cheap tool brands

f140

was at castletownbere vintage day today. noticed a lot of the "trade men" sell either US pro, nelson and toolzone tools. what are these like in general for quality. they are far cheaper that the king tonys and britools etc.

Tony Beetroot

Ching chong lucky dip tools.

Seamus1964

"Trade men" ?
Fat beard'y blokes selling all sort of drills and other tools and power generators?

queueeye

Tony Beetroot wrote: »

Ching chong lucky dip tools.

Ouch my fcuking knuckles tools!

blue5000

Tony Beetroot wrote: »

Ching chong lucky dip tools.

Great description!

I suppose it depends how much you use them, if it's going to be used pretty often I try buy the best I can afford, eg a 24 mm spanner, I spent almost 50yoyo on a teng ratchet spanner. It does the same job as the chinese one, only a bit faster.
If it's something I only use every 6 months or so I would look at the cheap stuff first. Some of it is ok. If you buy good quality tools, they're the ones that need minding, the cheap stuff tends not to 'walk'.

Nekarsulm

For cheapo tools Lidl or Aldi better than the Hi Ace variety. Overall go buy some Teng or similar quality brand.

simonhm

buy the best if your a spanner man

Tony Beetroot

I have some teng tools myself but wouldnt go pushing the brand, in terms of their price versus quality they are some what over rated.

Nekarsulm

Tony Beetroot wrote: »

I have some teng tools myself but wouldnt go pushing the brand, in terms of their price versus quality they are some what over rated.

No skin off my nose what he buys. King Dick, King Tony, Britool, CK, Stahlwillie, Wagener, Elora. Or the old Swedish Sandvik if he comes across them in a car boot sale. The newer South Americian Sandvik not as good.

ger b

Bought the aldi corded drill on Saturday morning for coring a 65mm hole through 9 inch block wall had half it done with de Walt battery drill (it was going through the battery to quick )it gave up after 20mm the trigger just didn't want to know brought it back for replacement now the second one is acting up now I know there only 20odd euro but taught they'd last a bit longer than that

Timmaay

Halfords have some good quality tool sets, full price they are a rip off but they do 1/2 price sales regularly, I got a huge set received for about 150quid, every spanner and socket you could ever need. Now I just need to not lose any and I should have a set for life ha.

Tony Beetroot

Halfords tools are fisher price toy tools. Grand for occasional diyer maybe.

selectamatic

All depends what you're gonna use the tools for. Odd DIY stuff and light work they'll be sound. However if ya even think of going near tractors and machinery and the likes then you will be far better off with the proper stuff as mentioned above. I've seen the bolts holding the saucer on a rotary mower kill three different types of Chinese ratchet spanners/socket sets, all while we were waiting for the aul fella to go and get some proper tools (He's a retired tool maker and has a stash of good stuff he guards with his life for fear the younger bro will lose them) anyways he landed back with what I think was a Britool socket set, popped it on the bolt got a bar that must have surely been 5ft long and low and behold he got her shifted at the first attempt.

Blackgrass

selectamatic wrote: »

All depends what you're gonna use the tools for. Odd DIY stuff and light work they'll be sound. However if ya even think of going near tractors and machinery and the likes then you will be far better off with the proper stuff as mentioned above. I've seen the bolts holding the saucer on a rotary mower kill three different types of Chinese ratchet spanners/socket sets, all while we were waiting for the aul fella to go and get some proper tools (He's a retired tool maker and has a stash of good stuff he guards with his life for fear the younger bro will lose them) anyways he landed back with what I think was a Britool socket set, popped it on the bolt got a bar that must have surely been 5ft long and low and behold he got her shifted at the first attempt.

He used a breaker bar ie what should have used in the 1st place.

Blackgrass

Tony Beetroot wrote: »

Halfords tools are fisher price toy tools. Grand for occasional diyer maybe.

Are the halfords 'pro tools' not snap on? :rolleyes:

Timmaay

Blackgrass wrote: »

Are the halfords 'pro tools' not snap on? :rolleyes:

It's their advanced range I'd suggest buying, their cheap end stuff might be fisher price but definitely not the top end stuff. When the 1/2 price sale was running they got very good reviews over on the bargain alerts forum on boards.

davidk1394

Snap on tools are hard to beat

freedominacup

There's no such thing as cheap tools. I'm still using gear my grandfather bought. Names long since gone. We'd have good regard for Teng stuff here. Also have a king Tony socket set that has stood the test of time. Was bought for a mower tractor on a deal somewhere, che..... low price so not expected to last and no tears if it walked, still intact 20 years later apart from one or two losses of the careless variety.

Have a small half inch high impact socket set here meant for an air gun and a homemade but durable strong arm for the reluctant smaller stuff. Standard sockets of virtually any make will literally crack under enough pressure.

Worst loss here was a 3/4 inch Teng set that walked out of the yard about 10 years ago. Awful handy but there's always something else to spend that sort of money on so hasn't been replaced.

enricoh

Bought aldi / lidl socket sets before - OK but busted the ratchets . got halfords set with ratchet spanners and they,re much better quality and lifetime warranty.
Couldn't justify snap on coz I'd go mental if and when they got robbed!

Grueller

For the fathers 60th birthday I bought him a set of teng 3/4 drive sockets. The siblings all wanted to club together for a holiday. I stayed out and bought him these. €325 on special offer 8 years ago. Contains extensions rachet and breaker bar. Has to be the handiest thing we ever got. Himself and the mother have yet to use the holiday voucher.

sean1141

Tony Beetroot wrote:

Halfords tools are fisher price toy tools. Grand for occasional diyer maybe.

Halfords pro range are far from Fisher price. They have a life time guarantee.

_Brian

I think we all know deep down that in general cheap tools are for lightweight occasional use.

Few years ago I bought a Challenge 4 inch grinder in Argos €20. Great yoke, I use it occasionally and it's never let me down, grinding, cutting , polishing all no bother. However- if I were using it for a few hours a day I'd change it. It's noisy and damn heavy - a few hours using it would be like wrestling with an angry bear.

GreaseGunner

We've a few Draper tools, spanners and sockets, and we found them to be a good buy too.

9935452

GreaseGunner wrote: »

We've a few Draper tools, spanners and sockets, and we found them to be a good buy too.

ive a 3/4 inch draper socket set. Great to have all the bigh metric and imperial sizes but its soft. Throw a 4 foot pipe onto the t bar and it bends and the sockets burst. so it needs taking care of.
Old teng t bar never bends with lads hanging out of a 10 foot pipe.
That said when the set was borrowed and went missing , it got replaced

selectamatic

Blackgrass wrote: »

He used a breaker bar ie what should have used in the 1st place.

I do know what a breaker bar is :rolleyes: if he used a breaker bar I'd have said so he used a bar as in a 5ft length of inch and a half gun barrel and slotted it down over the handle of the ratchet spanner. We had tried the same with the Chinese ones albeit with a slightly shorter length of gun barrel prob about 3ft; but one wrung the socket, one bent round in a U (cos the bar couldn't slot down fully onto it) and the ratchet mechanism went in the other. We did the same with the britool one and it shifted the bolt no bother to it!

Longford Leader

Do ye guys favour 6 point sockets over 12 point for heavy work or stubborn nuts.
I find any 12 point sockets I have tend to round the edges of nuts if not careful.

GreaseGunner

Longford Leader wrote: »

Do ye guys favour 6 point sockets over 12 point for heavy work or stubborn nuts.
I find any 12 point sockets I have tend to round the edges of nuts if not careful.

+1 on that. We had rounded a nut with the 12 point and the auld lad was going to get the angle grinder to it, I said try the 6 sided and sure enough it brought it. 6 sided all the way

smokey-fitz

Have a mixture of everything here, teng, snap-on, stahlwille, draper expert ect. Id personally rate draper expert higher than teng, especially for sockets, ratchets, spanners and screwdrivers. Teng are more of a designer tool imo.

Everyone will have there own preferences, but if one is not sure, always buy tools with a lifetime guarantee. This way you know its made to a certain quality no matter what brand. And if you break it (within reason) it will be replaced.

Zr105

A brand not mentioned yet is bacho, it's not bad stuff, and can be got fairly right to, decent cases and decent feel to the stuff, have a 3/8 socket set here and I've given the ratchet more abuse than it probably should and not a bother on it,

Caulfield industrial on eBay stocks a lot of it and often will have a fairly decent deal on it. I know I got the 3/8 set off them for €50 when all the boys at the ploughing etc wanted 65+ for dirt quality sets....

Blackgrass

Zr105 wrote: »

A brand not mentioned yet is bacho, it's not bad stuff, and can be got fairly right to, decent cases and decent feel to the stuff, have a 3/8 socket set here and I've given the ratchet more abuse than it probably should and not a bother on it,

Bacho are owned by snap on and next level up again.