Anyone make quality tools anymore?

[wbblazer90]

Everything nowadays from any given Lowe’s, Home Depot is made in China. Had a Harbor freight driver bit deform, poor metallurgy.

Not a professional, but anyone here recommend decent tools for the future?

 

[BeatTheTunaUp]

The icon tools at harborfreight are decent. skip the sockets and wrenches though. Look for farms having estate sales and look for older us made sockets and wrenches.

 

[Lonesome Dove]

I have really good luck with both new and old Craftsman tools.
The market places are full of used tools so that's a huge savings and you'd be surprised what to find.

I think I have 3 sets of Craftsman tools. The largest was used for work and still gets used the most the others are convenience and travel / side job tools. I've never lost a 10mm socket but I have several anyway.

 

[cycleguy2300]

I'm planning on buying a set of SAE Icon (Harbor Freight) wrenches, ratchet and some sockets for a fly-&-drive next week.

Most tools these days are pretty high quality compared to tools of the 60s, 70s or 80s...

I've come across a few Snap-On and Matco tools and yes, they are really nice, but for my rather domestic wrenching, mid-grade has yet to let me down

Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk

 

[Coonan357]

estatesales.net is your friend. The amount of old tools to be found at an estate sale can be astounding.

 

[wbblazer90]

I have really good luck with both new and old Craftsman tools.
The market places are full of used tools so that's a huge savings and you'd be surprised what to find.

I think I have 3 sets of Craftsman tools. The largest was used for work and still gets used the most the others are convenience and travel / side job tools. I've never lost a 10mm socket but I have several anyway.

Which market places do you refer? Conan the barbarian 357 says estate sales.net

 

[BeatTheTunaUp]

I'll also add, I run an auto repair shop and I see a lot of the tool truck stuff break. It's under warranty but it's a 2 or more week turn around most times as where the ICON line is instant swap at the local harbor freight. There are also some good youtube channels that stress test tools to the breaking point. Icon usually comes in 2nd right behind snap on with very similar breaking points.

 

[OutlawStar]

Another vote for HF Icon, they're just good by most metrics and tests. If my cheapo Pittsburghs ever fail I'll be upgrading to Icon. Even the Pittsburgh stuff is good [usually] enough for the home-gamer. I have the same set of metric and SAE sockets and only the 10mm has the chrome plating flaking off but Japanese/euro bikes are basically 75% 10mm so I can't even fault that. I picked up an impact set to use on 2 nuts (big 27mm jobbers) and they're clearly value-engineered by being probably bigger than they need to, but thats fine I'm not earning a living with these getting into super tight spaces.

Just about every tool now is made in China, including some snap-on, matco, Mac, et.al. for the sole reason that your average Joe isn't going to spend $400 on a US made wrench set to change the oil on their $90,000 truck.

FWIW I've broken more rusty bolts on the threads than I have stripping heads or breaking tools.

@wbblazer90 Just out of curiosity, what bit did you strip and what were you doing?

 

[Lead Belly]

Knipex tools are fabulous. Cobra pliers to any of their cutters/wire strippers.

 

[benenglish]

I seem to be preternaturally disposed to break every tool I handle. I've never known if that meant I should buy expensive tools that last or cheap tools that can be treated as disposable. I have a mix of both.

I just know that all those Craftsman tools my dad bought in the 1960s seem like they're going to last.

 

[DoubleDuty]

I'm planning on buying a set of SAE Icon (Harbor Freight) wrenches, ratchet and some sockets for a fly-&-drive next week.

Most tools these days are pretty high quality compared to tools of the 60s, 70s or 80s...

I've come across a few Snap-On and Matco tools and yes, they are really nice, but for my rather domestic wrenching, mid-grade has yet to let me down

Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk

Yep professional mechanics are buying icon tools instead of snapon My brother switched to Icon

 

[Lonesome Dove]

Which market places do you refer? Conan the barbarian 357 says estate sales.net

Any I mostly use face book market place because I can get any areas I want
I choose local because it's quick and simple. Find what I need. Text I'll take it, go get it and done. I constantly end up with more than what the deal was because they just want it gone.
What I don't need I give to the kids in the area that are interested in wrenching on something.

 

[wbblazer90]

Another vote for HF Icon, they're just good by most metrics and tests. If my cheapo Pittsburghs ever fail I'll be upgrading to Icon. Even the Pittsburgh stuff is good [usually] enough for the home-gamer. I have the same set of metric and SAE sockets and only the 10mm has the chrome plating flaking off but Japanese/euro bikes are basically 75% 10mm so I can't even fault that. I picked up an impact set to use on 2 nuts (big 27mm jobbers) and they're clearly value-engineered by being probably bigger than they need to, but thats fine I'm not earning a living with these getting into super tight spaces.

Just about every tool now is made in China, including some snap-on, matco, Mac, et.al. for the sole reason that your average Joe isn't going to spend $400 on a US made wrench set to change the oil on their $90,000 truck.

FWIW I've broken more rusty bolts on the threads than I have stripping heads or breaking tools.

@wbblazer90 Just out of curiosity, what bit did you strip and what were you doing?

Torquing a T10 torx screw on an optic plate. Set to 15inch-lbs on the wheeler FAT wrench. HF security driver set. Just more annoyed than anything else. I considered going to Lowe’s to get a Kobalt driver, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they both came from the same factory.

Thanks fellas, I’ll keep an eye out for the Icon brand. I was only aware of the Pittsburgh cheapo stuff @HF.

 

[nickb659]

Everything nowadays from any given Lowe’s, Home Depot is made in China. Had a Harbor freight driver bit deform, poor metallurgy.

Not a professional, but anyone here recommend decent tools for the future?

Milwaukee and Crafstman have never let me down. I was gifted a set of Ryobi tools last year that had a ton of issues so I get the sentiment

 

[Gordo]

I just know that all those Craftsman tools my dad bought in the 1960s seem like they're going to last.

My father's Craftsman tools were bought in the '50s, and I passed them down to my son.

Other good tools are Proto, Williams, Stahlwille.
Older stuff that isn't around any longer is the tools that JC Penneys sold, by the name of PowerMaster,
Most of my stuff is SnapOn and a few Matco.

I can's stand fukung chinese shit.

 

[oldag]

Have a lot of old Craftsman.

Today? Gearwrench and Klein as appropriate. Try to find made in USA.

 

[Gordo]

I buy any old crap I find at a garage sale, or pawn shop cheap.
These I set aside to be cut, ground, heated with a torch to bend into weird shapes, and welded on, to get into tight places on something I never plan on working on again. If they get the job done one time, I got my $1-$2 investment out of them. Most of them survived, and I have those set aside also, just in case.

 

[toddnjoyce]

I'll also add, I run an auto repair shop and I see a lot of the tool truck stuff break...

No tool is indestructible, especially if you add some leverage to it.

Where I saw real quality breakpoints were replaceable gear sets on ratchets, fine-tooth ratchet gears, and 12pt box or sockets that actually fit square to the bolt head. Slotted screwdriver tips used to be a discriminator, too. 2nd line assessments were on socket and box end wall thickness.

As I moved away from auto maintenance and more to plane maintenance, where I look for quality is safety wire pliers and Phillips bits since most of my work deals with that. Removing the cowling is 23 Phillips screws to remove, pull the cowling to get wide open access to 8 or 12 SAE spark plugs, an oil quick drain, and the filter (if there even is one) is safety wired to the case. Inspection panels are usually 2-3 phillips to pull and there’s 13 of those on the exterior.

I really need to get a good articulating, recording borescope because most places I need to inspect are dark and hard to get to, but need visual or tactile inspection. Vividia makes a decent one that’s budget friendly; some high end stuff fetches $20K and that’s out of the question.

 

[BeatTheTunaUp]

No tool is indestructible, especially if you add some leverage to it.

Where I saw real quality breakpoints were replaceable gear sets on ratchets, fine-tooth ratchet gears, and 12pt box or sockets that actually fit square to the bolt head. Slotted screwdriver tips used to be a discriminator, too. 2nd line assessments were on socket and box end wall thickness.

As I moved away from auto maintenance and more to plane maintenance, where I look for quality is safety wire pliers and Phillips bits since most of my work deals with that. Removing the cowling is 23 Phillips screws to remove, pull the cowling to get wide open access to 8 or 12 SAE spark plugs, an oil quick drain, and the filter (if there even is one) is safety wired to the case. Inspection panels are usually 2-3 phillips to pull and there’s 13 of those on the exterior.

I really need to get a good articulating, recording borescope because most places I need to inspect are dark and hard to get to, but need visual or tactile inspection. Vividia makes a decent one that’s budget friendly; some high end stuff fetches $20K and that’s out of the question.

I have a cheap bore scope that connects to my phone. I've used it to look in places that my older scope would get to. And HD video at that compared to the old 480pixel screen

 

[toddnjoyce]

I have a cheap bore scope that connects to my phone. I've used it to look in places that my older scope would get to. And HD video at that compared to the old 480pixel screen

Brand/model?