Where do people buy their tools...

Where do people buy their tools? I just got my first car a few months ago and I'm just now discovering that I don't have any of the tools I need to do anything to my car. Are there any brands I should avoid when shopping for tools? Do I need specific tools for GM, VAG, or Jap cars?
Have you ever had tools break on you?

Other urls found in this thread:

amazon.com/OEMTOOLS-24964-337-Piece-Apprentice-Starter/dp/B01G7I4XXI
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

...

you don't have to get all of it but its a great reference

Avoid harbor freight for tools you use often like sockets and drills. Larger harbor freight sockets are good along with their wrenches (spanners), but 1/4inch drive sockets are shit and ive had a few break on me. You will want a nice cordless impact (saves tons of time). I got a large socket set from Costco that is actually very well built especially the 1/4 drive sockets. Also you can never have too many extensions. For a torque wrench i got one from craftsman that wasnt bad

That's immensely helpful. Thanks user. I basically live my life off of saved .jpg guides at this point lmao

buy a big craftsman while you still can.

What's the name of a hex key driver that Is long enough to be used on the end of a socket wrench called?

you're best off buying used quality tools with lifetime warranties (craftsman comes to mind) then when they break just get em replaced.

As someone who's college part time job is selling tools at sears, we are beyond a doubt going to be out of business in the next 5 years. LUCKILY, the purchase of craftsman by Stanley-Black and Decker means they are being sold elsewhere eventually. If you keep your head on a swivel, today they announced that in the second half of 2018 Craftsman tools will be sold at Lowes. Which is fantastic because I will eventually need to warranty tools when we kick the bucket

The purchase by Stanley is great actually, because they also own Dewalt, and when Dewalt came out with their own hand tool lineup that wasn't just re-badged "Stanley" tools they were actually really nice if not better than ours by a little. Now that they have a brand that has an image of something other than entirely garbage, I suspect they will use the craftsman name to develop and sell more quality product.

TL;DR

Buy craftsman stuff, you will wind up warranting tools outside of sears in 5 years and the quality will probably go up.

I go to old gas and steam engine shows and piece together sets of good sockets out of the misc socket section for around $6 apiece. Craftsman, stanley, some matco/snap on stuff. I inherited a lot of tools and some were gifts but when I need something I'll get it at a local store or order it off the Internet if it's specialty. Also like to shop the clearance sales, got pic related for $5 apiece from an advance auto.

Buy Snap-On, They're the best in the business for a reason

Guy clearly is new to both wrenching in general and young behind the wheel anyways. Don't go buying snap/mac stuff unless you are planning on being a mechanic. Buy a 100 buck tool set like in the pic and leave in in a stowaway compartment or under the seat just in case.

>3/8" cordless impact

Only a dumbfuck would buy a 3/8" over a 1/2" inch.
A lot of the point of a cordless impact is getting off impossibly tight bolts you can't get off with hand tools.

I use kobalt mostly.
Its a nice mid tier brand that doesnt cost too much and holds up pretty well.

>Buy a 100 buck tool set like in the pic and leave in in a stowaway compartment or under the seat just in case.

Fucking this. Everyone should do this.
A $100 shit brand toolkit will be more worth to you when you're broken down on a side of the road than an entire garage of SnapOn.

>pic related: what I keep in my car

Got a USA made Craftman 180 piece mechanic set years ago. That has served me super well.

Bought some tools at harbor freight. 3/4 sockets. Worked fine with an air gun. as someone else said here 1/4 sockets from harbor are shit. wrenches are fine.

Walmart has some cheap shit if you just are starting out. You can get a screwdriver set, vice grip set, long pliers for like under $20. Quality for the price is fine. I used them working on my car not long ago, when i wasnt' by tool set.

but craftsmen is good. However, I am not sure about the chinese shit they have.

Impact saves time by just getting out small bolts in no time flat. Best money i ever spent

fuck off you hobbytard. No sense spending that dough unless you are full time. Obviously.

there arnt too many 3/8 impact wrenches out there, most applications involving 3/8 and 1/4in sockets can be performed with a standard 1/4in Hex impact driver you would use to put screws in. from there 1/2 in' and above is the only way to go.

however there is a niche for 1/4 and 3/8 cordless ratchets, Milwaukee's 2nd gen brushless ratchets are available in 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 for getting to stuff in really tight places.

t. cuck

3/8 impact is a waste.

This lad gets it:
Get a 1/2 impact for bastard tight stuff, and a cordless ratchet to be lazy on smaller bolts.


>reposting to quote the posts in the right order

this.

I was a former full time mechanic with a shit-ton of snap-on tools. Now that i'm a home-gamer, i buy second-hand stuff or i'll stock up on harbor freight stuff when i'm in the states. If i need a one-off tool i dont have, i'm gonna buy it from princess auto/canadian tire or some crap like that, not calling the snappy dealer.

3/8 is enough to to most engine components and knock off lug nuts that wernt put on by idiots, but for serious work you're gunna need one of these.

>A lot of the point of a cordless impact is getting off impossibly tight bolts you can't get off with hand tools.
Maybe if you are a hack, but I made that chart for beginner mechanics to try to at least point them in the right direction. Using the most powerful impact you can find because you can't break something loose isn't sustainable, you will break something eventually. Learn to use heat, proper lubricants, and a breaker bar. Take a look at that Prius thread up right now and you'll see why beginners shouldn't be anywhere near a strong impact gun.

>T. Taylor

I have a shitload of tools that my dad left me, but I usually go to Autozone for any tools I might need.

>he doesn't like going there every so often for small shit so he gets $20 off anything more pricey

>Maybe if you are a hack

LMAO
>using an impact to get off bolts too tight for hand tools makes you a 'hack"

The absolute state of tripfaggots.

I dont know who taylor is, but that isnt me.

I'm that jackass who used to work at a mitsubishi dealer.

>buy huge cheap harbor freight sets
>if you break something then you know you use it a lot, and buy something nicer
it's that easy. Power tools do your research.

>TFW when you blow your load on Snap on, but you could of had project cars instead.

>Not buying them for cheap at a pawn shop and warrantying them for new for free

Haha fag

>but I made that chart for beginner mechanics
>beginners shouldn't be anywhere near a strong impact gun.

Problem is, you're telling people to spend hundreds of dollars on a tool they'll outgrow, instead of spending a little bit more on one that will last them well beyond being a beginner.

What on the chart is anybody going to outgrow?

If you're too dense to follow the conversation then I'm not going to waste my time on you.

Lol I have like 1/3 of that shit. Where there is a will there's a way.

If you're implying that someone will "grow into" a 1/2" gun somehow you have no clue. It's an extremely niche tool for proper use on passenger cars. I use mine maybe once a month, and not for difficult bolts. On any modern car your 1/4" gun should be the go-to, 3/8 for suspension/chassis. If you are working on 1 ton+ 1/2" is useful, but you also aren't going to be asking about what tools to get on Veeky Forums if you are a diesel line tech.

>If you're implying that someone will "grow into" a 1/2" gun somehow you have no clue.

Your argument was that a beginner couldn't handle a 1/2" impact.
Now your argument is that a 1/2" isn't needed at all, and that thinking needing enough experience to use certain tools means "you have no clue".

You just can't admit you were wrong because you're worried about you """e-rep""".
This is why tripfaggots are cancer.

You're grasping at straws. A 1/2" impact is useless for beginners because the only thing they could do with it is use it incorrectly.

Your argument was that beginners will somehow outgrow a 1/4 or 3/8 impact, which is nonsense, as even the most experienced techs will be using those 95% of the time on passenger cars.

Let's review since you seem like you really want to move the goalposts every post -

1/2" impact gun-
useless for beginners
niche tool for experienced techs

1/4"/3/8" gun
Good tools for learning techs
Bread and butter tools for experienced techs

>move the goalposts every post

LMAO
Pot calling the kettle black.

My college paid NAPA to provide us with 40% off tools. All my ratchets and my adjustable wrench are Carlyle, and I love them.

What you should do is get quality ratchets (1/4, 3/8, and 1/2 don't waste money on 3/4) and then stick to Craftsman and similar okay brands for sockets because you are going to lose sockets. Stick to 6pt sockets too. Ratcheting combination wrenches are also amazing to have.

I was working at Sears when Craftsman went from being made in USA to made in China. It was a damn shame. Most people weren't aware and would come in and trade a good USA made tool for a new chinashit tool.

garage sale
flea market
craigslist

Those are pressed into the socket.

The 225pc set at harbor frieght has done a few clutches and engine swaps, but for the big stuff (axle nuts are like 30mm) you can rent (full price deposit, fully refunded when you return) tools from o'reilly auto parts. Bearing pullers, gear pullers, presses, ball joint tools, etc can all be rented.

I had this thread on /diy/
My senpai bought a toop truck and I am.putting a little tool box together
I am just cutious about the tools and quality etc
For curiosity

Toledo
Koken
Sek
Minimax
Gedore
Sidchrome (both made in aus and not)
Crab 11
Toledo
Indestro
Jhalani
T&E
Acesa
KC
Aigo
Dowidat
Fuller
Britool
Tone

This was 15 years ago and just sat in the shed

I'm a fucking mechanic and I don't even use snap on, just get something with a lifetime warranty like craftsman and you're good

A lot of craftsman lost their warranty sadly.

I use a 12v battery drill and a socket adapter bit to get small screws on and off, it even has different clutch settings for how tight you want stuff to be, saves time with long bolts and stuff that you usually do by hand

Lidl mostly

Fellow europoor here.

Lidl socket set is quite good, wrenches not so much.

Screwdrivers as of a week ago just went to china. Get what you can while its there. For the most part it is all gone, because we lost our USA supplier months ago.

What's going on with craftsman?

They're on the verge of no longer existing/ being bought out and manufactured to much lower qualities.

garage sales, storage unit reseller, harbor freight.

Metric stuff is harder to find cheap, go garage sales for old SAE stuff and ratchets, buy a set of metric stuff off ebay or new. Gearwrench is probably the best value for new socket sets, if you make sure to get the ones with the 84tooth ratchets in the kit.

Craftsman is literal garbage and make some of the worst ratchets outside of the $3 harbor freight socket set specials. At the same price he could probably get some decent taiwanese ones over chyna cman trash

Second

Best option is buy a decent mechanic kit from Sears. I wish I'd known they sold entire kits when I started.

>What's going on with craftsman?
Sears was taken over by some hedge fund over a decade ago and it has badly managed the company and pissed away its many assets and huge value. In January 2017, Sears sold the Craftsman brand to Stanley Black&Decker. The CEO of that hedge fund has been reviewed in various publications as having no real ability in running a type of business such as Sears.

Weirdly enough, Sears seemed to act like a hedge fund in its buying and selling of assets. So that CEO must have tried to implement similar tactics. But the retail field is not like a mutual fund or hedge fund (dealing with negatives).

It's too bad that under the hedge fund, even the spare parts policies have changed so that if you buy appliances from Sears, you are basically on your own after just a few years. It used to be they kept spare parts available for 15 years or more. The knob on my Lady Kenmore washer finally broke and it has no replacement available from sears. It's too bad as that was the top model at sears at the time I bought it so they made a lot of profit. Even the wash basket inside is a beautiful pristine white as it seems to be coated with a baked on smooth shiny ceramic porcelain finish. The prettiest insides of any washer I've seen yet and that was why I bought it on whim. I've had it over 20 years and it still works great. It refuses to give me any real excuse to buy a more modern HE washer from Samsung (korea) or LG (korea). That Samsung washer with the built-in sink and prewash facility is catching my eye though.

>Sears was taken over by some hedge fund over a decade ago and it has badly managed the company and pissed away its many assets and huge value.
The (((manager))) that runs the fund actually gave the company a lone in order to "help out" and had all the retail locations be put as collateral on the loan. If sears manages to fail, they get all the retail space which is worth more than sears itself.

That means the hedge fund wants sears to fail in order to trigger the dismantling of the parts. The Sears parts are worth more than the sum.

I've read articles about this douche.

He lives on a Island down in Florida and refuses to come into Sears Corporate. The man sounds insane, and is planning to make money raiding assests and other typical Jew schemes. It sounds like he was trying to have sears pay rent to another one of his companies. He is playing corporate money switcher/ raider.

I'm a full-time technician/mechanic.

These anons have a good grasp on it. Get used to looking around at sales, etc. Craftsman is a good startup brand to get your feet on the ground from the store. I started with a small set of S&K tools, along with Craftsman wrenches.

Kobalt has good quality tools for low-medium pricing. Their 1/4" ratchets are my favorite.
Tekton has some decent stuff, with a nice warranty. They tend to replace whatever you break without any issues. They make a nice impact socket set that I've used for the last year and a half. They also make decent wrenches.
Crescent makes decent ratchets, 3/8" and 1/2" respectively.
MAC makes some great wrenches, specifically their precision torque series. I use a 1/2" drive coarse tooth MAC ratchet daily. Do not underestimate MAC warranty; I bought a heavily used 15" flex-head 1/2" drive ratchet at a sale for $12, sent it in for warranty, and got a new 18" flex head 1/2" drive ratchet essentially free (Minus shipping charges).
Snap-on is alright; Their warranty leaves a lot to be desired. Blue-point tools, if you can find them, tend to be worth the investment. I'm fond of their satin finish wrenches.
If wrenching is your career, you'll do well investing into heavy-duty tools.

>Kobalt has good quality tools for low-medium pricing. Their 1/4" ratchets are my favorite.

This is year old information, but I doubt it has changed. Kobalt and the harbor freight composites share the shame mechanism, made in the same factory. Both the offset handle kobalt tear drop and straight handle tear drop should be the same as the 1/4 harbor freight composites. The harbor freight pro ratchets are probably the best value ones I have seen

A nice ratchet is probably the most important tool, don't get too caught up on tooth count. While higher is better, I find that how much pressure it takes to move the mechanism more important when trying to remove or install lose fasteners.

>Snap-on is alright; Their warranty leaves a lot to be desired.
Like getting declined? They can take this as an explanation: eat shit.

You'll collect a lot of tools over time, don't buy the mega boxes, they're full of useless bullshit.

I've broken at least one of every brand of hand tool, it happens. My collection is about 70% craftsman, 20% Thorsen and 10% Chinese garbage.

The reason I suggest you dont buy tools in bulk is because a lot of times you'll need a very specific tool for a job: wrenches of a certain length, or maybe an open end wrench but you want all 6 points. The other reason is that a lot of it comes down to preference.

Don't waste money on thoes mechanics gloves, buy some welding cow hides for hot shit, and a box of latex generics for oily shit.

>Snap-on is alright; Their warranty leaves a lot to be desired. Blue-point tools, if you can find them, tend to be worth the investment.
BluePoint is Snap On. You are talking out your ass.

What did Snap On deny your warranty on?

Claimed tool box overloaded.

>A 1/2" impact is useless for beginners because the only thing they could do with it is use it incorrectly.
New to this argument, but fuck you.
Fuck you I've been using a 1/2 impact since I was 13 years old...
Decades later...
Never broke anything back then...
Never broke anything since...
Even working on ancient rusted pieces of shit...
Watched plenty of dumb motherfuckers break fasteners with hand tools.
Impact torque is much kinder to steel fasteners than sustained torque from hand tools.
Read about plastic vs elastic deformation and stop being a dumb piece of shit.
All tripfags are dumb pieces of shit and should fuck off, preferably dying in the process.

>too right by hand.
What I'm hearing is that you don't have a long enough pipe.

Op I literally twin turbo swapped a mustang with that tool kit

for now just get the tools needed for maintenance
if something breaks look up the tools required for that job and get those
i only know bmw has a specific tool used for changing the oil filter in a e90

ive only ever gotten the tools i need from home depot
nothing has gone wrong for me

then go to Home Depot and buy Husky instead, they are both made in the same factory and at least HD isnt closing down stores like Sears.

i thought stanley black and decker was going to honor all craftsman warranties

They are in full. It's been noted officially and uses the same channels to fulfill as before.

I bought a 337 piece kit plus a 5 drawer kart from Amazon recently. oem tools part number 24964 to replace my stolen tools

Pic related

And link
amazon.com/OEMTOOLS-24964-337-Piece-Apprentice-Starter/dp/B01G7I4XXI

Arrives tomorroe Pretty stoked since I have to swap a trans this weekend

...

I like except for the ratchets. Cheap ratchets make an easy job frustrating as fuck(and sears/craftsman ratchets are pretty much industry worst). Get good quality, high tooth count ratchets (I'll personally shill Carlyle till my face goes red, realitivly cheap, especially for students, and amazing quality and feel), and cheap sears sockets.

Did not know that became a thing. When did they start doing that? When I bought my craftsmans set none of it had lifetime warrenty.