Imperial tools?

[RWD cossie wil]

Would anyone happen to know a good distributer of A/F / imperial tools? I'm finding it quite tricky getting hold of good quality sockets & spanners in imperial sizes?

[Happiness Stan]

primetools.co.uk

[davepoth]

RWD cossie wil said:

Would anyone happen to know a good distributer of A/F / imperial tools? I'm finding it quite tricky getting hold of good quality sockets & spanners in imperial sizes?

Halfords do them. Failing that do like I do when I've lost sockets, which is just hammer the next size down of metric socket onto the nut. HTH.

[RWD cossie wil]

davepoth said:

Halfords do them. Failing that do like I do when I've lost sockets, which is just hammer the next size down of metric socket onto the nut. HTH.

Not really! Halfords only do a very limited range, I need a decent selection as I am building a toolkit to work on aircraft, so could ideally do with a good selection.

[PumpkinSteve]

Snap On is the obvious choice.

[Willy Nilly]

All of the tool suppliers do AF spanners/sockets/allen keys.

[AndrewW-G]

[davepoth]

RWD cossie wil said:

Not really! Halfords only do a very limited range, I need a decent selection as I am building a toolkit to work on aircraft, so could ideally do with a good selection.

All the Halfords I've been into have had the basic things I've needed - Screwfix, Machine Mart and so on also have stuff, and I always have a poke at autojumbles.

[J a k e]

RWD cossie wil said:

Not really! Halfords only do a very limited range

Halfords do a very comprehensive range. My local Halfords has a couple of large locked glass cabinets full of spangly spanners and sockets. Perhaps try another branch to your regular/local one?

davepoth said:

do like I do when I've lost sockets, which is just hammer the next size down of metric socket onto the nut. HTH.

Good luck hammering a 12mm socket on a ½" AF nut

[davepoth]

J a k e said:

Good luck hammering a 12mm socket on a ½" AF nut

You need a bigger hammer.

[Y282]

AndrewW-G said:

DAMN YOU!

[Toyowner]

Check out the bay.

[megy]

Snap on are the obvious ones but what I did when I set up my initial aircraft tool kit was bought mid range and then replaced the more commonly used tools with snap on. Places I would recommend would be Cromwell tools or buck and Hickman, both had contracts with places I worked at so will often give a good discount. Sealey and draper are other tool manafacturers that offer a comprehensive range of imperial tools, although, as is mentioned above, halfords do some and I have some in my tool kit.

Let me know if you need any more help, I remember buying my kit and trying to think what to get was a hassle. What sort of aircraft kit are you going for?

[ExiledTaff]

I started my basic kit with Teng, although, if i were to go back, I'd probably make a few adjustments.
I've probably still got a list of basic tools somewhere if it's of any interest.