Halfords Tools

[Gunk]

RizzoTheRat said:

4737 Carlin said:

One thing about these Halfords tools with a "Lifetime Guarantee"; it's only guaranteed as long as you have the till receipt. You know, the thermal printed scrap of paper from the till, the ones that fade to invisible in a few weeks.
I photocopied my till receipt and put it somewhere safe.

Also, apparently the guarantee doesn't cover the Ratchets.

Ratchet failed on my 1/4" driver Halfords Advanced ratchet a while back. Took it in to a local branch without the receipt and no quibble about replacing it but he didn't have one in stock. He said I could either wait a few days for him to order me one in or he could check the stock in other local branches for me. Went to the branch that had one and they swapped it over, again without the receipt.

I've got the same set which I use all the time, my ratchet is also playing up, the design of it seems a bit cheap to me so I've replaced it with a used Snap on ratchet

[battered]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

I get the comments about there being tools in this that people won't use, but I guess that applies to all sets.

What's the general view on what's the best 'starter set' for someone thinking of doing more car work at home and not having much more than normal household DIY tools? Worth buying something like this, or is there a list of 'must-haves' that you could buy separately.

I've got late 80s/early 90s Continental and British cars that I'd be looking to work on.

If I were starting again I'd get a set like this, they are really good IMO. If you want to play with 80s Brit cars then you will need AF spanners. If not then you could save a few quid just buying metric sets.

There is a lot to be said for having "the set" in the garage. You know where to look for everything and just take the kit to the job. As regards Whit and the like, if you go that way, you can simply buy sets of sockets on Fleabay for next to nothing. I got a Williams set, sockets only, 1/2" drive, all common Whits but one missing, for less than the price of a pint. The stray one is a metric/AF equivalent so I found a spare and dropped it in the box. At that price, what's not to like?

Someone else said Bahco gear is good, I agree. I have a 1/2" metric set, really good quality ratchet, extenders, whenever I want to brutalise something it comes out. It's easy to break 3/8 drive stuff when you start messing about with wheelnuts and suspension, but the 1/2" sockets come into their own at 19mm and above. You know the thing is coming apart, the worst case scenario is that you'll break a stud. Either way though, it's coming to bits and the sockets won't split.

[S0 What]

battered said:

If I were starting again I'd get a set like this, they are really good IMO. If you want to play with 80s Brit cars then you will need AF spanners. If not then you could save a few quid just buying metric sets.

IIRC all cars were metric by the 80's, fords first metric car was 1972

[battered]

S0 What said:

IIRC all cars were metric by the 80's, fords first metric car was 1972

Your memory may deceive you, a lot of the BL offerings had AF/UNF fastenings well into the 80s, and that's before you start with specialist stuff like Caterham, which only went fully metric with the "metric chassis" in about 2004.

If you think about it the BL parts bin would have a lot of UNF items in it well into the 80s. Are you going to retool the A series and gearbox for the Metro launch? Not in a hurry. Same goes for all sorts of things that would carry over from one model to the next, boring stuff like wiper motors, heater components, alternators, all sorts. Metros in particular were a bd, mechanics used to curse the fact that you'd need a mix of tools depending on whether it was a new part or some carry-over from the 60s.

[battered]

Oh, and Ford are hardly a British brand!

[kambites]

Do any/many of the US brands still use imperial fixings?

[battered]

I know that a lot of US made food manufacturing equipment comes with UNF fittings. You have to pay extra for the metric variant of things like Urschel slicers.

I think the USA still uses UNF on a lot of domestic product.

[RizzoTheRat]

Dunno about on cars but when I worked at Rolls Royce 14-15 or so years back I sat next to a draftsman who said that when RR bought Alison they of course ended up with products that were measured in imperial, but they use them in other stuff so he had drawings that had some measurements in imperial and some in metric. Presumably the machine shops had tooling in both as a lot of components have very high tolerances so converting might not be good enough.

[battered]

Converting is never good enough when you are into threaded components. You need to cut a different thread which is a tooling change.

[bimsb6]

kambites said:

Do any/many of the US brands still use imperial fixings?

Harley are still unf/unc

[sparkythecat]

Outboard motors have a lot of imperial fixings

[MissChief]

Glad this has come up as I'm looking at a socket set to do some basic work on my car. Simple stuff like brake discs/pads, maybe an oil change so I'm not sure I'll need the full set. It's not going to be used on anything really old, my current car is an '04 Seat Leon and anything that replaces it will likely be newer. The 200 piece kit seems like overkill for my needs but should I just bite the bullet and possibly end up with half of it unused?

Would this be a better choice? http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/tools/socke... ?

Edited by MissChief on Wednesday 23 December 03:26

[battered]

The smaller set is just the same but less, for less. What you want is all the metric stuff but none of the AF. The snag is that most of the manufacturers like to throw in AF tools because it helps them up the piece count and "coo look, shiny shiny" aspect at minimal cost. Now you can buy metric only sets, I got a lovely 1/2" Bahco set a year or so ago and it's brilliant, but it was £50 on its own. Add in a smaller set and a few decent spanners and you might as well have had the Halfords set.

Bear in mind that you'll want a set of pliers, screwdrivers, a hammer and box for it all, you have the makings of a decent Xmas list. It's a good way of getting nice tools that might cost more money than you would otherwise pay but at least you won't have to spend your time taking shirts back.

[Zombie]

I was bought a halfords 3/8" drive metric socket set when I was 15. It's been my go to tool set and nearly one quarter of a century later I'm still using it.

I've lost count of the number of cars I've worked on, the engines I've rebuilt and definitely the number of hours (months, years!) I've spent under cars.

I'm 6'7" and i've used and abused this socket set. (And the ratchet spanners I bought not too long afterwards). The Plastic handled ratchet drive has fallen apart on occasion and needed screwing back together, but other than that, it's never let me down.

You can still buy something similar now;

http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/tools/socke...

I also have various other makes of tools. Whilst I do like my Beta 1/2" drive set, the 18mm socket is broken. I broke it using an impact gun, I used a 1/2" to 3/8" adaptor and undid the offending bolt with my double hex 3/8 drive ratchet socket, which was well used and 20 years old at the time.

As far as I'm concerned, in a lot of cases you're paying for a name rather than a superior product. Although I will admit, there is some crap out there and qualify it with 6 sided sockets are an essential resource.

Edited by Zombie on Tuesday 5th January 00:12

[Zombie]

Also, a 12 point 1/2" (size, not drive) is also a useful tool!

[320touring]

Got a set of these myself, and they see use most weekends.

Find even the middle sized kits cover most bases, about the only things missing are longer extensions for the 3 different ratchets.

I've had the kit for a couple of years, and its taken a fair bit of abuse without complaint.

A handy portable setup, without massive cowt.

[matt5791]

I'm not sure about the halfords tools - I bought a "halfords advanced" flat blade screwdriver and the end just twisted - I had to check it wasn't made out of lead rather than steel!

My advice is save up and spend more on Facom / Snap on / etc.

[PositronicRay]

Zombie said:

I was bought a halfords 3/8" drive metric socket set when I was 15. It's been my go to tool set and nearly one quarter of a century later I'm still using it.



http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/tools/socke...

Edited by Zombie on Tuesday 5th January 00:12

I started with a Halfords 3/8 set, cheap as chips, it too is my "go to" tool. I've since added random 1/2 and 1/4 stuff as required so can cover most things, but my trusty 3/8 set is used 90% of the time. I occasionally lust after tools but more often than not I'd just be duplicating stuff I already have, so don't bother.

My impact screwdriver has 1/2 drive and plenty of hex bits for instance, so I just use this with a ratchet, rather than, dedicated hex sockets. My Draper screwdriver set has 1/4 sockets, flexible extension etc.

I add odd sizes and things as required (which now isn't often)

Edited by PositronicRay on Saturday 9th January 10:24

[Toaster Pilot]

Quite fancy the Vortex set at £60 for those awkward fasteners - anyone tried them?

[PositronicRay]