3/8 inch Drive 6 Point Metric Sockets: The Full List

Three-eighths drive is the size most work gets done on, and the six-point metric regular socket is the workhorse of that range. This is the complete list of 16 sizes currently in the catalogue, smallest to largest, with the Teng part number for each.

Why 3/8 inch drive is the default

A drive size is a compromise between how much torque the square can carry and how much room the tool needs. Quarter-inch drive runs out of strength somewhere around 25 Nm and half-inch drive is too bulky to reach into a bay full of loom and bracketry. Three-eighths sits between them: strong enough for suspension-adjacent fasteners, slim enough that a socket and ratchet will still turn in a confined space. If a workshop owns one socket set, this is the one it owns.

Six point against twelve point

A six-point socket contacts all six flats of the fastener. A twelve-point contacts the same flats but with half the material behind each contact face, and it engages every thirty degrees rather than every sixty, which is why it feels quicker to locate. The trade is strength at the corners. On a fastener that is tight, corroded or already slightly rounded, six point is the one that survives — the load spreads across the flat rather than concentrating where the metal is thinnest. Twelve point earns its place where swing is restricted and the fastener is not fighting you.

All 16 sizes

Size Decimal inch Teng part number EAN
7 mm 0.2756 M380507-C 5020385132801
8 mm 0.3150 M380508-C 5020385130326
9 mm 0.3543 M380509-C 5020385130333
10 mm 0.3937 M380510-C 5020385130340
11 mm 0.4331 M380511-C 5020385130357
12 mm 0.4724 M380512-C 5020385130364
13 mm 0.5118 M380513-C 5020385130371
14 mm 0.5512 M380514-C 5020385130388
15 mm 0.5906 M380515-C 5020385130395
16 mm 0.6299 M380516-C 5020385130401
17 mm 0.6693 M380517-C 5020385130418
18 mm 0.7087 M380518-C 5020385130425
19 mm 0.7480 M380519-C 5020385130432
20 mm 0.7874 M380520-C 5020385133495
21 mm 0.8268 M380521-C 5020385130449
22 mm 0.8661 M380522-C 5020385130456

Where this list comes from

Every row is read from the live Teng Tools USA catalogue on the day this page was generated — product record, part number and size taken from the record itself, never transcribed from a printed catalogue or inferred from a pattern. Metric sizes are the across-flats dimension in millimetres, exactly as the socket is stamped. A size that has been discontinued disappears from this list rather than lingering as a part number you cannot order, which is the failure mode of every static spec sheet. Decimal inch equivalents are exact conversions at 25.4 mm to the inch, rounded for display only. They are given for cross-referencing against an imperial drawing, not as a claim that a metric socket fits an imperial fastener — it does not.

Choosing between two adjacent sizes

If a socket goes on with a perceptible rock, it is the wrong one. The next size down will feel like it does not want to start, and that is the correct feeling — a hex socket should need a light push, not drop on. The rock is the socket bearing on the corners of the fastener instead of the flats, and the corners are what shear away under load. This matters most in the crowded part of the range: 12, 13 and 14 mm sit close enough together that a socket grabbed by eye is regularly one size out.

The rest of the range is in sockets and accessories, and pre-built ranges are in socket sets.