Snap-on tools 0wnz j00.
Or craftsmen. Both really good brands can't go wrong with those two.

-Jeff

 

Anything with a lifetime warranty (free replacement) is great

 

I would get Craftsman...sure the SnapOn are great, but where are they when you snap your 17mm socket with your airwrench on sunday morning? Home, but Sears is open. Much easier to take advantage of the warranty

 

You can buy Craftsman for about half the price of Snap-on.
Both have the same warranty.
It's easier to buy Craftsman; available at any Sears.
On the other hand, Snap-on does have nicer calendars!
I think Home Depot is also selling "lifetime" tools. I haven't heard
anything about the quality.

 

Craftsman all the way!!!

 

If you are using the tools on a regular basis buy Snap-On.I did my timing belt last weekend and I had a Craftsman ratchet handle mixed in with my Snap-On stuff.My father in law was feeding me tools with the correct size socket so he was rotating between the 1/4" S.O. ,3/8"S.O. and the Craftsman 3/8" handle.During a moment of pain and hate I said"If you hand me that @*!!!!&%!!! Craftsman handle one more time Im going to Aggghhhhhh."Mine has a loose tolerance and loves to slip the opposite direction it is supposed to be going.I took it back to Sears and the new one does the samething.B.T.W. there are special sockets to use with air tools and they are alot less likely to explode early Sunday morning when the Snap-on man is still in bed.

 

craftsman....lifetime warranty, free replacement, bob hehe

 

I have to agree and disagree with the answers on this thread.

My reply is, "The CHEAPEST brand that has a lifetime replacement... who cares about quality of the tool if they replace it free anyway."

REMEMBER, if you are like most people, you will LOSE the tool before you are able to BREAK IT. You don't get replacement if you LOSE it.

We have a Harbor Freight around here and they have lifetime warranty brand, I don't even know the name but it's CHEAP.

Up in Kalamazoo, MI, there's a clearance place that sells MIT (Michigan Industrial Tools) brand. Nice tools with warranty. I bought a 14-piece combination wrench set (open end on one end, round on the other), from 8mm to 26mm (it skips a few sizes but it has all the sizes I need).. for.. get this... $14.99!!!!

I also bought a socket set in a plastic clamshell case... it has 10 regular sockets from I think 8mm to 20mm, plus 5 deep sockets, plus a 3" extension, and a 1" extension... and of course a 3/8" drive... that cost $12.99

I could go on and on... an 18" breaker bar (1/2" drive) for $3.99... an 8" gear puller for $7.99...

It's all guaranteed for life.... my cousin has all MIT stuff and he does break it from time to time... he takes it into the store and they give him a new one, no questions asked.

So what I'm saying is that IMO there's no reason to spend the $$ on Craftsman or other expensive brands. Get the cheapest lifetime warrantied stuff you can find.

BTW, there's also an Illinois Industrial Tools I saw somewhere (IIT) and I bet the MIT stuf and the IIT is all made together and sold under different brands. And I also bet there's a "California Industrial Tools" and a "Florida Industrial Tools" etc. etc.

 

If you're working with them on a regualr basis, modding or repairing... DON'T buy the cheap stuff... I repeat, DO NOT BUY THE CHEAP STUFF... Nothing is a bigger pain in the ass than to be half way into your T-belt job and you nap your 3/8 in ratchet or break off a screwdriver in a difficult spot... I won't say get the expensive (snap-on, matco, mac) stuff, but get craftsman. It's the happiest medium between the cheap and the expensive and it's not impossible for you to replace if theres no snap on guy around. If you're going to buy the cheapest stuff possible, you don't value yourself, your time, or your car enough to be working on it..

 

I always buy Craftsman. I would not buy any generic sh*t. I have broken many a generic ratchet in my day, but never my Craftsman.

 

Okay, sounds good... I was looking to spend ~$100 and did some looking around on the net last night... Looks like I can get a craftsman socket set (plus screwdrivers and other miscellaneous tools) with 70-100 pieces for between $100 and $150, so I guess I'll go with them. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Sorry to flog a dead horse.So what if they give you free replacements if the original does the job poorly.You just have shitty free tools.For the most part Craftsman makes good tools I just like Snap-On quality.

 

If you ever go to buy air tools. go with snap on all the way... I love every tool I've ever bought from them... And I beat the shit out of my air ratchet and it's never failed me.

 

craftsman all the way.

 

I have two S-K socket sets I love. One's 1/4" drive, the other 3/8" drive, both are SAE & Metric with shallow & deep well sockets, extensions, & swivel.

http://www.northerntool.com/cgi-bin....search.msn.com/results.asp?q=sk+94547+socket&FORM=MSN6B&RS=CHECKED&v=1&cp=1252

 

I'd have to agree not to buy the cheapies. It's not a matter of breaking the tool as much as it just being inaccurate. I picked up a set of sockets from my local AutoZone, which are lifetime warranteed, and I found that they will round off a bolt before ever breaking it loose. My set of craftsman sockets feel a lot tighter on bolts, and the rachets have much better internals than most generics.

Craftsman all the way!

 

Buy the best that YOU CAN AFFORD. Dont listen to people trying to hauck you to one brand or another. Different companys make different tools some have great wrenches and poor sockets or vise versa mix it up and get the best of everything you can afford. I'm an aircraft maintenance engineer and my roll away is full of Craftsman( perfesional),Snap-on,Wright USA,Husky,Jet,S-K Tools and Mastercraft perfesional(Canadian Tire.CANADA). No one company makes everything better then another not even SNAP-ON.

 

"Mine has a loose tolerance and loves to slip the opposite direction it is supposed to be going.I took it back to Sears and the new one does the samething."

What do you mean it slips the opposite direction?

 

YOu could go with the pro series Craftsman. They feel nicer in the hand and some actually have features built into them that make them work better.

The cheaper you go the more you will pay in the end. Cheap tools strip bolts, break knuckles and the like...

The Craftsman Pro Series are fully polished like Snap On but are cheaper and warrantied at a place you can get to on a sunday, as others have mentioned.

 

snap on sucks. I have pound the tar out of my craftsman with sledgehammers and they are still kicking. I tried to do that to snap-on and I busted them.

 

I use to waste money on Snap OFF also. I remember MANY MANY tools I had to wait a week til the SNAP OFF guy came around to get replaced only to find out it had to be ordered.

I have only EVER broke ONE craftsman tool, drove to Sears on a sunday, pulled a new one from the shelf and walked out happy!

 

Oh, And I was doing something to a deep socket that I shouldn't have been...So it really was not the tools fault..Non impact socket on impact hammer..Whoops....

Now I gots an awsome Craftsman Impact socket set

 

I too don't want to flog a dead horse but I see most people (everyone ) is disagreeing with me.

What I didn't mention is that I'm also taking into consideration WHAT HE STATED HE WANTED TO USE THE TOOLS FOR.

No offense to KingNothing but he's buying his first set of tools, to work on his VR4 in his garage. My assumption (and maybe I'm wrong) is that he doesn't have the skill (or desire) to do MAJOR work on the car... and even if he DID then I can't think of many things on a 3/S that would break even a cheap tool.

The other day I couldn't get a rear suspension toe bolt to break loose. I used my MIT 22mm (I think) combo wrench (open end part) and a regular hammer to try to break it loose. I hit that wrench HARD with the hammer for almost 20 minutes. The bolt never broke loose and the wrench doesn't show any damage other than some scratches. That's on an open-end wrench that, in a set, cost me about $1 (a dollar!).

I can't speak for all cheap tools but the MIT tools I have seem to be darn tight on the bolts. The open-end ones also are the newer type that fit the bolt (ie have the angled part instead of the flat part).

Now, of course a professional guy, or someone using the tools every day (or even 3 times a week) should buy better tools. But someone like myself who works on his car maybe once a month on average doesn't need even Craftsman.

BTW since I bought the tools, I have done some pretty heavy-duty stuff with them... changed out suspension (struts, springs)... removed calipers, tried to loosen frozen bolts, etc. I've had no trouble with them at all.

 

Player- What I meant was that if you set the wrench to turn clock wise it will go about 1/2 turn and then "free spin" as if you are turning it backwards.B.T.W. the only other Crapsman tool I have had problems with was a 1/2" drive 2' breaker bar (heafty).I put a 5' pole on it and the bar snapped in half.Not the swivel but the entire bar.But then again theres that abuse factor.

 

Buy the best that YOU CAN AFFORD. Dont listen to people trying to hauck you to one brand or another. Different companys make different tools some have great wrenches and poor sockets or vise versa mix it up and get the best of everything you can afford. I'm an aircraft maintenance engineer and my roll away is full of Craftsman( perfesional),Snap-on,Wright USA,Husky,Jet,S-K Tools and Mastercraft perfesional(Canadian Tire.CANADA). No one company makes everything better then another not even SNAP-ON.

Anyone have anything good/bad to say about Home Depot's Huskey line of tools?
:dodge: