1/2" Hexagon Socket (13mm)

Name: 1/2" Hexagon Socket (13mm)
Brand: Harden
SKU: 535513

Item No. 535513

Price on request

Thirteen millimetres is one of the two or three sizes a working mechanic reaches for most, and like the 10mm it earns that through a single fastener standard: it is the other common head size for M8 bolts, the one used by most European manufacturers and by a great deal of industrial and agricultural equipment.

That makes it the size for engine mounting bolts, alternator and ancillary brackets, seat and body fixings, exhaust clamps, gearbox and bellhousing bolts, chassis and subframe fittings, and an enormous amount of general machinery assembly. Between 10, 13, 17 and 19 you can strip most of a vehicle, and 13 does more than its share of the work.

The matt chrome finish is worth a moment here, since it is on every socket in the range and its purpose is not decoration. Chrome plating is what stops a socket rusting in an environment of oil, water, brake fluid and road salt, and rust matters on a socket in a specific way: a corroded internal hex loses its sharp corners, and rounded internal corners are what start rounding fasteners. The matt rather than mirror finish is a working choice — it does not flare back at you under a work lamp when you are peering into an engine bay, and it holds slightly better in a greasy hand.

The socket is drop forged from fine chrome vanadium. Forging flows the grain of the steel around the hex form rather than cutting across it, which matters most at the six corners where all the stress concentrates. Chrome vanadium is the standard hand socket alloy, chromium for hardness and wear resistance, vanadium for grain refinement and toughness.

The buyers are vehicle and commercial vehicle mechanics, agricultural and plant fitters, engineering and fabrication workshops, general maintenance departments, and hardware dealers supplying the motor trade.

Some practical use. Push the socket fully home before loading it; a socket sitting proud engages only the tips of the hex, and that is the single commonest way a nut gets rounded. Use a six-point socket in preference to a twelve-point on anything tight or corroded, since six points bear on the flats of the nut rather than near its corners. And never use a chrome hand socket on an impact wrench — chrome-plated hardened chrome vanadium is brittle under impact hammering and can crack and throw pieces. Impact guns take black chrome molybdenum impact sockets, which is why those are a separate range. Message us on WhatsApp for a price, singly or across the sizes.