Sub £100 Socket & drive sets

[ymwoods]

I know that when buying a Tool set you can not go wrong by throwing a little money behind yourself, but what would you recommend to someone with only up to £100 to spend?

The general requirements are that to begin with it will only be used for very light work, IE service items. At the moment I borrow tools off a friend but it's getting a bit tiresome going to his house every time I want to service my car on a nice day.

After I get more confident (do lots of services but never touched anything else) I would like to use them for things a little more "intensive" such as changing the discs and pads and then just generally taking stuff apart to see how it works

I probably only need a "light use" Socket set as they wont be getting used for taking apart the suspension or anything any time soon so I don't really want to spend a massive sum of money on them, that being said, I also don't want a pile of crap either!

I have been looking at something like This Whilst I know I will never need or use half of that, the idea was to get as many different sizes as I can so that I will never be left with everything BUT the size I actually need. To be honest though I would probably be ok with any Socket & Drive sets as long as they have include the standard sizes that a Pug 206. (Although I will be in the market for an MR2 at the end of the year so would like to use the same set on that too)

One Final must have is that it has to include the attachment which allows you to use the set on tight angles and corners, otherwise I will never get to the spark plugs!

I bow to your wisdom!

Edited by ymwoods on Sunday 13th June 01:21

[Stu R]

halfords one will be fine. They're on special offer frequently, or find someone with a trade card

[matty_doh]

Get the Halfords Professional stuff. It will outlive you and has a superb lifetime warranty.

Buying cheap sockets is a false economy. Spend a little extra and make sure you don't lose them!

ETA; They're £20 over your budget but reduced from £200, I think these would be a solid choice; http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

If you wait around a bit they may go below £100 again. They were £99.99 last month.

Edited by matty_doh on Sunday 13th June 01:51

[BonzoG]

I have nowt to add, other than if you have anything vaguely rusty or made of soft metal, 12-point sockets are the work of the devil. Learned this the hard way...

[Eggman]

The one you're looking at is OK-ish, but the £120 set that matty doh linked to is miles better and well worth the extra money - especially if you can get it for £99, which more often than not you can. The problem with the cheaper one is that it includes loads of screwdriver bits and 1/4 inch stuff, which are pretty useless really, so the number of tools that you would actually use is rather limited.

I have one of the £120 sets (actually an earlier version of it), and think it is really rather excellent. I have a lot of tools - absolutely loads of them, to the extent that I frequently discover things I don't remember buying and have never used. However, if I'm going out to work on the car I often pick up the Halfords toolkit because it contains nearly everything you need (apart from a hammer and some decent screwdrivers).

[Speed addicted]

+1 for the Halfords gear, I've got an older professional set and I don't think you can really beat them for the money.

[OlberJ]

BonzoG said:

I have nowt to add, other than if you have anything vaguely rusty or made of soft metal, 12-point sockets are the work of the devil. Learned this the hard way...

Take note of this!

The halfords stuff is great for low-mid use. I've had mine for 4 years now and have replaced a couple of bits i've over-used myself, straight swap, no hassles.

[PhillipM]

I've had one of these for the past 7 years and it's still going strong, ratchets (72 tooth) don't seem to get upset at a little mud or water like the halford ones either:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Crescent-professional-tool-s...

Imperial + metric spanners and sockets, most are 6 point wall-drive, but duplicates in smaller ratchet sizes are 12-point, so there's always something fit for the job.
Spanners are wide and quite square in profile with rounded edges, so they don't bite into you hand when giving them stick, and the extra width on the heads helps prevent nuts rounding off.
The only bit in it that isn't great are the pliars (which are a bit soft).

Edited by PhillipM on Sunday 13th June 12:42

[skyslimit]

PhillipM said:

I've had one of these for the past 7 years and it's still going strong, ratchets (72 tooth) don't seem to get upset at a little mud or water like the halford ones either:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Crescent-professional-tool-s...

Imperial + metric spanners and sockets, half are 12 point, half are 6 point wall-drive, so there's always something fit for the job.
Spanners are wide and quite square in profile with rounded edges, so they don't bit into you hand when giving them stick, and the extra width on the heads helps prevent nuts rounding off.
The only bit in it that isn't great are the pliars (which are a bit soft).

Edited by PhillipM on Sunday 13th June 12:36

Costco do that very same set for about £60 odd I'm sure.

[PhillipM]

Probably, I got mine for around that back then.

[ymwoods]

Thanks a lot guys! I think I am going to have a look in-store at the Halfords Advanced Profesional ones as they do seem very good and have pretty much everything I need.

The cresent one is good too but is missing the add-on that allows you to work round corners so if the Halfords comes up too expensive I think I will buy the Crescent Professional one then buy the add-on thing (sorry don't know the proper name...)

Thanks for all the help!

[Eggman]

ymwoods said:

the add-on that allows you to work round corners

Universal joint? Buy a spare, because stuff like this tends to break if it's in 3/8". Don't be tempted by the bendy spring type extensions - they're rubbish. Wobble drives are occasionally handy, though.

I wouldn't base the decision on whether or not a kit includes a specific bit, btw - look at what's there and decide how much of it'll be useful. 'Useful' in this context means 'not toy-like quality' - just because you can't see yourself needing a 1/2" 30mm socket this week, it doesn't mean you won't next year. I wouldn't spend your own money on anyting 1/4" - in my experience Santa does a nice line in tiny screwdrivers and miniature sockets made of chocolate, but can seldom be relied upon for stuff like 1/2" deep impact sockets

[PhillipM]

I use my 1/4 sockets/ratchets and drives all the time tbh.

[Eggman]

You must be working on something which uses small fasteners then! Anything over about 11mm and I'm worried about breaking 1/4" stuff, so I very rarely use it apart from for the odd nut.

In fact, the last time I felt glad I had a 1/4" socket set was when I dismantled a Krups espresso machine to descale it. (They're actually quite interesting inside - much better made than you might expect, and they've got a tiny little 'cylinder head' that comes off the boiler so you can get inside it. Proper gasket and everything!)

[PhillipM]

Anything up to about 13mm headed stuff really, often use it on M10 too, depends how good your kit is I suppose.

[busta]

I got this Bacho 94 piece set for £100, reduced from £199, from my local BOC gas and welder shop. Store finder HERE



Come with usual lifetime warranty, bacho have been around for years and their stuff is normally pretty unbreakable.