I'm sure many of you have run into the problem of a recessed control or switch where the nut is thin and the control shaft too thick for most hollow shaft nutdrivers. Many nutdrivers have a hollow shaft that's good for a screw, but not the mounting shank of a pot. The opposite problem is the chassis recess is too narrow to accomodate a thick walled driver head.

Sometimes a deep pocket socket works with the control shank, but too thick for a narrow chassis recess. Years ago, we ran into that problem with pulling the nuts off the controls of a molded chassis where the nut was deeply recessed. The manufactuer suggested nut drivers that Snap-On sold at the time (late 70's with square,amber handles). Very expensive compared to Xcelite or Vaco at the time, but did the job. The holes in the shafts were almost as wide as the head. Later acetate and ergo handled ones no longer had the wide shaft and they never made the early ones in metric. I'm trying to find something decent like that in Metric up to 14mm. Most sets stop at 11 or 12mm like the two, old Xcelite sets I have, but with small hollow shafts . There's several sets out there that go up to 15-17mm out there by Wiha, Proto, and others that claim hollow shafts, but the width isn't specified. Is there any particular brand that has a really wide, hollow shaft at the upper end of the range suitable for pulling controls in tough spots that any of you favor?

It's light duty; you might just buy a set of cheap sockets and grind down the OD. The control shaft can stick through the square drive hole. A couple of roll pins at right angles would make a tee handle so you wouldn't need the original drive.

Dawn,

I see what you are saying. What would seem to be an obvious need in the industry, but not easy to find to buy.

Xcelite (Cooper / Apex) offer metric tools up to 13mm, that look similar in the pictures to the old inch series control nut drivers, such as the HS16 and HS18. Of course a picture may be worth 1000 words, but is not quite as valuable as an actual dimensioned drawing.

( The examples of the HS16 & HS18 that I have will accept a 3/8 threaded control bushing a short way up the shank, but would have to be reamed-out to accept a really long bushing. The factory hole is almost large enough, and goes on up into the handle. Looks as if they brazed the wrench part onto a tubular shank. In the past, I have had to both open up the hole in the shank and grind the OD of the driver part on the Xcelite drivers, in order for them to work. Humm, I see that I marked these "9/72", so they are now 40 years old.)

I was surprised to find that the usual electronics distributors seem to list the Xcelite metric drivers, but have no stock. McMaster-Carr claim to have stock, of what may be these particular drivers, but have little information about them, and as usual, are coy about the brand they are selling.

Has anyone purchased any of the metric Xcelite tools? Perhaps you could let us know about just how hollow the shafts might be. The Xcelite P/Ns are 8MM through 13MM.

Ted

Like Alan said, it is easy to grind down a cheap socket. I ground down a 1/4" drive deep socket by putting it in a drill and spinning it up against a running grinder. If you prefer a more professional look, you could take some sockets to someone with a metal lathe and have the ends machined to size. Another thing that might work is a "go through" socket set.

Go to Stahlwille on line catalog I think that is how the spelling is
The metric world have these hollow 'tubes' that fit nuts, the outside seems to have a hex on the outside, great to use a wrench on and/or a hole in either end so a bar or a screwdriver shaft can be place thru the hole and turn the thing

Also, I've had good luck contacting McMaster-Carr (www.mcmaster.com) & telling them what I'm looking for...
they are very helpful.
I usually turn to them for tools and hardware that no one else seems to know about.
Jimmie

I took a look at those dual ended box spanners. Those look wonderful. Thanks I.F. for the lead. The ones with the 7,8,10,and 14mm would be useful for pots and switch use providing the walls are thin enough. I'm sure the insides would be perfect.

http://www.******/index.p ... 0&cid=2511

Years ago, GC sold something like that, but not a heavy duty tool called a control removing tool. I think it was only a single tool and not dual sided. It had a single hole drilled through one side and came with a removable U shapped wire that you could put a small screwdriver shaft through the holes for more torque. I only seen it in the catalog. My guess it was SAE 9/16" being the most popular at the time.

@UL, you're Xcelites are apparently the same vintage as most all of of my Xcelite tools are. My inch set in the tray is like yours and I think I bought them either in '72 or '73 from Heathkit. I do see the current ones listed as hollow shaft though in both metric and inch. I'm not too sure what hollow shaft means anymore. To one manufactuer, it means a drilled hole over an inch or two, to others, it's fully the length of the shaft and may increase proportionally with the size. The Proto's turned out that way that I passed on. Yes they are hollow shaft, no, it's only 1 1/2" and they are not proportional to the opening, but do increase at 3 increments from 4mm to 14mm. i couldn't get a size on the holes, so I don't know how they will chamber a control shaft. Another caveat with many of the sets is discontinuity from what I'm seeing particularly with the mechanic's oriented sets. Many sets don't have fractionals or at least a 5.5mm and may miss 6, 9, or 12mm presumably due to being close enough to the SAE drivers assuming nominal tolerances.

My cased, work set of type 99 blades have a 3/16" hole drilled down about 1 1/8" on both the inch and metric. Only the metric 10mm and 11mm are pocketed to accept a control shaft and the same depth as the other blades. My two midget sets have the same 1 1/8" depth and 3/16" hole as well. Both the midget and type 99 blades include .5mm fractionals through the range. I don't know of any others that do that. For some strange reason, Xcelite chose to stop the inch blades at 3/8" when I bought them. Considering they were the industry standard for field service, that's baffling they didn't offer larger sizes. Again, these are 70's vintage and may have changed since.

@Bob & Allen. There's a problem inherent in using sockets particularly with panel dress nuts and especially on Asian products. The nut is sometimes thinner then 2mm thick. Some sockets are beveled and may barely or if at all "bite" the nut.

I was wondering if a seperate topic would be a good idea for compiling typical outer nut sizes on controls, connectors, and switches. At least in communications, the larger drivers were the ones that I mostly used and rarely if ever below 7mm and 5/16. It was pretty rare to use them actually for a small nut or hex head screw unless it was a mounting bolt or in some cases a 1/4" self tapping or sheet metal screw head used up to 60's and some early 70's hybrid equipment. 14 mm and 9/16 by the longest shot for full sized pots. Beyond that was coaxial connectors which were better handled with a box end wrench.

It would be easy to grind away that bevel to make the socket work. What size is the nut you need to remove?

I bought a set of control nut tools exactly like Dawn mentioned, but IIRC mine came probably from MCM. I know they are imports. Got mine back in the 70's, when I was exclusively repairing car radios.

I do know that Xcelite has changed their "hollow shaft" hollow diameter too. Some of the really old nut drivers I have have a larger hollow than the newer ones.
Same for the sets of Craftsman.
Spintite brand had yet a different design, as well as Matco. My Matco ones will work pretty good for most applications, but I do have various sets of brands to suit my needs of what I need at the time. Sometimes I have to use the Vaco set I have also.
I also have a set of 1/4" drive deeps I have used as needed.
I just have not found one set that suits all purposes.