Not sure on socket set

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jamesmartin said:
come on ,colleges are only playing at it, i never seen many decent mechanic/engineer use anything but snap or original britool before facome,or something equialent ,thats not halfords pro,most of the sockets in those sets are never used why not buy what you need in best quality you can
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As I said - yu must walk around with yo eyes closed :p! Snap. On are **** - yu can never contact the reps, or wait ages till they come around.:mad: they are also overpriced for general use.
 
The Mad Hat Man said:
That depends who yu see :). Mind yu - ratchets aren't covered.
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Snap-on actually sell (or at least used to as I don't know if they still do) an extension along the lines of a scaff pole that is specifically designed to go on the endo of their their ratchet and breaker bars handles. I haven't seen any other manufacturers do anything similar.
 
The Mad Hat Man said:
As I said - yu must walk around with yo eyes closed :p! Snap. On are **** - yu can never contact the reps, or wait ages till they come around.:mad: they are also overpriced for general use.
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I met up with my snap-on dealer at 11pm this saturday evening to exchange some gear.

This set I bought from snap-on cost me £100





this set was £50

$(KGrHqIOKiwE12VoPCZHBNog66MVzQ~~_35.JPG


that puts them around a similar price to the halfords sets.
 
ratty said:
Snap-on actually sell (or at least used to as I don't know if they still do) an extension along the lines of a scaff pole that is specifically designed to go on the endo of their their ratchet and breaker bars handles. I haven't seen any other manufacturers do anything similar.
Click to expand...


length of galv water pipe does the same, I have selection of Snap-on,laser and cheap ****.

MHM if you worked in a garage then they come weekly and breakages they will drop in and swap in between.

I personally like the 3/8 sealed ratchets- one repair kit in 16 years isn't bad and I was beasting it at the time.:boink:

my advice is buy the common sizes in single hex in a good brand and make the rest up in okay stuff.

For instance I was given a Halfords 1/4 drive set and the ratchet is ****-but the sockets have lasted 16 years.
I have a 7 mm snapon 1/4 drive socket as I lost the 7 mm. That one socket cost £7 which the whole halfords set cost £12.

Moral of the story is a selection of tools appropriate for amount of use.

I also have an unbranded inch drive set upto 50mm-bankrupt stock and cost £40 years ago-how much would mr snapon want for that:eek:
 
When I was involved with snap-on around here, their rep only came around once a month.... And who wants to wait a month to get a replacement socket, when yu are in the middle of a job?:rolleyes:
Don't get me wrong, Halfrauds ain't the best, but they ain't bad... And they is convenient.
 
The Mad Hat Man said:
When I was involved with snap-on around here, their rep only came around once a month.... And who wants to wait a month to get a replacement socket, when yu are in the middle of a job?:rolleyes:
Don't get me wrong, Halfrauds ain't the best, but they ain't bad... And they is convenient.
Click to expand...
Okay I didn't realise snapon were around when horse and carts were used
gandalf.jpg
 
ratty said:
I'd stick a scaffold pole on my 3/8 snap-on ratchet and if it broke I'd hand it back to my snap-on dealer and then get a new one in exchange. The problem with Halfors expert and the like is that you only have a warranty if you have the receipt. With snap-on you have a warranty even if you bought it at a car boot sale for 10p:p:p:p
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Good luck taking a broken car boot ratchet back to the snap on man if you're not a regular customer (or at the very least, know someone who is so you can get them to take it back for you).

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch, there's al ways a catch, with halfords, all you have to do is keep the receipt, with snap on, you've got to keep buying a bit of snap on gear.

Make no mistake, if you held a snap on spanner in one hand and a halfords pro in the other and said you can have one of these as a gift i'd chose the snap on in a milli second, no contest. If it came to buying one with my own money then it's a different matter, certainly if i was in the position of the OP. wanting some tools for DIY repairs to my own vehicle then i can't see any benefit in paying a premium for snap on.

If you were an apprentice starting out, and you took advantage of the finance scheme (which you pay for anyway regardless as it's built into the price), then paying 30 quid a week to the snap on man for tools that will earn you a living for the next 30 years rather than ****ing it up the wall or blowing it on some more tat to bolt on to your vauxhall corsa would be a good thing.

If you're paying on the nail there are plenty of branded tools like Beta which are comparable in quality and ergonomics to snap on at half the price.

Snap on is good stuff an it always seems to hold it's money well, but unless you're getting it a it the right money i don't think there's any advantage in it for the DIY guy as there's loads of tools which are either very nearly as good or very actually as good at a much cheaper price.

Anyway, for the snap on fan there a few bits and pieces on offer here:

SNAP ON TOOLS ------LARGE COLLECTION----- | eBay UK
 
fanatic said:
length of galv water pipe does the same, I have selection of Snap-on,laser and cheap ****.

MHM if you worked in a garage then they come weekly and breakages they will drop in and swap in between.

I personally like the 3/8 sealed ratchets- one repair kit in 16 years isn't bad and I was beasting it at the time.:boink:

my advice is buy the common sizes in single hex in a good brand and make the rest up in okay stuff.

For instance I was given a Halfords 1/4 drive set and the ratchet is ****-but the sockets have lasted 16 years.
I have a 7 mm snapon 1/4 drive socket as I lost the 7 mm. That one socket cost £7 which the whole halfords set cost £12.

Moral of the story is a selection of tools appropriate for amount of use.

I also have an unbranded inch drive set upto 50mm-bankrupt stock and cost £40 years ago-how much would mr snapon want for that:eek:
Click to expand...

I think that's spot on, pretty much what i do myself.
 
I think there is a bit of confusion here. Halfords sell some really naff tools. However their Pro kit is the nuts. I have only had one problem with their pro stuff... a socket failed under extreme duress. They changed it without a receipt without any questions. I continue to buy them and don't see myself changing that any time soon.

I agree with the idea that buying a cheap kit is a good idea... just swap the common bits for the more expensinve Pro equivalent as soon as you start to use it. It's taken two years but our half inch drive sockets are Pro from 6mm to 30 mm, the extension bars and ratchets are also pro but some of the pliers and AF sockets remain the original cheap and nasty stuff.

All in all we have probably spent around £400 on these tools over two years,
 
We've got some Mac tools, as good as Snap-On. Loads cheaper tho.

Some sh1t sockets for beating with a big hammer, some older better sockets and a non-branded 1" drive set in a big box that I can sit on.

A good 3-ton trolley jack, the handle of which comes off and you can use it like a gas-barrel pipe extension.

A good small socket set, 1/4 " Teng or similar for worm clips and the like, very good for small places.

Good cutters and pliers set, your fingers are worth more than that.
 
Quality Hex set for all land rover needs then buy Halfords Pro range of bi Hex stuff and you cannot go far wrong I had a Franklin set same as a Pro Draper set and they have rebuilt my vehicle several times over. I now have a Halfords Pro set but for the really tough stuff you can't beat Franklin/Draper Pro/Snaop on Hex sets
 
Best thing I ever bought was a proper tool chest. The time wasted in looking for tools to do a job drove me nuts. I can put my hands on exactly what I need instantly now.

Halfrauds Pro stuff is good. Only thing that is now severely lacking in their range is Imperial sizes, for that I get my BiL to bring me Craftsman Tools in from the States. It's great kit, without being stupid expensive.
 
My spanner set was a German made life guranteed set from Ebay about £65 and I've only broke a 7mm spanner open ended because I was hanging off of it being a twot! th erest have lasted me about 8 years. The 10 11 13 14 17 19 and 30 mm have all been used and abused for al that time and never failed
 
BasilSeal said:
Good luck taking a broken car boot ratchet back to the snap on man if you're not a regular customer (or at the very least, know someone who is so you can get them to take it back for you).

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch, there's al ways a catch, with halfords, all you have to do is keep the receipt, with snap on, you've got to keep buying a bit of snap on gear.

Make no mistake, if you held a snap on spanner in one hand and a halfords pro in the other and said you can have one of these as a gift i'd chose the snap on in a milli second, no contest. If it came to buying one with my own money then it's a different matter, certainly if i was in the position of the OP. wanting some tools for DIY repairs to my own vehicle then i can't see any benefit in paying a premium for snap on.

If you were an apprentice starting out, and you took advantage of the finance scheme (which you pay for anyway regardless as it's built into the price), then paying 30 quid a week to the snap on man for tools that will earn you a living for the next 30 years rather than ****ing it up the wall or blowing it on some more tat to bolt on to your vauxhall corsa would be a good thing.

If you're paying on the nail there are plenty of branded tools like Beta which are comparable in quality and ergonomics to snap on at half the price.

Snap on is good stuff an it always seems to hold it's money well, but unless you're getting it a it the right money i don't think there's any advantage in it for the DIY guy as there's loads of tools which are either very nearly as good or very actually as good at a much cheaper price.

Anyway, for the snap on fan there a few bits and pieces on offer here:

SNAP ON TOOLS ------LARGE COLLECTION----- | eBay UK
Click to expand...

I've not had any problems with snap-on warranties but as you say I am a regular payer so need to be kept sweet.


If it aint on offer I don't buy it. If what I want isn't on special I just tell snap-on what I want and it's usually just a couple of weeks before I get a call back telling me that they are. Most of my tools I could almost double my money on by sticking em on ebay.

I have some cheap tools aswell. These are ideal for when a tool needs to be modified to fit a specific job.

I would rather spend £500 on tools and have em in a £50 box than spend £50 on tools and put em in a £500 box.

Dippypud said:
We've got some Mac tools, as good as Snap-On. Loads cheaper tho.

Some sh1t sockets for beating with a big hammer, some older better sockets and a non-branded 1" drive set in a big box that I can sit on.

A good 3-ton trolley jack, the handle of which comes off and you can use it like a gas-barrel pipe extension.

A good small socket set, 1/4 " Teng or similar for worm clips and the like, very good for small places.

Good cutters and pliers set, your fingers are worth more than that.
Click to expand...

I rekon Mac have now gotten more expensive than snap-on
 
Don't get britool, just used one of works torque wrenches set to 200lb inch and it didn't click.. Got another wrench with a dial on and it had gone over by 100 and still hadn't clicked! Almost sheared the bloody thing! Was only calibrated last month!
 
An interesting thread this one.
My dad's a retired mechanic and confirmed britool user, he still has his original socket set his dad bought him when he left school to start his apprenticeship.
However, I use halfords pro stuff and my dad is impressed with thier gear.
My dad says that the reason snap on got popular is because they supplied tools on the knock, and new mechanics always love a bit of gucci kit:)
Alot of people have said that they have abused thier tools and not had any problems, I can't see the point of abusing tools, use the right tool for the job, if you can.
 
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