5 hours ago, DaRoadrunner said:

Well, whatever turns you on.

As some  some professionals might do ????

 

5 hours ago, talahtnut said:

Not usually much pressure so I can grasp my nuts and twist them off.

Try it.

 

4 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

It would seem that's exactly what our OP's lady did, but she used pliers

Sounds painful that Crossy???

15 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Are you sure?

 

 

I know in Thailand in some shops where we can buy drills, screws, etc. they offer different "sets" in metric or in imperial. And it is not just one converted to the other. They are actually different and exact according to whatever system they use.

Yes absolutely sure. I have spanner’s in my tool box that prove the point.
No, they are not poorly made.

Yes, they fit the nuts they are designed for perfectly.

Yes, they are marked with the same fractional markings

Yes, the sizes with the same fraction marking are different sizes.

 

No your example does not prove your point it just shows that the maker did not mark the spanner correctly as AF or W

 

Yes the auto industry has seen the light even in the USA  and they use metric fasteners and have for decades.

 

my tool box has the spanner’s I needed over 5 decades ago to work on my Tiger 100, Norton Commando and a number of Japanese models, including a Honda CB 400 a 4 cylinder bike

 

i colour coded them, blue is metric, red is AF and grey is W.

19 hours ago, mrfill said:

Go find someone who fixes Japanese cars and/or bikes. They can lend you a 18/19mm and a 20/21mm open end spanner and then you have the full choice.

The entire automotive industry uses metric, has done for years

16 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

<Snip>

These go to 70mm

<End of Snip>

A very useful tool. I bought one when I was replacing a toilet flush valve.

Last time I went for a replacement hose they gave me this:-

 

The red wingnut thing slips over both ends so no need for any spanners  

 

Bit of a mess I know but it's outside and doesn't get much attention   

17 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I know in Thailand in some shops where we can buy drills, screws, etc. they offer different "sets" in metric or in imperial. And it is not just one converted to the other. They are actually different and exact according to whatever system they use.

I’m sure that you can get those but you have missed out on the number size drills, so there are 3 different size sets or series, metric, imperial and number.
 

With wood screws they are still generally sold in the imperial number sizes, though you can get the metric sizes from specialist suppliers often with Torx socket heads. And that doesn’t go into the different ways of driving or head forms Slot, Philips, Pozi, Roberts and Torx are the main ones along with Coffin, and various other usually specialist ones.

 

Then with metal fasteners the possible series of thread forms is numerous and getting a specific one is a bit of a crapshoot