1/2" DR. Deep Hexagon Socket (11mm)

It turns up on certain Japanese vehicles and motorcycles, on some European machinery, and on a scattering of appliance, pump and equipment assemblies. Because most sets run 10, 12, 13 and skip 11 entirely, the first 11mm nut anybody meets is usually a surprise, and the usual improvisations are poor: a 10mm will not go on, and a 12mm engages only at the extreme corners of the hex, which is exactly the mechanism by which nuts get rounded off.

The deep form adds the second half of the problem. If that 11mm nut is on a stud with thread protruding past it — which is common on the clamps, brackets and manifold fixings where odd sizes appear — a standard socket cannot seat at all, however correct its size. Needing an uncommon size and needing extra depth at the same time is precisely the combination that stops a job dead.

The socket is drop forged from fine chrome vanadium with a matt chrome finish. Chrome vanadium is the standard hand socket alloy: chromium raises hardness and wear resistance so the internal hex holds its sharp corners, while vanadium refines the grain structure and adds the toughness that keeps a hard socket from being a brittle one. Forging then flows that steel's grain around the hexagonal shape rather than cutting through it at the six corners where the stress concentrates.

The buyers are motorcycle and three-wheeler mechanics, vehicle workshops handling Japanese imports, appliance and pump technicians, machinery and equipment fitters, and hardware dealers who keep the sizes their customers cannot find anywhere else.

Two rules that apply to every socket here. Seat it fully on the fastener before applying force, since a deep socket engaged only at the tips of the hex has very little to hold with. And never use a chrome hand socket on an impact wrench — plated hardened chrome vanadium is brittle under impact hammering, cracks, and throws fragments at speed; impact tools need the black chrome molybdenum sockets that exist as a separate range. Message us on WhatsApp for a price, or tell us which odd sizes you keep running out of.