I throw those to trash can the instant I see them. There's no place for these shit quality bolt rounding tools in my house.
In my house we worship good quality tooling
this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
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I have found the tools are of higher quality that the fittings. the bolts always strip regardless of what tool is used.
I also usually tape the tools to the underside of the furniture to use should it need to be tightened or deconstructed for moving.
I keep them.
I recently sold a metal bed frame which was assembled with hex screws, and it was good to be able to include the hex tool that came with it, so the person who bought it had what they need to put it together again.
I tend to put them in a ziplock and tape/staple to the thing when I can.
Often I forget about it until I have to take it apart. Move it around and bang there's the tool
I'm less concerned about the quality than the effort. Using an electric screwdriver will literally half the time it takes to make the furniture piece.
Use an impact driver. Find out how well its REALLY made.
Unless it's a 10mm, then it's a universal constant for it to dissappear.
LPT: Tape the allen keys that comes with the furniture to its underside, so you have the exact right tool on the exact furniture you're trying to disassemble later on in the same place.
The first time I tried this was with my kid's crib. I ended up forgetting it was there and I had to borrow tools from the movers instead. I got most of the way through the disassembly before finding the hidden allen key and realizing I had outsmarted myself.
I just CBA to use hex keys. Get an electric screwdriver with a decent hex bit set and it’ll last a lifetime.
Oh no, IKEA uses 4mm or 5mm
I've never lost a 10, I have found about a dozen though so maybe it's some sort of diabolical cat distribution type system.
distant sounds of William Allen turning in his grave. Slowly, 40 degrees at a time
Gotta be at least 60 degrees at a time, or you can't reset the wrench to the next position.
Open end wrenches for external hex bolts are usually cocked 15 degrees so you can do as little as a 30 degree swing. Flipping the wrench switches the head from 15-degree left, to 15-degree right. Adding the 30 degree swing gives you a total of 60 degrees, which mean you can grab the next face on the bolt.
But Allen wrenches don't have such a feature. You need at least a 60-degree rotation before you can reset the wrench.
TIL thanks
@cheeseburger@lemmy.ca and @hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com should fight.
or maybe become friends and Hemko can just gove Cheeseburger those hex wrenches.
@cheeseburger@lemmy.ca take is valid and respectable, I just can't stand shitty tools 😅
The first thing I do after unpacking these kinds of things is throw all the shitty tools out
a new friendship has bloomed
I keep. It's metal, and I can't make it. What if society collapsed? Then I'd regret throwing them all away! Same with extra screws, fasteners, dowels, and brackets.
Every home should at least have a couple where the bend is cut off and then you can use it in a drill or power driver
Edit: use a cut-off wheel or hacksaw
Brother, you can buy a full set of hex heads designed for use in your power tools.
Why would I do that when they're handed out like free candy
Because it comes with a box to organize them instead of living like a goddamn animal
Ive not got round to getting a dedicated tool box yet, so I get to find them in unexpected inconvenient places every week until I need them then they disappear forever.
When you do get a tool box you'll suddenly have three boxes, and the tool you want is always in the last box.
I have hundreds
One of my neighbors is a weird dude. He's never had a job, but instead tried to find creative ways to make money. Like he'll take up wood working for a week and try to sell his jankity furniture for prices you'd expect to see on masterfully made stuff.
Anyway, one day I saw him trying to sell a collection of about 50 of these Allen wrenches for $63 online. Like dude, you everyone has had the chance to amass a million of these things if they wanted.
Who calls Allen keys hex wrenches?