Rick Hesel

The Kobalt brand sold at Lowe's is made by Snap-On for the retail market at a very good price. They're extraordinarly well made.

littleton

I agree with Rick on the Kobalt tools. However you can't beat Sears' replacement policy and I have no complaints regarding the few Sears sockets that I have. I would stick with the 6 point sockets. Also I purchased the Sears 18" extension rod for the socket set which affords access to the oil drain plug which is mounted on the side of the oil pan and is EASILY accessible behind the right front wheel. It helps if you turn the wheels to the left. Also buy two spark plug size sockets. One with the rubber insert for removing the plugs and one without the rubber insert for periodically re-tightening the plugs. If you use the one with the rubber insert to tighten the plugs, chances are when you try to remove it, it will separate from the rest of the wrench and be left on the plug at the bottom of the sparkplug tube and could be difficult to remove.

I have the SK Micro-Adjusting Torque Wrench. I paid $85 for it at a local tool supply company. I like it and it is easy to use. The handle slips for a few degrees of rotation when the preset torque value is reached. It has a 3/8" drive. Its internal torque mechanism is mounted on ball bearings and is supposed to be superior to cheaper models with a slide cam type mechanism which is not as accurate and requires more frequent calibration. SK recommends recalibration after 5000 torque applications or once per year whichever comes first.

If interested, the SK site is:

http://www.skhandtool.com/productcatalog.htm

Start with the S-K Product Search and choose: Wrenches, Torque Wrenches and Screwdrivers, Micrometer Clicker Torque Wrenches, and finally Analog Readout Clicker Torque Wrenches.

My wrench is # 74104

Call 1-800-822-5575 for local tool suppliers.

jschmidt

Got a set of Craftsman reversible, offset, racheting, combination wrenches for Christmas. They're similar to the brand GearWrench. They look to be very well made and nicely finished. (Much better than the scredrivers) Thanks Suz!

For some reason known only to Sears, they skipped 17mm and provided a much less useful 18mm instead.

4IGS2000

OMG Facom!!
bust out your wallet and credit cards. Those tools are expensive!

bayarea408

MAC is a good too.

Voodoo_S2K

I buy Craftsman for most of my sockets and wrenches. I buy Snap-On for some of the specialty stuff that I like to have and I also buy Klein for plier and stuff like that. I also have a set of GearWrenchs' that I love. My Snap-On guy say unless you make a living with your tools, there isn't a real good reason to buy Snap-On. I have way too many tools for someone that doesn't use them daily. I've got a set of sockets for the my car, the girlfriends, and several for the chest.

StormBringer

Just a note I have used craftsman for many years and there is one thing you have to remeber . They have three lines of tools. THey have Standard, Pro and Auto. The auto ones being the best but you pay through the shorts and they are very hard to find. Most of those huge 500+ doller sets are Profesional series and they work very well for the home mechanic, the standards are great for small around the house stuff.

I personally use the Pro and Auto sets but them again I snap 3/4 drives from metal fatigue on a weekly basis. And have well way to many tools.

(When you own a 52 inch box just to hold your ratchets and other assorted auto tools you know your a tool addict)

Proto makes very nice tool, husky brand is what I suggest for the amatur mechainic who is not under a car every weekend. Proto is very nice.
Stay away from snap-on I own quite a few sets and they can drain your wallet faster then modifing a car. But they last forever, I still have a 10 year old charger/booster that I bought from them whicih has been used for over 300+ working hours.

StwoK

I know I'm going to sound like a broken record ......... buy Craftsman ! I've never had a problem getting something replaced when it broke. In one case they no longer stocked a tool that was my father's, when it broke, Sears replaced it with a better quality tool.

When working on a small car, sometimes 3/8" fits better, but the longer handle of 1/2" is needed for torque. I cut a piece of standard cooper water pipe to 18". Then I flattened (both sides) the first 8 inches of pipe on a anvil, so that it would slip over the end of my 3/8" rachet. Copper is easy to work with and I was really surprised how strong it was. It's like having a 3/8" breaker bar and it fits inside my Craftsman tool box !

jschmidt

My Bro-in-law got a decent set of Crescent tools (a pretty decent brand) for $60 at Sams. The tools were good quality (it seemed) and had some good features (like wobble extensions) for the dough. I'd recommend them as a starter set if cash is short. They'd also make a good second set for the car and have a nice hardshell case.

These are way better than the bait model sets that look similar. I was pretty impressed for the price.

kster

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I ended up buying a Craftsman 90-piece metric set. It came with a 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" ratchet along with a large number of sockets, both deep and shallow. It also has a set of regular open ended wrenches. And for $80, it is a great value.