Thread: Kincrome & Sidchrome vs the rest

Love the Kincrome hand tools. I am just a hobbiest though. My understanding is Sidcrome is slightly better.

My advice is to stay away from anything of theirs that needs electricity.

Kincrome are generally made in China. Although their Finkal punches are Australian made (thumbs up for them). Sidchrome are generally Taiwanese and a step up from Kincrome. Some Sidchrome gear is actually Facom gear. Some lines of their pliers for instance are made in France by Facom. Stanley owns Sidchrome and Facom so that is why there is the cross over. A while back I noticed that the Sidchrome socket sets were identical to the Stanley socket sets with the exception that one box was red, and the other was yellow. More cross over..

Funnily enough generally for the same money you can find much higher quality gear. Just takes a bit of looking. That being said, the sellers won't accept Bunnings vouchers..

I have a set of Sidchrome calipers. They are reasonable quality and fairly accurate. Calipers are not meant to be super accurate so they are within spec. I would not know about Kincrome metrology gear, except to say that I would not touch it. I gave away almost all my Kincrome gear a few years back. So you can take from that what you will.

What sizes are you looking for? I have a few here that were heading for eBay, you can have them cheap. They are Euro brands, if you want some pics pm me.

Cheers,
Ew

For me as a hobbiest I find Kinchrome and Sidchrome sufficient. My tools in the shed are mostly Sidchrome and the tools I take for camping are Kinchrome. I also have a Kinchrome digital verniers which have been OK for my purposes. All my micrometers are Mitutoyu which are more than sufficient for me

For the price I can't fault Sid or Kin


Simon

Originally Posted by steamingbill

Anybody out there able to comment upon their Sidchrome and Kincrome tools ? Am I better off just buying any old chinese imported cheapie - saw some threads saying they can be surprisingly good.
Bill

I have a set of Kinchrome geared ratchet spanners, I am quite happy with them. I use them in preference to my 30 year old Sidchrome spanners.

I have a Kinchrome digital vernier caliper. The only time I use it is when I need to auto-convert between metric & inch making stuff on an inch machine that has to fit a metric hole (etc). It's fine as far as it goes. I have a couple Chinese vernier calipers (not digital) and I use them all the time for measuring drill shanks etc - anything not really critical and in places where I don't care if they get bumped, dropped etc.

No clue WRT the Kinchrome micrometers.

My attitude, a vernier caliper is for measuring +/- 0.001". A decent micrometer is for measuring to +/- 0.0001" (for sub 2" stuff anyway, my 12" Mitutoyo is calibrated to 0.001"). There is no point in buying a cheap micrometer unless it's known to be accurate *and* repeatable. All mine are Mitutoyo, Moore & Wright, Starret etc. No Chinese ones at all.

I'd buy a cheap vernier caliper. I wouldn't buy a cheap mike.

PDW

Previous post by PDW mentioned repeatability and accuracy. This is a good point. I'm not so much interested in accuracy but repeatability is more important. Considering I never calibrate ANY of my measurement gear but also most of the time I am making one part to fit another part with both parts available to me in my shed. Therefore all I'm really doing is making sure one fits the other. Accuracy (to within reason) not an issue but repeatability more important so that I can compare one to the other.

P.S. I also have some Unior tools. Made in Slovenia. Not bad.

Cheers,

Simon

Originally Posted by simonl

For the price I can't fault Sid or Kin

That is the thing.. The price for German (& Japanese) made "worlds highest quality" is only marginally more. Stahlwille, Hazet, Gedore, KTC/Nepros. Unfortunately a lot of people think these tools are off the chart expensive. But in many instances they are less expensive or only marginally more. They can take some finding but I am aware that Masters now stock Stahlwille and are reasonably priced. For the record forget Snap On. They are mostly Chinese made these days and in my opinion not a scratch on the others mentioned. By right, buy once.

I concur with PDW on repeatibility. You want repeatable Mics. Quality Mics such as Mitutoyo come with standards to calibrate against prior to use.

If I were you I would hit up Ewan. The guy knows his metrology and has a veritable gold mine of gear.

Originally Posted by variant22

You want repeatable Mics. Quality Mics such as Mitutoyo come with standards to calibrate against prior to use.

My Mitutoyo mikes, all of them from 1" up to 12", have the standards to check against included with them. A mike without a standard is interesting, I've never really stopped to think about it as all mine have them. I guess I assumed that new (or well cared for used) mikes came with standards so they could be checked.

Personally I'd be looking for good used on Ebay or similar but the Chinese counterfeiters have made that a kind of crap shoot now. I've just bought another mike off of Ebay but it's kind of a weird variant and out of production so I'm confident it's not a fake.

FWIW as I get older and my eyesight gets worse I like mechanical digital mikes. At least the batteries don't go flat. Pity the 25mm one is out by 0.023mm and I haven't figured out how to adjust it (not that I've tried very hard as it is a repeatable error).

PDW

Originally Posted by steamingbill

I have seen lots of praise for Starret, Mitutoyo, Moore and Wright, less for Fowler. Almost zero mention of Sidchrome and Kincrome.

Starrett gets some of its kudos by being "Made in the USA". While reasonable gear I sometimes think that it's reputation is partly built on fact and partly on home market enthusiasm. One of the problems with Starrett is that metric scaled gear is not as common on the second hand market.
Mitutoyo is good and I don't think you can go too wrong with it. Another Japanese brand for Micrometers is NSK.They are quite often on Ebay and I think under estimated
Moore & Wright and Fowler are not brands I associate with micrometers. They also have off-shored parts of their production (don't know about the micrometers) which worries me in a metrology company - if the product is not seen as value for money where originally made, what is off-shoring going to do for your reputation for a quality product?
Tesa (and other Swiss names - Etalon, Interapid, Brown & Sharpe) are good (the Swiss fan club would say excellent) and should not be forgotten. Occasionally they can be found at bargain prices.

Sidchrome and Kinchrome are known for their hand tools. The measuring gear is to round out the range and would be made by someone else. For some reason marketeers always think that a company has to have a "complete range" and that buyers don't care about performance just the name. Personally, I would not buy one of these simply because I prefer to buy products based on the reputation for that product rather than the brand.

Second hand gear can be quite good if looked after - Ewan may have something but failing that I'd look at (in no particular order) Mitutoyo, Tesa, Starrett and NSK. Most of those are available ebay and not too expensive if you look around.

Michael

A really good way of establishing the Quality of hand tool manufacturers is to look at their 1/4" drive socket sets.
The cheaper ones have sizes that only go to 7/16 or 11mm. The good ones go to 9/16 or 14mm.
To me that shows the confidence that they have in their product.
Back in the 60's I started with Sidchrome. It didnt take long to decide that the quality just wasnt there. I started buying Proto, Stahlwille and Hazet which I still have. One of my workmates put himself in hospital trying to duplicate a job that my Stahlwille swivel bar would do with ease and his Sidchrome bar broke.

Another useful attribute that these makers have is that they are real easy to find in someone elses toolbox.

Roger

Originally Posted by rogerbaker

A really good way of establishing the Quality of hand tool manufacturers is to look at their 1/4" drive socket sets.

That might tell you something about the sockets but it won't tell you anything about the micrometers, calipers etc which they almost certainly do not actually make, but just have with their brand name.

I'd rather buy my measuring equipment from a company that actually makes it. If it's a Chinese company, fine - let them put their name & reputation on the line. I have a pretty nice Chinese vernier height gauge. Not at all in the Mitutoyo class, but nor was the price, and it's quite adequate for my needs.

PDW

Sidchrome and Kincrome haven't really been known for metrology tools. I feel like the measuring tools are being sold on the back of an old reputation for sidchrome spanners and sockets. Nothing to do with micrometers. Others have posted the names of good metrology gear and I can't really think of any more. It's just advertising or marketing smoke and mirrors. My toolkit when I started my apprenticeship was Sidchrome spanners, Bahco shifters, Finkal punches, Minimax sockets, Mitutoyo Mic and vernier calipers, starret square etc, different brands for different tools, most of which I still have over 20 years later. My point is just because the spanners were good doesn't mean the micrometer now is anything special.

Originally Posted by PDW

If it's a Chinese company, fine - let them put their name & reputation on the line. I have a pretty nice Chinese vernier height gauge.

Unfortunately PDW not even the "best" Chinese metrology company put their brand on all their products. See my thread on Anyi for more information..

Originally Posted by Michael G

Starrett gets some of its kudos by being "Made in the USA". While reasonable gear I sometimes think that it's reputation is partly built on fact and partly on home market enthusiasm.

Hi Michael,

I find it quite amusing how the yanks (well many of them) absolutely detest anything from China. I get this impression from reading some threads on other forums and also from attitudes on occasional you tube videos. Even Tubal Cain in one of his band saw videos describes the newer models being made "In some god forsaken country" and that's from a devout Christian!

As for Starrett, I have some of their stuff and I find it OK but I get the impression that it could be the worst built POS in the world and the Yanks would still love it over anything built "in some god forsaken country" purely because it's "Made right here in the USA!"

Cheers,

Simon