4 penny, etc.

                            It's a wonder we made it into the stone age, let alone progressed this far. Weelll, assuming you consider it progress...

                            Well maybe we should just climb back up in the trees

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by 65RHDEER View Post

                              I think the amount of things that can go wrong with the complexities of sending stuff out there there are bound to be things not going to plan.

                              I'm a big fan of what NASA does but they also have made their share of mistakes, it's the human that's the problem in most of the failures.
                              I love it when they crash my taxes-paid expensive crap for reasons.... I think metric's strongest allies are ones who are most jealous of the US.... SAE easy, just like genders.

                              easy now. it's a joke.

                              a cubit is 18"..... it's not like that's a hard question. Why is it important? well, China wasn't making tape measures so the 'standard' distance was the distance from the middle finger to the elbow. Sure, there was some standard deviation, but honestly, even that makes sense.
                              Last edited by SuperBuickGuy; August 2, 2022, 09:57 PM.
                              Doing it all wrong since 1966

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