1/4 Inch Ratchet Wrench

This weeks Macro Mondays theme is Hand Tool.

 

This is a very close up image of the ball detent on the male end of a 1/4 inch ratchet wrench. The metal ball is housed in a small hole, with a spring that pushes it out toward the surface, where the crimped edge keeps it from falling out. Its purpose is to securely hold a socket in place but still allow the user to remove it without undue effort. If you look closely at the image you can clearly see where the metal on the post has been crimped surrounding the ball. This is one of the more common methods of securing sockets and interchangeable tips in place for modern hand tools. There are several other methods used.

 

This is a very high magnification image. It was taken at 4X on a full frame sensor, with only a small amount of the width cropped off. The edge of the post that you see running from the upper left to the low center of the image is slightly less than 1/4 of an inch long.

 

I was bored so I got creative with the lighting, and used some perforated metal to add some details in the reflections in the chrome.

 

Best viewed large.

 

HMM.

Done