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• If you have a lot of bolt sticking through, you may need a pass-through socket, but then you also need a special pass-through handle, which will not work with other sockets.

• The ratchet feature and tremendous leverage available with socket wrench handles makes them an attractive driver for things that aren’t normally considered wrenches. You can get socket sets for hex drive (Allen wrenches), Torx drive, and even ordinary Phillips and slotted screwdriver bits.

• Deep sockets can get extreme: this one is six inches (150mm) long!

• These things work to drive bolts at odd angles, but you lose a lot of torque. They are to be avoided if possible.

• The most commonly-missing socket in any automotive shop is always the 10mm, because that’s the most common size bolt found in cars (foreign and domestic). This survival tool provides a 10mm socket for use only in a dire emergency.

• A rare (only one I’ve seen) triangular socket wrench. Seems like a lot of trouble to go to just to have one fewer size of socket.

• Crossbuck wrenches are used to take wheels on and off cars.

• This hundred year old socket set looks almost hand-made. And not very strong. At the time it was made, square nuts were more common, so the set includes some square sockets along with the now-universal hex sockets.

• This is a middle-of-the-line socket wrench set. Decent quality, good value.

• Snap-on tools are so expensive, and their tool chests even more so, that the closest I could come to owning one is this toy version.

• This is a standard hex socket attached to a handle through a universal joint. I’m not sure why someone cared so much about this particular size, but it’s definitely meant to be used as a wrench.

• Speed Handle Driver

• Speed Handles are a completely different approach to driving a socket. They are more like antique bit braces than other wrench handles. They can be fast, but require room to work, and can’t apply much torque.

• This horrible, horrible thing is advertised as able to fit any size or shape of bolt head. It does, and then it rounds the head over and breaks. OK, actually, they do work, sort of better than I expected for light loads, but not well enough to keep using one.

• Lug wrenches for changing the tire on your car by the side of the road typically have a different size of socket on each end. The cross shape automatically gives you a handle regardless of which socket you’re using.

• All socket sets are always missing pieces. It is a law of nature, like gravity.

• After a while the law of entropy takes over, and you end up with a drawer full of random sockets. This cannot be helped, just accept it and move on.

• Deep sockets work when there is too much bolt sticking up through the nut for a regular socket.

• Square-headed bolts and valve heads are very common. They can easily be turned with a standard open-ended or crescent wrench, but a dedicated square wrench will give you more torque.

• Crowfoot wrenches fit on socket wrench handles, but stick out to the side instead of down. They are used in cases where there’s just no other way to reach a bolt head.

• This is very cool. Very cool indeed. Useless, but very cool to watch as it turns. Oh, right, I should tell you, it’s a right-angle drive adapter for sockets. But it’s too weak to be of much use. Still cool though.

• I got this cheap set to keep in the car. It’s less complete as a socket set, but more versatile because it also includes some combination box end and open wrenches, screw drivers, and hex wrenches.

• It’s some kind of hex drive wrench missing its handle, I think.

• Or a socket on one end and a prybar/screwdriver on the other. (Actually I think this might be home-made, because I have not seen others like it.)

• Extending a socket drive in a straight line is very common, and can be done with no loss of torque using a socket extender.

• Universal joint for driving sockets at an angle.

• These sockets are huge, but lightweight and made of aluminum. What could you possibly need to turn that is so big, yet requires so little force that these would be strong enough? Oil filters.

• Sockets

• Assorted Sockets

• Assorted Small Sockets

• This is a cam-operated universal socket, meant to grip and turn smooth, round bars over a range of sizes. It’s the pipe wrench of socket wrenches.

• Rusty old socket.

• Spline-drive bolts are used in some car parts: these sockets fit them better than the 12-point sockets sold in common socket sets.

• These “flip” sockets have two different sizes, one on each end. You can only use them on the end of an extension rod, because the square drive socket is in the middle. This severely limits their usefulness.

• Impact sockets are thicker and made of stronger steel so they can withstand the force of an impact wrench.

• Cam-based tool for turning round bars, for example a bolt whose head has twisted off.

• Long socket extensions are useful for reaching deep into a mechanism.

Do you have a better example of this kind of tool? Let me know by leaving a comment, and include a picture of it if you can so everyone can see!