shoota 

So I’m in need of 14mm and 15mm sockets that are thin enough to fit in cranks. The set I have from Lowe’s has about 50/50 chance of being thin walled enough to work. It’s especially a problem with Campy, but I just tried to remove a Japanese crank and my 15mm socket won’t fit. What do you guys use?

dmark 

I have both a 5yr old Kobalt (Lowes) set in the garage and 1970's era Craftsman safe in the basement and both fit my cranks so I never had that problem.

Pompiere

I have some 1970s Craftsman sockets that are fairly thin. I keep them by my bike stand just for such use. There isn't any rhyme or reason to what brands will work. I have newer Craftsman sockets that are too thick to fit inside the crank.

merziac

Thinwall sockets are not hard to find, co-op may have old school Sugino or other crank puller with built in socket, pawn shops and used tool places usually have buckets that will have oldschool craftsman or others that are thinwall. Maybe Ace hardware or one off oldschool hardware store and you can always call Snap-On if you want to step up, way up. You can also grind one down, put it on an extension and spin it against the grinder wheel.

merziac

The rhyme and reason is that the old sockets were quality made and raw materials and could be thinner to fit more applications, now more cheap materials poor quality is cheaper to make than ever.

BFisher

My Craftsman set is from the 1990s and has fit every crank I've worked on - Sugino, TA, Campagnolo, SR, Shimano, Takagi, and others.

I have a random Proto12-point socket here that has pretty thin walls, too.

mprince

I still have a fancy Park double-ended ratchet wrench (CCW-4) specifically designed for crank bolts in my toolbox - 14mm on one end and 15mm on the other. Not sure if they still make it, I haven't used mine in at least 20 years.

merziac

The 90's was a lifetime ago in Craftsman tool years.

And Craftsman hasn't been in Proto's league since way before that if ever.

BFisher

Yeah, not quite what they once were.

Have a couple Proto tools here. Nice stuff.

Reynolds 

I just use the 15mm socket in my crank extractor, no problems ever.

merziac

Yep, had a best friend that worked at Proto back when they had a plant in Milwaukee Oregon around 1980?

He would bring home the rejects and we would resubmit them to QC, none ever failed and we tried, they were pretty fussy about finish, I don't think many at all ever failed on strength or integrity. Very good stuff, not cheap but always up to the task and more.

nlerner

I use one of these:

Vintage Schwinn

Have a look on Ebay for individual old used sockets. You may have to look at hundreds and also at old tool lots, etc but I'm certain that you'll find plenty that will be thinwalled enough to fit. If the part fits, it doesn't really matter what brand the part is or whether it is made in USA, Great Britain, Hong Kong, West Germany, Italy, France, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, or China. YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO GET AN ADEQUATE VISUAL ON SAID PART WITHIN AN ebay LISTING TO DETERMINE THE PROBABILITY THAT IT WILL BE BOTH THINWALLED & DEEP ENOUGH etc TO DO THE JOB THAT YOU NEED IT FOR. Cost isn't much and shipping shouldn't be much either. Heck, you could buy a whole bunch of sockets, wrenches, tools etc from the same person, and have it all in a single USPS Flat Rate Box.
The reason that the modern low-cost, Cobalt-Crapsman-Home Depot tools are thick walled is because the steel quality would need to be significantly better to have the same strength as the steel employed in many ancient tools. Certainly, not all ancient tools were good quality but many were. Remember looks aren't everything because when it comes to tools, functionality always beats a shiny, nice clean matched set. The same can be said of your set of sticks for the links, just ask any current or former PGA or Senior Tour player. Often folks who are involved in the old car hobby will modify numerous spanners(wrenches) and sockets to make it possible to complete a task on a particular make/model vehicle more easily. There are plenty of examples on various automobile forums with detailed how to instructions on how exactly to bend, or notch, or grind, etc or a combination of all that. Sometimes you can MacGyver an existing ordinary tool and sometimes you are just better served by purchasing the specific applicable purpose built specialty tool. Your probability of F.U.B.A.R. is lessened somewhat when you do go with the specific applicable purpose built specialty tool made for the job.

shoota 

Wanna move that on to someone who will use it?

mprince

Sure, shoot me a PM and I'm sure we can get it done.

CliffordK

You can usually visualize the wall thickness at the points of the sockets. 6 pt? So, keep an eye open whenever you are at a place with a bin of sockets.

Years ago I remember grinding a socket specifically to fit. It shouldn't take much. Keep rotating and grinding.

3alarmer 

.
...there is a Craftsman tools joke we used to tell in the South, about how they were OK to use at home. But the punchline is probably too crass for this forum.

I have some recent experience with a set of Harbor Freight metric sockets, 1/4" drive (the ones in different colors, to facilitate identification.) This set goes up to 14 mm, and to my surprise, the walls are thin enough that they work on crank bolts. I think, but am not sure, that the 15 mm socket from the same line will also work.

The tools that are made in mainland China have considerably advanced in metallurgy and overall quality in the past ten years of so.

Anyway, I didn't buy them with this use in mind, but it's nice that they work for it. I had to custom grind a sacrificial socket to remove the bolts on a Zeus.

Russ Roth

I keep a set of 6pt wright sockets in my bike repair cabinet, haven't had a problem with the 14 or 15 not fitting a crankset. Mostly tested on shimano but a couple of sugino and stronglight in there. Can't beat the brand.

merziac

You don't want to have to make your living with Craftsman, you'll never make flat rate, may not get the job done at all.

I started with them knowing they were not going to cut it but got some pretty good use out of them. I was paid hourly for the first couple of years while I was going to school and had been using them for a long time at home, etc. by the time I went flat rate I had supplemented them with Snap-On, Channelock, MAC, etc.

CliffordK

Not sockets, but I found this youtube video quite interesting.


The "Vintage" Craftsman adjustable wrench did remarkably well.

SurferRosa

80 grit sandpaper applied to a thin wall 15mm socket.

top506

Nashbar-branded Lifu crank too.

Top

Chuck M 

I bought my tools in the 80s and was taught to buy the best quality I could afford and to take care of them. I try to teach the same to the youngsters I work with and a few of them listen. The others don't understand why they can't get their Harbor Freight wrenches into the spots I can my Snap On, Matco and even old school Craftsman wrenches. They also can't believe most of my tools and my Kennedy stack are older than they are.

Glennfordx4

My 30yr old 6 point Snap-on 3/8 Deep and Mid well sockets fit with no issues, Craftsman's don't and my SK's don't.

kroozer 

A couple months ago I needed a 14mm thin socket. I measured the outer diameter of a 15mm I had that fit inside the crank arm, and at Home Depot I borrowed some calipers off the rack and measured sockets until I found the right one.