Hex Bits for Dummies - The Freelance Files MMCXXIX

hex bit socket (note square drive hole)

If it were not so painful, it would be amusing to watch some of the journalism majors our staff encounters trying to explain even the most trivial of technical and mechanical products. The way in which some of them manage to mangle definitions and terminology would be hilarious if we didn't realize that some poor schmuck reading their literary droppings might think they were accurate. To the canon of mangled technical information, we now add the WiseGEEK.com post "What Is a Hex Bit Socket?" (in their niche that is supposedly AboutMechanics.com); a piece of internet stupidification from the keyboard of returning DotD Maggie Worth.

Simply put, a hex-bit socket is a version of allen or hex-head wrench that, instead of being a simple L-shaped hand tool comprises a hexagonal shaft set into a socket that fits onto a square-head driver. Sets of these are available for mechanics and other users of hand tools. The socket arrangement gives the tool user increased mechanical advantage and easier application than a simple hex key.

Worth managed to spit out what hex-heads are used for, only botching the facts somewhat:

"[Hex] screws are less prone to stripping than screws with traditional heads, making them easier to screw into resistant materials..."

...although she clearly outstripped her knowledge in the next sentence, claiming that,

"...hex-head screws are far more difficult to remove without the proper tool, unlike traditional screws, which can often be removed using a knife or other thin, flat, sturdy object."

Pish: everyone has hex wrenches. Maybe Worth confused them with Torx® screws? Not to mention that Maggie seems unaware of Phillips-head screws, which cannot be removed with a table knife...

All that dumbassery pales, however, alongside some of Worth's descriptive phraseology:

"Such sockets are usually two-sided, with one side featuring the male, or driver, unit and the other side featuring the female, or socket, unit. Both the male and female ends are made to work with fasteners that have six sides."

Wait, what? No, Maggie, the female side is where the driver  fits, and a) it's square and b) isn'tused on fasteners! Yes, this bozo who clearly had no experience with socket sets actually thought that,

"The female end of a hex bit socket is simply a cuff of metal into which a deep six-sided depression has been formed. This opening is made to receive a six-sided piece of hardware, usually a nut."

What an idjit! Instead of discussing driver sizes - quarter-, three-eighths-, and half--inch drive – Worth conflated the female "cuff," as she called it, with a hex socket. Holy crap!

Forced by the SEO gurus at WiseGEEK to meet some minimum word count, Worth then regaled her readers with questionable (if not downright inaccurate) information such as "bits made for manual drivers may be incompatible with powered drivers and vice versa," all while failing to mention that hex bits are sized in either imperial or metric units.

This is exactly the sort of stupidity that ensues when ignorant freelancers attempt to explain a products they've never used; the sort of stupidity that just earned Maggie Worth her fourth Dumbass of the Day award. Editor Jenn Walker also deserves a helping of scorn. Perhaps if the image accompanying the post were of a hex bit socket instead of "woman holding a book," Worth might have realized her ignorance.

SE - HAND TOOLS