What's in your tool box?

[FarmerPug]

Im sure snap on is good stuff but:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SNAP-31PC-1-4 ... 500wt_1363
£250 for a 1/4 socket set when the likes of teng, and halfords offer a lifetime warranty on their sets, what is the advantage of a snap on set?

[mjb]

My in-car tool bag:

1/4" metric sockets on rail
1/2" metric halfords pro sockets on rail
halfords pro 1/4" wrench
halfords pro 1/2" wrench
1/2" 4" and 10" extension bars
selection of halfords pro torx+hex sockets, 3/8"
3/8"->1/2" adapter
metric spanners 7mm-22mm
pipe wrench
stanley screwdrivers
duct tape
cable ties
pliers
3x cheap mole grips (want to replace with halfords pro)
nitrile gloves
stanley knife
2lb ball peen hammer
Stanley set of allen keys

Also in-car I keep a spider wrench, 2' 1/2" breaker bar and PP2000


Stuff I keep in the garage:

Dremel with carbide cutting bit
Cordless drill
Angle grinder
Clarke mains powered impact wrench
Torque wrench
Halfords Pro 2.5t jack
Cheaponasty 2t jack (used for lifting the car enough to get the big jack under the subframe)
Inspection lamp
Pry bars
Files
Oil filter wrench (chain type)
Halfords pro ratcheting axle stands
Stereo
Rolled-up camping mat - for sitting on or resting head on when lying down
Funnels
Brake bleed kit


Wish List:

DeWalt cordless impact wrench
Puller
Better jacks
Better lighting
Halfords pro ratchet spanners
Stubby spanners
Stud extractors
Bigger hammer

[Gary406]

what are the best brands to go for, i know to avoid stuff from argos or pound shops. On the other end of the scale is snap on stuff worth the price.

"Halfords Professional" tools are brilliant, I bought a set of ratchet spanners from them a few years ago and they're still as new after a lot of use!

sure some1 told me halfords is same makers as snap-on hence the lifetime warranty....

but apart from snap-on many people have told me halfords pro range is the next best thing...

[lozz]

No mate, idont think halfords stuff is related to Snap-on.

altho its not bad stuff ,


iprefare old skool tools tho, they seem to be much stronger,,

[FarmerPug]

snap on stuff is usually about 4 times the price of halfords stuff.
but there is other good tool companies ,i needed a set of decent screwdrivers that you could hit with a hammer so i got wera chisel drivers which had an offer to get Wera lasertip electricians screwdrivers aswell, they are the best screwdrivers ive ever used especially the lasertip ones they seem to dig into the screw so there is no slipping or cam out when turning really tight screws.

[lozz]

last time ibought snap on stuff ipaid about £120 for 12 sockets,
nothing else with them just the sockets.

iwouidnt buy snap on stuff again, its not worth it unless the they wouid pay for them selves,

[FarmerPug]

for snap on thats a bargain
but theres no need when you can get a teng or halfords set for a fraction of the price with a lifetime warranty and more sockets.

about the impact wrench is a mains one as good as a pneumatic one, i seen an auto express comparison which gave a clarke 18v cordless one the best buy award

[mjb]

about the impact wrench is a mains one as good as a pneumatic one, i seen an auto express comparison which gave a clarke 18v cordless one the best buy award

It's as big as a good sized hammer drill, and very heavy which makes it rather hard to use. It does deliver 450Nm of torque though, and is vastly cheaper than a compressor, air line, and air-powered impact wrench

[steve_earwig]

I thought this was appropriate - in the old junk mail just now "Scare people with your tool today"

[plod]

I thought this was appropriate - in the old junk mail just now "Scare people with your tool today"

ooo er

[lozz]

Ever wondered what some of the technical terms within your Haynes manual actually mean? well here's a quick guide...




Haynes: Rotate anticlockwise.
Translation: Clamp with mole grips (or an adjustable spanner) then beat repeatedly with hammer anticlockwise. You do know which way is anticlockwise, don't you?

Haynes: Should remove easily.
Translation: Will be corroded into place ... clamp with mole grips then beat repeatedly with a hammer.

Haynes: Remove small retaining clip.
Translation: Take off 15 years of stubborn crud, it's there somewhere.

Haynes: This is a snug fit.
Translation: You will skin your knuckles! ... Clamp with mole grips then beat repeatedly with hammer.

Haynes: This is a tight fit.
Translation: Not a hope in hell matey! ... Clamp with mole grips then beat repeatedly with hammer.

Haynes: As described in Chapter 7...
Translation: That'll teach you not to read through before you start, now you are looking at scary photos of the inside of a gearbox.

Haynes: Locate ...
Translation: This photo of a hex nut is the only clue we're giving you.

Haynes: Pry...
Translation: Hammer a screwdriver into...

Haynes: Undo...
Translation: Go buy a tin of WD40 (catering size).

Haynes: Ease ...
Translation: Apply superhuman strength to ...

Haynes: Retain tiny spring...
Translation: "Jeez what was that, it nearly had my eye out"!

Haynes: Press and rotate to remove bulb...
Translation: OK - that's the glass bit off, now fetch some good pliers to dig out the bayonet part and remaining glass shards.

Haynes: Lightly...
Translation: Start off lightly and build up till the veins on your forehead are throbbing then re-check the manual because what you are doing now cannot be considered "lightly".

Haynes: Weekly checks...
Translation: If it isn't broken don't fix it!

Haynes: Routine maintenance...
Translation: If it isn't broken... it's about to be!

Haynes: One spanner rating (simple).
Translation: Your Mum could do this... so how did you manage to botch it up?

Haynes: Two spanner rating.
Translation: Now you may think that you can do this because two is a low, tiny, ikkle number... but you also thought that the wiring diagram was a map of the Tokyo underground (in fact that would have been more use to you).

Haynes: Three spanner rating (intermediate).
Translation 1: Make sure you won't need your car for a couple of days and that your AA cover includes Home Start.
Translation 2: But Novas are easy to maintain right... right? So you think three Nova spanners has got to be like a 'regular car' two spanner job.

Haynes: Four spanner rating.
Translation: You are seriously considering this aren't you, you pleb!

Haynes: Five spanner rating (expert).
Translation 1: OK - but don't expect us to ride it afterwards!!!
Translation 2: Don't ever carry your loved ones in it again and don't mention it to your insurance company.

Haynes: If not, you can fabricate your own special tool like this...
Translation: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

Haynes: Compress...
Translation: Squeeze with all your might, jump up and down on, swear at, throw at the garage wall, then search for it in the dark corner of the garage whilst muttering "bu88er" repeatedly under your breath.

Haynes: Inspect...
Translation: Squint at really hard and pretend you know what you are looking at, then declare in a loud knowing voice to your wife "Yep, as I thought, it's going to need a new one"!

Haynes: Carefully...
Translation: You are about to cut yourself!

Haynes: Retaining nut...
Translation: Yes, that's it, that big spherical blob of rust.

Haynes: Get an assistant...
Translation: Prepare to humiliate yourself in front of someone you know.

Haynes: Turning the engine will be easier with the spark plugs removed.
Translation: However, starting the engine afterwards will be much harder. Once that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach has subsided, you can start to feel deeply ashamed as you gingerly refit the spark plugs.

Haynes: Refitting is the reverse sequence to removal.
Translation: But you swear in different places.

Haynes: Locate securing bolt.
Translation: Remember that worrying noise when you drove along the A38 last summer? That's where you'll find the securing bolt.

Haynes: Prise away plastic locating pegs...
Translation: Snap off...

Haynes: Remove drum retaining pin.
Translation: Break every screwdriver in your box.

Haynes: Using a suitable drift or pin-punch...
Translation: The biggest nail in your tool box isn't a suitable drift!

Haynes: Everyday toolkit
Translation: Ensure you have an RAC Card & Mobile Phone

Haynes: Apply moderate heat...
Translation 1: Placing your mouth near it and huffing isn't moderate heat.
Translation 2: Heat up until glowing red, if it still doesn't come undone use a hacksaw.
Translation 3: Unless you have a blast furnace, don't bother. Clamp with mole grips then beat repeatedly with hammer.

Haynes: Index
Translation: List of all the things in the book bar the thing you want to do.

Haynes: Remove oil filter using an oil filter chain wrench or length of bicycle chain.
Translation: Stick a screwdriver through it and beat handle repeatedly with a hammer.

Haynes: Replace old gasket with a new one.
Translation: I know I've got a tube of Krazy Glue around here somewhere.

Haynes: Grease well before refitting.
Translation: Spend an hour searching for your tub of grease before chancing upon a bottle of washing-up liquid. Wipe some congealed washing up liquid from the dispenser nozzle and use that since it's got a similar texture and will probably get you to Halfords to buy some Castrol grease.

Haynes: See illustration for details
Translation: None of the illustrations notes will match the pictured exploded, numbered parts. The unit illustrated is from a previous or variant model. The actual location of the unit is never given.

Haynes: Drain off all fluids before removing cap.
Translation: Visit bathroom, spit on ground, remove baseball cap in order to scratch head in perplexity.

Haynes: Top up fluids.
Translation: Drink 2 cans of beer and call out a mobile mechanic to undo the damage.


And now to look at some of the basic tools required...

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer is nowadays used as a kind of divining rod to locate expensive parts not far from the object we are trying to hit.

MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on boxes containing seats and motorcycle jackets.

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning steel Pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age, but it also works great for drilling mounting holes just above the brake line that goes to the rear wheel.

PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

MOLE-GRIPS/ADJUSTABLE SPANNER: Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your garage on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside a brake-drum you're trying to get the bearing race out of.

IMPERIAL A/F SOCKETS: Once used for working on older cars and motorcycles, they are now used mainly for impersonating that 13mm or 19mm socket you've been searching for for the last 15 minutes.

PILLAR DRILL: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against that freshly painted part you were drying.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans rust off old bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprint whorls and hard-earned guitar calluses in about the time it takes you to say, "F...."

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering car to the ground after you have installed your new front disk brake setup, trapping the jack handle firmly under the front wing.

EIGHT-FOOT LONG DOUGLAS FIR 2X4: Used for levering a car upward off a hydraulic jack.

TWEEZERS: A tool for removing wood splinters.

PHONE: Tool for calling your neighbour to see if he has another hydraulic floor jack.

SNAP-ON GASKET SCRAPER: Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for getting dog-doo off your boot.

BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool that snaps off in bolt holes and is ten times harder than any known drill bit.

TIMING LIGHT: A stroboscopic instrument for illuminating grease build-up.

TWO-TON HYDRAULIC ENGINE HOIST: A handy tool for testing the tensile strength of ground straps and brake lines you may have forgotten to disconnect.

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A large motor mount prying tool that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end without the handle.

BATTERY ELECTROLYTE TESTER: A handy tool for transferring sulphuric acid from a car battery to the inside of your toolbox after determining that your battery is dead as a doornail, just as you thought.

TIN SNIPS: See hacksaw.

POZIDRIVE SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the lids of old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; can also be used, as the name implies, to round off Pozidrive screw heads.

AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a fossil-fuel burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty bolts last tightened 30 years ago by someone in Dagenham, and rounds them off.

CROW BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50p part.

HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to cut hoses 1/2 inch too short.

INSPECTION LIGHT: The mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called a drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin," which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside, its main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate as 105-mm howitzer shells during the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading.

[FarmerPug]

it will break quite soon

[lozz]

ive just orderd one of these socket sets,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bahco-Socket-10 ... 32&sr=8-60

seen one on the internet at £500 so they must be good,
couidnt resist buying one through amazon tho,

[FarmerPug]

baco is good stuff made in sweeden i believe

[lozz]

baco is good stuff made in sweeden i believe

its the same factory as snap on.

ive got a few bahco tools and theyre strong, especialy the ratchets.
only got them as theyre cheap at that price, last time ilooked they where around £500, which is way to much for a socket set,

My son as been nicking most of my tools to fix his ford ka so ive had to buy all new, nothing comes back complete once hes used them ,sockets- either broke or missing,