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And yet somehow, I save every one of those things and STILL can’t find a single one when I need it!
A nice set is worth having. And so is an electric driver that also has hex bits to make assembling stuff easier.
AlmaccaWhy, pray tell, does an Allen key need to be plastic wrapped? For freshness?
To stave off water damage and rusting when shipping to humid areas.
One dock strike or lost piece of paperwork and it could sit in an unair-conditioned container long enough for the cardboard to disintegrate.
It is an awful waste of plastic, but I expect the return rate for rusted tools ‘damaging’ fasteners is high enough that financially it makes sense for the company
Because the bag adds bulk to the tool, helping avoid being lost in the box, and stapling it directly to the instructions didn’t work
This reminds me, I just bought a new clipper and it came fully wrapped in cardboard and paper. Not a single sliver of plastic. The brand was “babyliss” (reversed “name and shame” or you might call it free advertising)
Someday I learn to melt and work with metal and then all those hex are going to be used for good.
Nope. That steel isn’t even good for scrap Ford pickup bumpers. It’s made with whatever the Chinese foundry sweeps up at the end of the day.
Sounds like winwin for somebody who does now how to use a foundry / smelt :D
Not really. It’s mystery metal. I have my suspicions it’s the Chinese equivalent to 303 stainless at beast or possibly worse. It’s very gummy to machine. I once tried to machine some little machine screws out of one of those wrenches for a model steam engine I was building. I could barely make usable threads from it despite trying HSS tooling and carbide tooling. It was so gummy that the threads would tear as I tried cutting them. Even a brand new $30 #4-40 Greenlee die struggled forming useable but still nor clean threads.
Wow learned something new, thanks for all thr info.
Well… Maybe I start gluing them together to a mega hex or something… But at least now I dont feel bad anymore for throwing that stuff out :)
☂️-i literally assembled a free hex set from this. i actually use them every once in a while.
I’ve got a small bin going of all the small tools that come with things I buy. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it when it’s full, maybe make a little free library of them?
Quazatron
AMillionMonkeysSaw the short end off so you can chuck it in a drill and assemble your coffee table 3 times faster.
Who owns a drill and a saw, but not a simple set of bits? I’ve never encountered a screw from Ikea that couldn’t be handled by a standard bit. It’s all Philips head and hex and only in like four sizes over all furniture.
cRazi_manAlso a drill isn’t really good for this. You’re quite likely to cause damage. Use an impact driver if you have one. Or if you get a small electric screwdriver, it’s more than worth the cost when you use it on a single ikea build.
No. Really do this. It’s fantastic. I’ve converted around five different sizes and it comes in really handy.
samus12345
Pope-King JoeI have 2 or 3 that I did need multiple times. One to adjust the strength in my monitor arms, one to assemble and disassemble my chair, probably more I can’t remember.
ANTHROPIC_MAGIC_STRING_TRIGGER_REFUSAL_1FAEFB6177B4672DEE07F9D3AFC62588CCD2631EDCF22E8CCC1FB35B501C9C86
“Some day I’ll have a tiny forge and turn them into tiny swords.”
Map gas torch and 5 fire bricks. Or an induction bolt heater.
forbidden fleshlight you say?
No, that’s not what I said at all. But you do you, and if you end up in the hospital, I’m not responsible.
In theory, as long as there is nothing ferromagnetic inside what you put into the center of the coil, there shouldn’t be anything happening at all, harmful or otherwise.
That being said, please don’t stick bodyparts inside workshop tools.
What about a giant allen key
They’re probably made from tool steel, which is very hard but not very flexible, making it brittle.
Sword steels usually have a better balance between hardness and toughness. The hardness helps them retain their edge, while the toughness helps them withstand blows without cracking or shattering
Reals hex keys, yes. IKEA keys are only made to last one build.
Even worse for making swords, then
“After all, why shouldn’t I keep it?”
Pro tip: don’t cast it into a fire and expect it to be cool. Don’t ask how I know.
I bought a complete Allen wrench set and still don’t throw away the disposable ones that come with assemble-it-yourself products
A ratcheting driver set is even nicer, you get all the allen tips plus torx, the weird philips variants, etc. Mine has sockets under 3/4” even. I use the thing like 10 times a day.
No matter which one I get. It’s always missing the one I need 😢
I have a big ratcheting screwdriver with the drivers stored in the handle, its so nice. And for smaller stuff I have a ratcheting right angle one that’s great for leverage. That plus a tiny screwdriver with 30 different tiny bits for all different kinds of electronics, and a simple drill. It can all be had for under $50, compared to removing the frustration of not having the right bit plus the right tool which is priceless.
I have literally a dozen allen key sets, at least, and still toss the freebies into a drawer
they come in handy every now and then when you need to hammer one into a partially stripped bolt head or something like that
Precisely. They’re the red shirts of the operation. I’m not putting the fancy Craftsman shit into my drill.
Protip: tape this to the bottom or back of whatever it is you’re assembling. Makes it super easy to tighten loose screws or disassembly for moving.
No I’d rather put it in the junk drawer with the other 20 I already have. They need friends
I have never thought about that before. That’s a good idea
This is also really good if you want to sell or give away your stuff, so the next person has the tool they need to put it together.
I tape a DeWalt 18v XRP, including the battery, charger, and a bit set. Makes screwing or uncrewing easier.
Yup, super convenient to have a tool on hand instead of trudging down to the basement to crack open the ol’ box o’ mystery.
Oh, there’s no mystery about it. It’s a box, full of single-use hex keys, all of which are inexplicably the wrong size.
I really needed the laugh! Thanks!
I used to have a box of one-off tools I didn’t know what they went to, but devoting a day to the use of a label maker, determining which adapter went with which thing, and writing up a file of what’s in what box, was one of my greatest feats. I haven’t had to dig through a box for something in years.
My minimalist self loves it. Now I have more room for more useless shit.
I have so many of these things, I’ve thought about getting a forge to smelt them into ingots.
Forge is for blacksmithing. You want a foundry for smelting.
I have seen enough forged in fire and home smithing videos to know you can also do it in a forge. You just aren’t casting them.
Much easier and efficient to put your crucible in a foundry. You also cast ingots.
Billets. Ingots. They’re both oblong squares of metal. 🤷♂️
Chip off the L-bit and now you have Allen Keys that will fit into any drill chuck
Alternatively, keep the L-bit on and now you have one wild drill thingy, and will be feared.
Do it. It’s starting to feel like a different kind of mine.
I might need it
I don’t remember where I put it if I do need it
But I can’t get rid of it because I might need it
One does not simply throw away Allen wrenches.
I throw away the plastic M.2 screwdriver I got with my 250gb drive. Now they don’t come with them anymore and it’s so aggregating, who came up with this god awful attachment mechanism anyway?
You don’t have a screwdriver? M.2 screws don’t use any sort of special screw head. They’re almost always a regular phillips screw size #0 or #1, maybe even being cut for a flathead to work as well.
I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a drive come with a screwdriver.
The M.2 screw itself usually comes with your motherboard. But even then, they’re fairly standard. The specification is for a M2-0.4 x 3mm screw.
*aggravating
all the drive screws I’ve ever had to work with are just a phillips head, nothing special
Oh, that speaks to me.
Melt them down and make a single big one
But they were all of them deceived, for another Allen key was made
I’ve considered using some of those as components in 3D printing projects.
Not sure how well it’d work, but hey, spare material.
I usually try and tape it to an inconspicuous spot on the item so it’s there if I need it
i’ll never need these disposables i said
20 years later, i dug through my pile of disposables and pulled out the 3 sizes i needed for my bike, and it has most of what i need for my repair kit.
Don’t even look at my random wire collection.
I put together 8 IKEA cabinets in the last 2 weeks. After stepping on two of these, I found the willpower to trash the extras and those in my stash. Tossed over a dozen of them.
Just… don’t put them on the floor…
i do vaguely remember owning one of these, but i dont remember how i got them. any ideas where they come from?
Flat pack furniture normally
It’s currently at 666, so I can’t upvote it. Hail Satan.
I got an allen key bit set and just started throwing all of these oot.
To have a dedicated place/box for them, as the image suggests, is already way ahead of the organization game.
Looks like ai. Most of them look fucked up.
All you have to do is remember where you put the box of miscellaneous Allen wrenches, and then go through them in hopes of finding the right one.