Tool quality

[Bren]

Further to my post about cordless impact guns, having trawled the net it soon becomes apparent the huge difference in price between tools - I don't mean suppliers, more the manufacturers. No doubt we have all been given shit tools that round and snap the first time they are used in anger.

 

I appreciate snap on tools have a lifetime warranty, but are their products really THAT much better than the competiton?

 

Would their sockets out last teng / facom items? Would their mig welders be better than an ESAB/ cebora item?

 

I have a mix of stuff (like most on here I would imagine), some cheapo stuff, moving up a bit to the likes of sealey/clarke/draper, my only snap on purchases to date being a tool box and a timing light - their tools being out of reach for someone like me who does it only at weekends.

 

I could do with a new half inch ratchet, however it will probably be a clarke item - cant afford £60 + for a snap on item.

[warren t claim]

Try Blue Point stuff, made by Snap Off but without the warranty.

[Cavcraft]

Halfords Pro stuff has always been good quality in my experience.

[meggersdog]

Halfords professional tools have a lifetime warranty although I read somewhere it doesn't apply to ratchets.

[Richard]

Any decent socket should last more or less indefinitely if it's not abused.

 

Teng and Facom are good enough, as are Halfords Professional- although Halfords stuff has got really expensive recently. I don't know about Teng and Facom but Halfords do offer a lifetime warranty on non-moving parts (i.e. sockets and ratchet handles but not the ratchet mechanism itself).

 

I don't know how much you intend to spend but I have the 1/4" 1nd 3/8" versions of this ratchet and they are excellent- nice action, 72 teeth and very strong.

[RichardMoss]

In my experience Machine Mart's Clarke range seems to offer decent kit at a sensible price, especially when they have one of their VAT free weekends.

[whitevanman]

Tools fall into several catagorys, I mainly use Britool, Taskmaster(old) and Smoos for my good stuff and Halfords for my 'in the van' tool kits, However all my Whitworth, imperial and AF stuff is Gedore, Elora, Bedford, Snap on and Britool...and I never have much in the way of problems with any of it, my 3/8 Britool ratchet is from the early 50's and only just starting to get a bit cranky

[Des]

I used to buy the snap on stuff, but mainly because it was just a case of telling the guy what I wanted and he'd fetch it from his van, wasn't cheap but would be paid for with a few quid a week, did seem to go from expensive to extortionate though and alternatives appeared. The stuff now strikes me as over rated and over priced, there's just as good available for a fraction of the price.

The trolly jack I bought from them 20 years ago is still working, and it was made in China.

[Morgan84]

I tend to favour Kamasa, Draper, Sealey, Laser as a usual trusted ' should be fine brand', although not all cheap items are crap. Lots of the travelling boys selling tools off vans like Bergen and similar which are pretty good. With cordless impact guns, a friend had used sealey ones for years and they are brilliant and he uses his daily as a mobile mechanic

[Micrashed]

I inherited all my fathers King Dick tools and given that they are 50+ years old they are still going strong with no sign of doing anything iffy in normal use.

[jonny69]

I think my advice with tools these days is buyer beware and make sure you either view before you buy, or buy a specific recommendation because you can't 100% rely on the big brands.

 

I know scores of people who have Snap-On tools who work in the trade and have bought them for the convenience of the man in the van, the finance and the pretty much pain-free use of the warranty if anything gives up. Many of those guys don't rate the quality of the actual tools, but they are prepared to pay the extra because the convenience.

 

I have a problem with Halfords Pro. I've never really liked the feel of their ratchets and I don't like the rubber grips, but that's purely a personal thing, so let's put that aside. I paid quite a lot for a set of Halfords Pro spanners - they feel quite nice in the hand and are a nice shape, convenient length etc, but they may as well be made out of Cadburys Dairy Milk. Put them on anything stubborn and they just chew up, which is not acceptable for such an expensive set. My main bugbear is the perpetual 'special offer' that the tool cabs, sockets and tool sets seem to be on. There is absolutely NO WAY that some of those sets are worth the money they are billed up at their full price and I'd argue that even the 'offer' price is a bit over the odds when you can get much better from even the likes of Clarke. Their lifetime guarantee is questionable, too. Loads of horror stories on the net about them refusing to replace tools, especially ratchets which seem to fail regularly, arguing they either aren't covered or they won't be replaced without the original receipt despite having HALFORDS stamped all over them. I can't find my receipt from 5 years ago, so I'm stuck with expensive mashed spanners. Ratchets SHOULD NOT fail like Halfords ones do either; it should be quite capable of being whacked with a club hammer, being stomped on or having your weight hung off it to free off stubborn stuff. Yes that's pretty harsh use, but it should still be able to take it, like mine does and my Dad's 40 year old set does. So I'll always try and steer people away from Halfords Pro, because the forums seem to have made them extremely popular, but you can get much better value tools elsewhere.

[Volksy]

I've some King Dick spanners somewhere.

 

My local Halfrauds have always replaced my ratchets without quibble, and even replaced a strongbar which had its end sheared off by jacking it up to undo a wheels nut on my old Renault Master. Think it depends on who you get instore.

 

I do rate their stuff.

[Rusty_Rocket]

I think you must have been unlucky with Halfords Pro stuff Jonny. I've been using two 150-piece sets for years and they've taken some serious abuse. I've clobbered ratchets when desperate, linked spanners together to get more leverage, hit extensions with rubber mallets etc etc, they've experienced some really hard use and are still in perfectly good order.

I've never had a ratchet fail either, however every 6 months, I remove the ratchet I've been using, immerse the head in clean oil and use another one for half a year. This keeps them well lubed and I've never managed to wear one out yet.

Only breakages have been the 1/2 drive screwdriver bits, which sheared when I put some weight on them- replaced without fuss

[TagoraSX]

A set of Gedore tools came with a machine I bought in Germany last year. I'd never heard of them but they seem to be very good quality.

[coalnotdole]

I highly rate old King Dick and Britool its all good quality up to the 1990's when stuff started to be outsourced. Lots of stuff out there is ex industry or ex MOD surplus and it was produced in such large quantities that there is still lots of stuff about. Prices are just starting to rise Old Britool socket sets can cost about the same as a modern one, particularly if your buying it on ebay.

 

There are other good brands out there too the cheaper British brands can be very good Gordon Tools and Bedford particularly. They don't have quite the same following a the big brands so you can sometimes pick them, up at really cheap prices. Possibly worth having as an ebay watch word search if your on the lookout for something older and high quality. In my experience Snap On, Elora, hilka, C.K and Kamasa are also pretty good to use.

[andrew e]

Can I williams super slims to the high quality list, and ellliot lucas pliers/cutter etc. Off track a little but if you encounter HAZET tools, the vw boys like them to complete the wheel mounted tool kits.

[Vanny]

Brands who's tools i have defeated

 

Snap-Off many many sockets destroyed!

Clarke I don't think i have any unbroken Clarke tools left

Draper They still haven't learned the difference between metal and cheese

 

 

Brands that have defeated me

 

Halford Pro/Advanced Well i defeated one T55 3/8 socket, with a 6ft extension, replaced same day, no quibbles

Kamasa Winner of indestructible brand of my lifetime, even there cheap stuff

Master Grip(?) American brand sold in Costco, lifetime guarantee, most abused of all my tools

 

These days i stick to Halford Pro as they are typically around 50% off with a trade card, and indestructible.

[Richard]

My friend twisted a Snap On Allen socket (8mm I think) into a spiral using a moderate amount of effort on a breaker bar. It was replaced without quibble and the new one did exactly the same.

[whitevanman]

A set of Gedore tools came with a machine I bought in Germany last year. I'd never heard of them but they seem to be very good quality.

 

They are.....

[TimothyClaypole]

Can't fault the Halfords and Teng stuff I have.

 

No idea how people break or wear out ratchets, if you are using it that much then it's a consumable item imho.

 

The older socket sets my dad has have very sturdy but harder to use ratchets in them so I think people overuse them or strain them instead of using an appropriate hard bar in their place?

[dave862]

everyone i know owns one of those big Halfords proffesional sets and ive never known anything to wear out (spanners/sockets wise) except that the ratchets dont seem to last very long. there must be 3 or 4 3/8 halfords ratchets in our garage which dont work anymore! to be fair though, the ratchet is probably your most used and abused tool so, as someone said, should be viewed as a consumable item. Personally even if i had the money i wouldnt buy Snapon as i think its more of a status symbol these days than good value for money. not saying its no good, i just couldnt justify paying lets say £70 for a snapon ratchet thats the same quality as say a facom item for half the price. i do like Facom stuff, it looks nice, it feels nice, does the job etc. we have a guy who comes to buy all our old batteries and catalytic convertors in a transit van. he stocks a lot of Bergen gear and will do brilliant swap deals for our old scrap. i had a rail of deep 3/8 sockets (8mm-21mm and everything in btween) still in the wrapper for a swap of a rubbish £10 cat the other week. Bergen stuff is great quality and inexpensive , and a mate of mine who runs an MOT station swearsby it and wont entertain Snapon tools in his garage. think id rather have a tool box full of bergen than an empty wallet and a box full of snaopon that get poliched every saturday

[Partridge]

The only Snap On stuff I own are my work boots, and the little rubber key ring that came with them.

On the subject of tools, if I may move away from cars (shock-horror ) don’t touch Wickes’s stuff with a long, shitty stick. My old man (who knows how to use tools correctly believe me, he did his apprenticeship in a shipyard and started off by building ships for Her Majesty’s Navy) was ranting the other day about a spanner that snapped in two from Wickes. I’ve found that their drill bits snap if you so much as fart on them, their wood sub-standard and their cement shit. I didn’t know you could make shit cement, but it turns out you can!

[catsinthewelder]

After knackering a few cheap 3/8" ratchets I invested in a decent Halfords pro one, then broke it after a year or so with some extension bar based silliness. They replaced it for free and I learnt my lesson and bought a 1/2" sliding T bar thing and a laser 1/2-3/8 adaptor for this sort of game. Haven't broken it yet

[Partridge]

At the end of a day if a tool lets you complete the job and doesn’t break-it’s all good.