Thread: 3/4 drive socket set brands?

I guess it depends on how much use it will get... Mine gets little use so I have a cheap chinese set, I have only snapped the 1 1/8 one so far...And I have had a long cheater bar on them at times...

I use a big Sidchrome set at work; good sockets but the ratchet is the biggest piece of excrement to have ever defiled the planet. So, just like all Sidchrome ratchets.

I'm looking at Kinchrome or Stanley for my personal set.

Not a fan of KC; they seem to charge high prices for what appears to be cheap Chinese.

Mines Kinchrome and I'm very happy with it.

Phil

I've got a Kinchrome set thats still as good as new (home use only).
But it is in their original RED tin box, before they went blue.
Guess its 30 years old now.

Dont use them a lot so bought a elcheapo Chinese set.

Step 1: use the ratchet to belt things, cause thats all its good for.
Step 2: replace with a better ratchet. Got fragram and T&E units. All good so far.

If possible open up and grease if they arent already.

Hope this helps

You might have a look at Proto USA, Koken Japan, Stahlwille, Germany Gedore, MAC Tools USA, Bahco Sweden, ......

If you could find an old set of Sidchrome Made in Australia or a number of the air tool companies had good sets like "IR" Ingersol Rand & "CP" Chicago Pneumatic...

If you are going to use it a lot, and can afford it, get Stahlwille. I have the 1/4 and 1/2 set fom Stahlwille. They will outlast me, but in the meantime it is a good feeling to know I can rely to 100% on them to do the job when I need them. Stay away from Chinese sets and especially from Indian sets. They may llook fine as long as you do not use them. But these will fail on you, and they almost always fail when you really need them most, when you need to get to break that nut free to fix the tractor to finish the job that you got up in the morning to do..... As always with tools, you get what you pay for. For me, a 50 year old used Stahlwille set is still worth more in practical terms than three brand new Chinese sets.

If you must go cheap see if you can find something Japanese like Koken. If you must go Chinese just buy the nuts and T-bar, no ratchet. Ratchets are the first to break. If you need a ratchet buy a trusted brand name. You will find that there are certain nut sizes used a lot, and some very rarely. Over time you can replace the most used nuts for good stuff, and keep the cheap Chinese nuts for the rarely used sizes. Remember that worn out or damaged nuts will damage bolts and nuts, its just not worth keeping. The cheap stuff will also rust soon as they save on the plating too. Chris

My two cents worth is to get an impact set. 3/4" is getting big, so sooner or later someone will put one on a rattle gun so that they can get the torque they think they need.

Michael