Help me find a replacement socket set

[Dog Star]

My garage was burgled a couple of weeks ago - stolen items were a couple of motorcycles, an outboard motor and just about all of my tools.

Everything except the outboard was well insured. However one thing that I am finding problems replacing is my beloved Blue-Point 77 Piece "General Service Set" (BLPATSM3877)

http://www.snapon-bluepoint.com/en/products/detail...



This set was, for a keen home mechanic (especially for motorbikes) absolutely brilliant. It was metric only and is, sadly, discontinued. Blue Point don't do anything like as good anymore (it's all half full of imperial stuff which is of no use to me).

Can anyone suggest a similar 3/8" set that is of a comparable, drool-worthy quality from a good manufacturer?

These are available from the odd source on eBay, but I'd rather deal with new if possible.

[McAndy]

Have a look at the Halford Profesisonal kits. I've been pretty happy with mine and they come with a lifetime guarantee. Having said that, the only one I know of that's broken was a friend's when he was jumping on the end of a 4' persuasion bar!

If you can hold out they also regularly have 50% sales on.

[Dog Star]

McAndy said:

Have a look at the Halford Profesisonal kits. I've been pretty happy with mine and they come with a lifetime guarantee. Having said that, the only one I know of that's broken was a friend's when he was jumping on the end of a 4' persuasion bar!

If you can hold out they also regularly have 50% sales on.

I have a lot of Halfords Pro stuff (or should I say "had"; it's part of the same insurance claim). While it's good stuff it's not in the same league as the Blue-Point set; I want a similar set that makes me go "wibble" when I open the case

[cold thursday]

There is a brand new one for sale at the moment.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/snap-blue-point-3-8-77-p...

[Dog Star]

Blimey!!!

Just going to call the insco right now and see if they'll cover it!

[Dog Star]

Brilliant! All sorted, insurance are covering it

I am so happy; that was without a shadow of a doubt - apart from the motorbikes - the most important thing (to me) that got stolen. I walked through the door, saw the missing bikes but the first thing I did was look to the shelf and see that my sockets had gone

[McAndy]

Dog Star said:

I have a lot of Halfords Pro stuff (or should I say "had"; it's part of the same insurance claim). While it's good stuff it's not in the same league as the Blue-Point set; I want a similar set that makes me go "wibble" when I open the case

Fair play! I've only used them and various cheapos from RS Components. Glad you seem to have things sorted.

[cold thursday]

Dog Star said:

Brilliant! All sorted, insurance are covering it

I am so happy; that was without a shadow of a doubt - apart from the motorbikes - the most important thing (to me) that got stolen. I walked through the door, saw the missing bikes but the first thing I did was look to the shelf and see that my sockets had gone

A Good result, I understand your feelings. It is an emotional thing, a toolkit that has become your trusted friend over a long period of time needs to replaced exactly.

Will you go "wibble" when you open the case on the new set.

Edited by cold thursday on Thursday 17th April 01:37

[Dog Star]

cold thursday said:

Will you go "wibble" when you open the case on the new set.

I certainly will; I'm going to sit in front of the TV and polish each individual bit

Annoyingly the seller is about 5 miles from me now and has not responded in any way

[Deisel Weisel]

Purity14 said:

Are you sure you aren't buying your old stuff back?

Is there a website listing everything Blue-Point sells in the UK? Is buying BP from the States, viable? Gonna be heavy, less chance of all metric sets (if buying a big set). What's the import duty on tools?

edit:
Found this: http://www.snapon-bluepoint.com/en/products/list.a... ...seems to be more than one all-metric multi set.

Edited by Deisel Weisel on Thursday 17th April 14:06

[Oldred_V8S]

Purity14 said:

Dog Star said:

cold thursday said:

Will you go "wibble" when you open the case on the new set.

I certainly will; I'm going to sit in front of the TV and polish each individual bit

Annoyingly the seller is about 5 miles from me now and has not responded in any way

Are you sure you aren't buying your old stuff back?

Many a true word spoken in jest. Does sound a bit iffy, did you mention to the seller where you lived?

[Deisel Weisel]

Oldred_V8S said:

Many a true word spoken in jest. Does sound a bit iffy, did you mention to the seller where you lived?

I believe this is the brand new set Dog Star purchased...

cold thursday said:

There is a brand new one for sale at the moment.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/snap-blue-point-3-8-77-p...

But his stolen set sounded used.

[Dog Star]

Deisel Weisel said:

But his stolen set sounded used.

Oh it's not my set - they were well looked after but definitely used

That's the set, you are correct, she seems to sell quite a few of them and a lot of Snap-On gear, and if and when she eventually gets in touch I may just be restocking a lot of my garage with her wares.

[ben lee]

I've recently bought Halfords 150 piece professional socket set, comes with a lifetime guarantee. I use it on my motorbike and car and it's been great.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

[Dog Star]

I got my new one yesterday

All the other stuff that was stolen I'm just leaving to my home insurance company (they've already paid for the socket set) to sort out. They've been really excellent - even paid for the offending side door to be bricked up instead of repaired/replaced.

I've got tons of 1/2" sockets (luckily they seemed to omit stealing the contents of that chest, but the set in the OP was just excellent for bikes.

[vanordinaire]

ben lee said:

I've recently bought Halfords 150 piece professional socket set, comes with a lifetime guarantee. I use it on my motorbike and car and it's been great.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

I've got one of these sets, the quality is ok, better than most 'off the shelf' stuff , but not professional quality. I've managed to split a couple of the smaller sockets and snap the splines off one of the torx drivers. My Geodore stuff that my dad bought for me for my 21st birthday thirty years ago are still the best tools I've ever used.