Building a basic toolkit

If you're going to buy a set of spanners, buy a complete set. Quite a few of the sizes you have listed as 'never see' are pretty common these days, especially on jap cars which tend to put oddball size hex's on their bolts (e.g. 10mm thread should be 17 mm head, but some japs use 15 on bolts and 16 on nuts)

I'm not lying. You are just very naive as far as Snap-On is concerned. Wake up to reality. In practice the franchisees frequently do not honour the guarantee to customers who don't buy regularly.

I baught the items off the Snap-On van which regularly visited the engine recon Co next to my toolmaking business, but being as those were the only items I'd ever baught, he refused to replace the screwdriver, which.cost about £7 IIRC. I didn't even bother to ask about the hex keys. In view of the quality, I was not that concerned about having them replaced anyway. Why replace rubbish with rubbish.

I believe you, but to counter that, I could show you several dozen cheap CV spanners that I'd defy you to break by hand even if you tried. By the looks of it, I must be better at picking out good cheap spanners than you are, because I've never baught any poor quality CV spanners.

Guess you don't know what you're talking about then. I'm a professional engineer. Making and repairing tools, jigs, and machine tools is what I do for a living. I'd guess I use handtools far more than you do as a lorry driver, so stop making stupid assumptions in an attempt to prove your argument. Mike.

Um, plenty of car bits are held on with 8mm.

Never owned a Ford then? 11mm's are pretty common.

Brake calipers are very often held on with a 13mm nut, but you need a 15mm spanner as well.

I'd be unhappy without 7/8/10/11/13/15/17/18/19/22mm at the very least.

I avoid using adjustable spanners 99% of the time. If I've not got the spanner that fits, I'll buy it.

Recently I had my number plates replaced. I took a spanner of the right size for the four hard plastic bolts (2 front 2 rear) with me to Halfords' car park. One did not budge and I tried and tried again, and then, after 5 min of heaving and puffing, the bolt head slipped and got.....rounded with the one spanner I had. Giving up I went in to the shop. Eventually the new plates were ready. The old man at the counter came out with me to try his luck. He used a pair of pliers(!). The bolt head was clamped really tight hard and the pliers was then also turned hard. Presto...the head moved at the first attempt!

On examining the bolt head, I could see clear serrated bite marks cutting into two opposite sides. That was it; this explained why a pair of pliers could justifiably be placed above an open spanner in the hierarchy of tools for loosening solidly tight screwed-down fasteners. You won't have thought that, would you?

I've never used adjustable spanners in cars -- pray I never have to. In my experience, they have only been found useful in plumbing work.

The message from "Tim S Kemp" contains these words:

Lucky you! Clio starter motor bolts, for example, are 16mm. Oh, and you left of 7mm which fits the hex on most Jubilee type hose clips. Much better than a screwdriver.

The message from "Mike G" contains these words:

I've snapped quite good quality tools, but then I'm over 20 stone and strong wtih it.

The message from "SimonJ" contains these words:

When I was an impeccunous kid I appreciated that 'cos they were on different spanners so I didn't need two sets.

The message from "Pete M" contains these words:

And a 7mm allen key.

The message from "Pete M" contains these words:

They are almost universally crap. However, for rounded nuts the self-tightening sort are sometimes a lifeline.

Well, I'd *like* to say that but if I came up against something I'd not got a spanner for I suspect I'd use an adjustable of some sort. Mind you I'd probably buy the spanner/socket at a later date.

Tim S Kemp ( snipped-for-privacy@timkemp.karoo.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I haven't seen a Renault 15 for years. A very occasional 16, though. Nice motors.

Lin Chung ( snipped-for-privacy@the.Water.Margin.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

On soft plastic number plate fixings, yes. On real fasteners, not a chance.

Yup - I've never found an adjustable spanner that would shift a stiff nut. Far more likely to damage it than even a cheap fixed one.

With plastic nuts and bolts, yes. But pliers won't work on steel in the same way - you need some form of locking or self tightening wrench if you've damaged the flats.

When I was an impecunious kid, metric hadn't been invented. ;-)

On the other hand if you can get to it a Stilson can often shift anything, to the point of shearing it if it *really* doesn't want to play.

I've ended up using a 1" cutting disc on a Dremel for nasty nuts before now...

My first plan of attack is a nut splitter.

The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:

Cor - what was I on when I spelt that?

In message , Adam Aglionby writes

You can't change the wishbones on a Ka/Fiesta without one of these.