Hexagon Keys

[Edilma Howard]

Hexkeys are formed from a single piece of hard hexagonal steel rod, having blunt ends that fit snugly into similarly shaped screw sockets. The rods are bent to 90, forming two arms of unequal length resembling an "L". The tool is usually held and twisted by its long arm, creating a relatively large torque at the tip of the short arm; it can also be held by its short arm to access screws in difficult-to-reach locations and to turn screws faster at the expense of torque.[1]

Hex keys are designated with a socket size and are manufactured with tight tolerances. As such, they are commonly sold in kits that include a variety of sizes. Key length typically increases with size but not necessarily proportionally so. Variants on this design have the short end inserted in a transverse handle, which may contain multiple keys of varying sizes that can be folded into the handle when not in use.

While often used in generic terms for "hex key", the "Allen" name is a registered trademark (circa 1910) of the Allen Manufacturing Company (now Apex Tool Group) of Hartford, Connecticut; regardless, "Allen key" and "Allen wrench" are often seen as generic trademarks.

The idea of a hex socket screw drive was probably conceived as early as the 1860s to the 1890s, but such screws were probably not manufactured until around 1910. Rybczynski (2000) describes a flurry of patents for alternative drive types in the 1860s to the 1890s in the U.S.,[2] which are confirmed to include internal-wrenching square and triangle types (that is, square and triangular sockets) (U.S. patent 161,390), but he explains that these were patented but not manufactured because of the difficulties and expense of doing so at the time.

World War II, with its unprecedented push for industrial production of every kind, is probably the event that first put most laypersons in contact with the internal-wrenching hexagon drive. (Popular Science magazine would note in 1946 "Cap screws and setscrews with heads recessed to take hexagonal-bar wrenches are coming into increasing use.")[9]

The term "hex key" is best known as "Allen" in the English-speaking countries like the UK, Australia, Canada and the U.S. (The "Allen" name is a registered trademark, originated by the Allen Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut circa 1910,[1] now owned by Apex Tool Group, LLC, which was acquired by Bain Capital in 2014), and also in Spain and Mexico (llave Allen, in Spain pronounced with Spanish double L, /ʎaβe aʎen/). (This is now obsolete information. The usual pronuntiation these days in Spain is like the original english pronuntiation, with a simple L)

In Germany the term "INBUS" is a registered trademark, originally an acronym for Innensechskantschraube Bauer und Schaurte, introduced in 1934 by the German company Bauer & Schaurte, in 2015 acquired by INBUS IP GmbH, Breckerfeld, Germany). INBUS IP GmbH was registered with the stated purpose of holding and licensing the trademark INBUS. In late 2015 to early 2016, the company sent out desist orders to companies using the name "Inbus" for hex keys.[10][11][12] Hex keys with the INBUS brand are now manufactured at HaFu Werkzeugfabrik H. J. Fuhrmann GmbH, Breckerfeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, as of 2017 accounting for 7% of the company's EUR 8 million turnover.[13]and as "Unbrako" key or wrench in Scandinavia (originally a Pennsylvania company established in 1911, in 2008 acquired by Deepak Fasteners Limited).[14] In Italy, it is known as brugola, for the company Officine Egidio Brugola (established 1926). In 1946 Egidio Brugola patented an important variant with a spiral shank.

Tamper-resistant hex screws have a protruding pin in the center of the hex recess that prevents insertion of standard hex keys; as such, they can only be fastened and removed with a special key that has a recess for the pin. A similar "center pin reject" security feature is also used on torx screws.

Some hex keys have a rounded end, allowing them to be used at an angle off-axis to the screw. This type of hex key was invented in 1964 by the Bondhus Corporation[19] and is manufactured by several companies. While providing access to otherwise inaccessible screws, thinning of the tool shaft to create the rounded shape renders it weaker than the straight-shaft version, limiting the torque that can be applied; in addition, the rounded end only makes point contact with the screw as opposed to the line contact made by straight-shaft keys.

Hex socket screw heads are usually made by stamping the head with a die, plastically deforming the metal. Other ways to generate the hex socket include linear broaching and rotary broaching. Broaching the heads with a linear broach is essentially the metalworking analog of mortising wood with a mortising machine; a hole is drilled and then the corners are broached out. This operation often leaves little telltale curled chips still attached at the bottom of the socket. These are negligible for most applications.

I just bought a JTV-69s and the setup from the shop was terrible. Line 6 supplied a set of Allen keys, but none of them fit the tiny screws in the string saddles on the bridge (FAIL Line6!). The one from my old Variax 700 is too big. Does anyone know what size they are? I will have to buy one.

If all else fails, I'll take the guitar to a great shop in town called "Nuts and Bolts" that sells everything related to nuts and bolts. They may have something. But that means waiting till Monday. I was hoping to duck into the local hardware tomorrow.

Thanks for digging out that info Martin. They are indeed the sizes of the wrenches supplied with the guitar. Unfortunately the smallest one is slightly too small for the job. It grips just well enough to lower the action too much, but not well enough to adjust it back up to playability.

I took the guitar to a friend's house. He has a great collection of tools. We found a wrench that fit perfectly, and to my surprise it measured as 0.050" (well, 0.0485-0.052 across various facets). I borrowed it. I re-measured my own wrench and got essentially the same values across the flats, but it was still loose in the screw! WTF?, as they say. Then I had a close look at my own wrench (the one supplied with the guitar) with a magnifier and found that the ends had been rounded over so that it no longer gripped. Presumably someone in the shop had done a tuneup too vigorously and damaged the wrench.

Chinese crap tools! You can cut the end off to fix a boogered allen wrench. I use a dremel cutoff wheel. I have a nice set of both metric and allen wrenches that are not made in China! You need very hard steel to make the small ones so that they don't just round off the first time you use them.

This standard contains the complete dimensional, mechcanical and performance requirements for Metric Series Hexagon Keys and Bits of nominal sizes from 0.7 mm to 36 mm recognized as "American National Standard." They are primarily intended to be used for tightening and lossening metric series hexagon socket screw products but may also be suitable for use on other products having metric hexagon socket wrenching provisions.

Others not used in the instructions are for the hotend. There are 2 tiny ones of different sizes for the thermistor and heater cartridge. There is also another 2.5mm with a ball joint so you can screw in the m3 nuts at an angle (helpful). That covers all 6 allen keys.

I happened to see this thread about the time I received my kit, and, not being accustomed to tools being included, went out and bought a set of metric hex keys... and then discovered all the necessary tools were already in the kit!

I prefer my own needle-nose pliers though. The one in my kit is asymmetric, with one thin jaw and one thick jaw. And snipping the zip ties with the supplied pliers? Forget it! You can't get the blades close enough. Use the proper tool for the job, I say. I already have a diagonal wire cutter, which is the best tool for that purpose.

Grab the right Allen key, without fail, every time! The key colour is a dead giveaway. Puts an end to the irritating trial and error method of finding the right size, or worse, looking for a size code in micro format.

The hexagonal ball on the long leg allows the spanner to be angled 25 - very useful for hard to reach places. Made by ASAHI, Japan, from chrome vanadium steel. The surface is hard chrome plated. The stove enamelling makes the colour durable. On the long leg of the sizes 3 - 10 mm there is a ball catch that holds screws securely. The advantage here is that, compared to magnetised versions, there is no metallic abrasion that can cause wear in the long run. Furthermore, screws made of aluminium and resin can also be held securely. Unfortunately not possible in the small sizes 1.5 to 2.5 mm.

Hex keys, commonly known as Allen keys/wrenches in the UK and various other countries, are a very simple hand tool of the general spanner and socket family, used for tightening and loosening hexagonal bolts and other compatible fasteners. Hex keys are most often encountered as a single piece of steel formed into a small L-shape, although there are a number of variations on this basic format available to buy from many different manufacturers and suppliers.

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