Best tool set for £500?????????????????

[Alex12]

Hi there, What is the best tool set i can get for my money (500 max the lower the better)

The set must include:

A tool box (Good quality one with room for expansion)
A reasonable variety of good quality tools I.E. socket set, screwdrivers, spanners basicly as many tools as possible for my budget.

Iv seen a few sealey deals

http://www.pvrdirect.co.uk/products.aspx?cmd=list&...

Which one would be the best and are there any better deals out there? iv also seen some US-Pro boxes on ebay which seem good quality but im no expert.

http://motors.search.ebay.co.uk/us-pro_Storage_W0Q...

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated guys

Thanks

[CJ-311]

id advise tool marque but they dont have a website

[kevy427]

I'm a MAC tools distributor and would suggest to buy the best you can afford. A lot of these tool kits conatin stuff that you may never use (imperial sockets, imperial hex keys etc). Your best bet is to work out what you actually need and how often are you going to use it. Ratchets, sockets, screwdrivers, pliers, spanners - buy decent ones as it's your knuckles that'll be hurting if you slip off a fastener with a cheap spanner! And on a Sunday afternoon when the shop's are closed, you want tools that work and get you out of the brown stuff

The quality of cheaper tools has increased over the years, and with most you get a lifetime guarantee (providing it hasn't been abused). Much that I'd like to say, buy MAC, if they are solely being used at home, then you can't go wrong with Halfords Professional. Buy a new tool every week or month and build your tool kit up like that

[CJ-311]

kevy427 said:

Buy a new tool every week or month and build your tool kit up like that

That's a good way to do it
im an apprenitce with ste wages and the tool van is unbelievably expensive, so i just go to halfords every month and spent £50 - £100 on things i need.
And as kevy said get the essentials first

[Alex12]

Thanks for the help guys, well im a trainee mechanic and have about 500 squids to spend on a decent set of tool, so the tools will be used in a garage enviroment, are halfords professional still a good choice?, what are your opinions on the links i mentioned in my opening post?

Thanks again, really appreciate the help

[Holst]

I agree with CJ.

I bought a halfords kit for about £150 which ive been pretty happy with.

BUT ... there were lots of imperial sockets and things that I will never ever use on my Honda, and there were some sockets I needed that were missing.

What I wish I had done is worked out what tools I needed for the car and just bought those ones, I could have saved lots of money, or bought better quality.

For £500 you might be able to buy a compressor and an airgun... which are very usefull if you are working on an old car with rusty bits.

Exactly what do you want to do with the tools?
Just work on a specific car? or do other jobs as well.

[Holst]

Alex12 said:

Thanks for the help guys, well im a trainee mechanic and have about 500 squids to spend on a decent set of tool, so the tools will be used in a garage enviroment, are halfords professional still a good choice?, what are your opinions on the links i mentioned in my opening post?

Thanks again, really appreciate the help

I was slow typing my other reply.

You can get a Halfords trade card which gives quite a big discount on Tools.

What do the guys you work with use?

[CJ-311]

the halfords pro stuff is brilliant
get yourself a trade card (just take a payslip in with you)
the only downer with halfords is the sockets, there all 12-sided which tends to be a big problem on old nuts and bolts and they just end up rounding.
iv got an armstrong ratchet and it's really comfy, you should aslo look into KD.

[jamoor]

CJ-311 said:

the halfords pro stuff is brilliant
get yourself a trade card (just take a payslip in with you)
the only downer with halfords is the sockets, there all 12-sided which tends to be a big problem on old nuts and bolts and they just end up rounding.
iv got an armstrong ratchet and it's really comfy, you should aslo look into KD.

Indeed, don't go to halfords without a trade card!

[Alex12]

Thanks guys, i was thinking of buying the halfords professional 150 piece socket set in halfords yesterday for £99.99 half price deal, roughly how much would i get off with a trade card, i realise the trade cards can not be used on sale items but lets say how much could i get off the origional price of £200?

cheers

[Frik]

jamoor said:

CJ-311 said:

the halfords pro stuff is brilliant
get yourself a trade card (just take a payslip in with you)
the only downer with halfords is the sockets, there all 12-sided which tends to be a big problem on old nuts and bolts and they just end up rounding.
iv got an armstrong ratchet and it's really comfy, you should aslo look into KD.

Indeed, don't go to halfords without a trade card!

Definitely.

The best tip is to get a reasonable set (Halfords Pro for instance) and then replace anything you break with really good stuff. That way you won't have spent a fortune on anything you're never likely to use, but the things you do use will be damn good.

[CJ-311]

Alex12 said:

Thanks guys, i was thinking of buying the halfords professional 150 piece socket set in halfords yesterday for £99.99 half price deal, roughly how much would i get off with a trade card, i realise the trade cards can not be used on sale items but lets say how much could i get off the origional price of £200?

cheers

my mate adam (surprised he not posted yet :P ) bought that set and so far no complaints and it's a really good set

speaking of halfords, oooooooh
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...CarSelectorGroupId__varientcategoryId_76867_crumb_33958-31562-76859_parentcategoryrn_76867

[Alex12]

Thanks guys, so it seems that halfords professional is certainly the way to go, what about boxes? are the halfords any good i know they have a deal on the industrial sets at the mo think there top and bottom for £300 or what do you guys think of the us-pro boxes off ebay (link on my opening post)

Cheers

[kevy427]

"Thanks for the help guys, well im a trainee mechanic and have about 500 squids to spend on a decent set of tool, so the tools will be used in a garage enviroment, are halfords professional still a good choice?, what are your opinions on the links i mentioned in my opening post?"

Shame you're not local to me! Do you get MAC or Snap On come round? Buy your tools on the weekly with £10-20 a week. You build your kit up over a period of time without over-stretching yourself. We're all self-employed and value our customers (I do anyway as they pay my wages!) and are always willing to do a deal. A good dealer will look after the apprentice's as it'll keep them loyal to them

Buy cheap, pay twice....

If you buy cheap stuff, when it breaks (hopefully when you're older and financially better) replace broken stuff with decent stuff

[B17NNS]

I have a few bits of Teng stuff and the quality is excellent.

This looks good.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/teng-tools-tc8140nf-tool-kit...



If you feel like treating yourself take a look at this.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TCMM1001N-TENG-TOOLS-1001-PC...

Well over budget I know but every tool you'll ever need.

[adamfraser]

As CJ said (yep im finally posting!) I got the halfords kit, really good stuff for me anyway. Not exactly lots in it for a trainee mechanic but if you get a tool van, buy stuff regularly with your pay, youll quickly build up a decent set.

As for halfords boxes... One of the boys at work has the Halfrds Industrial... no problems with it.. only problem is though he ran out of space after a year!

(Currently looking at Teng/MAC/Snap-On boxes at the moment).

[CJ-311]

alex, dont be fooled into buying full spanner sets, theres alot sizes you'll barely come across
iv got a halfords pro flexi - head ratchet spanner set and it's bloody cracking, well worth the £40
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_216036_langId_-1_CarSelectorCatalogIdCarSelectorGroupId__varientcategoryId_76864_crumb_33958-31562-76859_parentcategoryrn_76864

[Alex12]

Thanks guys, pritty sure im gunna go with the halfords pro's now as they appear to be very good quality for the money, iv seen those ratcheting spanners, are they any good? are the halfords pro screwdrivers decent aswell? i noticed halfords have got a deal on them when you buy some halfords oil you get a set free so am tempted with that aswell, as the the boxes im really undecided, am i better buying a bigger box and growing into it so to speak or am i better just getting a smaller box for tools and upgrade as my collection grows?

Cheers

[Moose.]

Alex12 said:

Thanks guys, pritty sure im gunna go with the halfords pro's now as they appear to be very good quality for the money, iv seen those ratcheting spanners, are they any good?

Best invention ever!

The only Halford Pro tool I've ever broken was a 1/2 to 3/8 drive convert with a 4' breaker bar on the end. They replaced it without question However, I'm pretty sure the free replacement deal is only for the home mechanic. If you're in the profession I'm not sure they honour that part(?)

[Mr Dave]

May as well add this in as could be useful....what is the best torque wrench for reasonable money?