Honestly tools like my husband uses for work and things around the house are not my thing. I am not handywoman inclined in the slightest. I struggle with using a hammer or a screwdriver even. If I put my mind to it I am sure I could figure it all out, but I have a husband and a teenage son who both understand the tools and I just let them take care of things for now.
When I ask Hubby or even now Taylor what they want for Christmas often they say tools. One of the most requested tools are sockets. Um, ok. That sounds totally boring to me. It is just this little round metal thing, kind of like a big heavy bead in my mind. Apparently I am way off though because Hubby was very excited when he saw this Craftsman 19-piece Socket Set on the table when he got home. I told him that he could have them, but only if he could explain their use to me first.
The first thing he showed me a use for was a bicycle. The thing he is pointing at is a nut (a 6pt hex to be exact). Then you find the socket (the metal tube/bead looking thing) that fits and put it on the ratchet (the handle thingie). Then you put the socket part on the nut and pull/push the handle to tighten or loosen the nut. I learned that sometimes you also need a wrench on the other side of the nut (the bolt end) to hold that in place while you adjust the nut on the other side – otherwise it would just spin a lot. Got that?
Since my husband is a master technician he uses sockets all the live long day apparently working on cars. He took me out to show me a few places under the hood of my car that you need sockets for. Hubby says for the average shade tree mechanic they need both deep and shallow (this set is shallow) socket sets on hand for car work. You also need a lot of different sizes and you may need standard or metric or both. If you have no idea what kind to buy your hubby (or other tool-person in your family) for a gift, just ask the people working in the tool department at Sears because they will have some ideas of general sets that will probably work.
Another use for sockets is for hanging up your flat screen TV with a wall mount. You can see here that Hubby used a smaller socket for the bolts (he says they are carriage bolts – whatever) that go into the wall for the mount. Must work because my TV is still hanging after a couple of years now and it is really heavy.
So Hubby highly recommends socket sets as a holiday gift item. Even if you have no idea why they need them, the guys apparently do and get very happy about them. I have learned over the years that if I make sure Hubby has a supply of tools things tend to get fixed faster around the house also – that is a win-win situation. Like I mentioned before, just ask the Sears people in the tool department for help. I do this all the time and Hubby is always happy with the selections. If you are more a catalog and online shopper, you can order this socket set from their online tool catalog (which is really cool actually).
Does someone on your gift list like sockets or other tools you do not really understand?
Disclosure: Sears provided us with the Craftsman socket set shown in order to facilitate this post. The opinions are mine, and Hubby’s. He really uses Craftsman tools every single day for work and at home.
© 2011, Robyn Wright. All rights reserved.
