Tis worth it. I have various mixtures of Snap-on, Britool and King Dick - however, loathed though I am to admit it, I got a couple of bits from Halfords that have proven to take more than the usual punishment. They also claim a lifetime warranty.
On or around Thu, 15 Dec 2005 16:03:04 +0000, Mother enlightened us thusly:
Halfords' decent stuff is pretty good. I still have some bits of a socket set I got from them about 20 years ago. Mind, recently the swivel handle gave up the ghost - it had survived the most amazing amount of abuse, but it finally failed when trying to shift a TDi front pulley bolt. Mind you, that's a seriously violent procedure, and really speaking outside the ability of ordinary tools.
Actually their 'Professional' stuff carries a lifetime warranty IIRC. I've some of them and they certainly are decent for the money.
Lifetime warranty or no, if they break when you're swinging on them hard you tend to loose blood. For that reason alone I tend to stick with tools from the big name suppliers.
Still, if you're not using them every day the Halfords stuff is probably fine - if I hadn't made my living with them it would be a bit hard to justify owning tools worth more than a new 110 and I'd probably have gone with Halfords tools.
Mother"
Snap-on just replace broken tools no questions asked (even ones I've bought second hand), so their warranty appears to be perpetual.
On or around Fri, 16 Dec 2005 09:55:09 +1300, EMB enlightened us thusly:
I suspect what they're really saying is "our tools aren't supposed to fail".
I have a Britool (before they got taken over) ring spanner that I managed to break. Trouble is, I was overloading it so comprehensively at the time I haven't got moral nerve to send it back. It took a ridiculous amount of force to break it.
Britool replaced my 36" long 1/2" drive breaker bar that snapped, and they replaced it again the next time, but on the third replacement they told me that was the end of the line. Next time it broke I got one of my colleagues to return it for replacement (he had one too). Since then I've discovered that the young lad in our workshop was using it with a
5' long scaffold pole on the end of it. Now the scaffold pole has been banned from the workshop I haven't had any more trouble. I'd say you've got a fair chance of getting a claim on the spanner. :-)
I'm delighted with Halfords Pro stuff, and have their entire "drawer tray" range - seventy quid a drawer for excellent tools and what's more important to me holders for keeping them so that you start the day with a full set of tools and you can see easily when you end the day that you're putting away a full set. Nothing worse than not having a proper place to put your tools.
I'd highly recommend their flex headed ratchet spanners - forty quid for a few (8?) spanners, but they can be real time savers (V8 distributor nut...), and seem to be really well made. And if you're in the UK, with a V8 LPG vehicle especially then get a Shell pluspoints card (no cost to you, anyone can get them) and start collecting - 1500 litres is ten quid of halfords vouchers. As a V8 owner you get special bonuses for collecting so many points so they add points on every so often as well, I've had about a hundred quids worth of vouchers redeemed so far........
Regards
William MacLeod
On or around Fri, 16 Dec 2005 12:26:27 +1300, EMB enlightened us thusly:
The Halfords swivel handle which broke trying to get the TDi pulley bolt ondone had stood up to at least that much punishment, mind. The final straw was the "impact" technique I employed on the said bolt.
Basically, that bolt needs a 3/4" drive socket and associaited sod-off bar. But it's about the only job I'd actually *need* it for...
I'm lucky - 3/4" and 1" socket sets (and impact wrenches) in me shed.
Incidentally even the cheap 3/4" sets seem to be bloody strong - certainly a lot stronger than even a quality 1/2" set, so one of those might be a worthwhile investment.
On or around Fri, 16 Dec 2005 21:05:29 +1300, EMB enlightened us thusly:
well, yeah, but likesay, there are very few things I *need* it for.
The infamous feeble air gun managed to undo bolts on the dampers on the minibus.
did wonder whether air impact guns are a thing that gets better once it's bedded in - basically, it's an air vane pump running backwards, and as such, when it's been run a bit, I'd expect the vanes to bed in to the cylinder and seal better after a bit of use.
shot a load of vacuum pump oil up it's orifice the other day, which then sprayed all over the place from the exhaust vents...
Now you mention it, that's pretty much what my Blue-Point one did. After about a month of daily use it started to work well enough to be useful.
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