which tool set should i get?

[e30North]

Craftsman is great for the price and if you’re starting off. If you do a lot of wrenching I would go with a wrench that has a smooth handle; I would avoid the “regular” set of wrenches from craftsman. The bump of the handle will fuck up your hand if you use it a lot.

[brianao34]

+1. I took in a broke 3/8 drive ratchet and they swapped it out for one of these "teardrop" ratchets. Wow, I've been using it for 2-3 years, amazing

[Brandon12V]

Stay within a budget and build your tool stable over time. Quality should be bought in your main essentials(i.e. tools you use regularly). Ratchets, wrenches, and screwdrivers mainly. You might laugh at the screwdrivers but it's no joke. Craigslist it up for snapon/matco ratchets. If you can't find anything, kobalt came out with a NICE line including a 80 tooth 3/8" drive. Pricey for a home appliance store item though. I would suggest craftsman for sockets(hand & impact). They're easily available and American
made. Napa is a good alternative. Most of the companies nowadays come with lifetime warranties so get that and you'll be "ok". You pay the price when it comes to precision. As nice as a craftsman professional wrench line is, snapon/matco are better by micrometers and it makes a difference. Although, you might not notice if you don't wrench on a regular basis. I'm not against buying a kit but after fixing cars on a regular basis, I would have done some things different than starting out with a kit. And Stanley sucks. My $.02.

[Shanes325]

Stanley tools are great and they stand behind their life time warranty 100% . If u ever have anything fail no ?s asked they will send u a new tool asap.

[devon.818]

just found some girl on craigslist who is mad at her BF...who happens to be a mechanic that owns snapon/mac tools....so ima go over there and go shopping!
she said prices starting 5$/tool.

WHAT! lucky i know. lol

[kts]

Lots of good advice here. Adding way too much rambling into it all:

- Like many folks on here I started with a Craftsman combo set over the years and have made additions to my base set with everything from Snap On to Harbor Freight.

- For most home mechanics Craftsman stuff is more than enough. If you do end up going to an auto mechanic school start with Craftsman or used Snap On/Blue Point/Matco/etc and build up/replace your collection on the job when you need the stuff. Just watch out, I know many people who have almost their entire paycheck go to the Snap On sales guy. ;)

- If you have a Costco membership check the local Costcos to see if they still have any of the Powerbuilt ratchet + socket sets or some off-brand wrench set they have. Both of them were stupid cheap, I got both for $25 total (for full sets of metric and SAE in short 12 point and deep 6 point along with 12 point wrenches) and they have held up surprisingly well to a lot of abuse in a Lemons car build, junkyard trolling, and for use on my E30 when I'm too lazy to get stuff out of my toolbox. I bought them because they were cheap and I wouldn't care of they were lost/broken/etc at my friend's place for the Lemons Build or the junkyard but I have treated them like crap and they are still going strong.

- Kobalt's new line of stuff at Lowe's also seems to be priced right and looks really nice. Not sure if Lowe's has gotten better with their warranty stuff for Kobalt, a few years ago a Lowe's socket I had broke and I got the run around from 2 Lowe's stores. :(

- I really like my cross force ratcheting wrenches I picked up a year or so ago, so much easlier on your hands.

- I also will +eleventy the use 6 point sockets whenever possible.

Stanley tools are great and they stand behind their life time warranty 100% . If u ever have anything fail no ?s asked they will send u a new tool asap.

+1 to Stanley's warranty. I had a Stanley 1/2" to 3/8"s adapter bend on me. No idea how it got in my toolbox but I called them up, gave them the part number and a few days later I had a new replacement.

[kts]

just found some girl on craigslist who is mad at her BF...who happens to be a mechanic that owns snapon/mac tools....so ima go over there and go shopping!
she said prices starting 5$/tool.

WHAT! lucky i know. lol

mind sending the info on this my way? i'm local and wouldn't mind picking up some Snap On/Mac Tools for cheap. i'm checking CL but no luck yet. :(

[Brandon12V]

And they fail all the time. I got rid of all my Stanley shit as soon as I upgraded. Never looked back. Maybe they've gotten better, but the last time I bought a Stanley socket(2 years ago), it was made in Taiwan out of zinc. Shattered at the first opportune moment.

[Brandon12V]

1/2" breaker bar. Loosening a rear subframe bushing nut. Ended up using my craftsman breaker bar to get the job done. It's just an example. The tools may work for some of you but I've had negative experiences.

[Shanes325]

I was a diesel mechanic for 5 years and abused the hell out of my stanleys . I used 11/2 sockets (1/2 adapter on 3/8 ratchet) and never had any problems . I also use my sockets on my impact all the time. Guess I just got lucky or they did get better.ohhh on a side note black chrome stuff is crap .

[tjmonsen5]

Do this, buy the biggest starter set from craftsman that you can afford. Then start buying tools as you need them.

My only gripe with the large craftsman sets, is that they have tons of useless stuff (for us anyways) we dont need all those SAE sockets and wrenches, allen keys and whatnot. But, they are good to have because when you need them, you will be glad you have them.

[b*saint]

Weekend warrior who needs all the tools a pro has without breaking the bank. Harbor Freight (I think they call it the pro line.)

Everything in between that and Sanpon isn't worth the Money unless its a legendary in its product line, companies like Bondhus or Ridgid. But be careful, Even Channellock and Visegrip suck these days.

Needless to say I have a shit load of tools ranging from Harbor Freight to Snapon, from made in China to Made in Europe to Made in USA. My favorite tool is one that works right and feels tight. Like my Beta semi flush cut wire nippers are the cats ass.

Although I agree you'll never use standard, when the random item comes along you need a standard socket, its always nice to have it. My standard set is downstairs in the basement. I haven't touched it in years.

[accident]

And they fail all the time. I got rid of all my Stanley shit as soon as I upgraded. Never looked back. Maybe they've gotten better, but the last time I bought a Stanley socket(2 years ago), it was made in Taiwan out of zinc. Shattered at the first opportune moment.

I've used my Stanley sockets on impact guns several times with zero issue. :/

[jaywood]

I have soooo many craftsmen tools. I love all of them.

[AndrewBird]

Even Channellock and Visegrip suck these days.

Not really sure how you can claim this. Almost all of my pliers are Channellock's bought over the last 2-3 years. All are great quality and are almost exactly identical to a bunch of 20+ year old Channellock's my father has. Same story with Visegrip. These two brands are some that I would always buy from.