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Hi Eric, big fan of your’s since a long time, I have a simple but yet complex question to ask you. I am about to finish car mechanics school (in may) and I need to get a decent toolbox/tool set to be able to work on my own at a dealership. I have a 5000$ Budget, I have the basic 200piece ratchet set+impact set+normal stuff like screwdriver+vicegrips+what not! I have a hex electric impact but other than that pretty much nothing!
So I have 5000$ and as a student, I get 50% discount on Mac Tools and around 20-40% on snapon stuff.
If you could go back to dayone, fresh out of school, and you had 5000$ and couldn’t buy used! What would you get?
I found a toolbox for 500$ pretty wide, will do the job for the moment, so that is 4500$ left, where I get mixed up is mostly here ; 3/8-1/2 impact air or electric, ratchet 1/4-3/8 air or electric, extra long wrench+ratcheting wrench+moon wrench?
1/4 Long-Short sockets
same for 3/8 and 1/2?I know my syntax is probably terrible, sorry I have trouble with English.
So my question is, with 4500$ Toolbox included, what would you buy! (I will focus on metric stuff since I want to work for an asian car manufactur!)
I cross my finger for an answer, thank you eric and sorry for the such long question
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If you want cordless tools,look at the Milwaukee fuel line which has a 5 year warranty on the tool and 3 year warranty on the batteries.You do want to stay away from the Snap On cordless tool line,JUNK.You don’t have to buy the tool truck brand impact sockets,Grey Pnuematic and Sunex are two great choices for the impact socket sets.They do have a lifetime warranty at least half the price of the tool truck brands.
My first toolbox long ago was a craftsman stacked unit. I had $200 into it, with no roller bearing drawers. I would probably look at the kobalt line out there, and a few others. For $500 you can probably get yourself something. I never did dealer work, but you may look into a quality tool cart. Itll get abused a lot more than your box. If you’re in school, you can probably get one discounted thru snapon. They had some for $1400 and are well built. Pretty much anything now is metric, whether its American or not. You need to have torx bit sockets, inverted torx and tamperproof torx, and hex head sockets. Cornwell had a nice set of torxbits, rather complete for a decent price. Cheap lisle stuff won’t make it with torx. You need some pry bars, and preferably some air impact guns, 3/8 and 1/2. Electric guns are ok, but tend to be heavy and when the batteries get low, and you don’t catch it, you could leave something loose. A good torque wrench, 1/2″ size would be ideal too. Ratchet wrenches are nice, and a set of stubby wrenches as well. Some long T handle torx drivers and hex head drivers would be a good move as well. Mac tools, they are ok, I’m over them these days. Their wrenches leave a lot to be desired. Snapon tends to be better, but you don’t need a tool box full of snapon stuff starting out. Their electric stuff, if you go lithium, are pretty decent, but overpriced. I only bought my 1/2″ electric from them because 1) I had a $800 voucher to spend and 2) it had 1/2″ wobbles with it. Now my 1/4″ Li impact from them, it is a work horse. I use the heck out of it every day, under the hood or under the dash. It’s light and stout, I would suggest it. Sockets, you can go cheap initially on them, and you want 1/4″, 3/8″ and 1/2″, shallow and deep of all of them. Impact sockets for 3/8″ and 1/2″. 4mm to 27mm, and really you should try to get up to 38mm deepwell for axle nuts if you need to do such. Extensions obviously as well. You might need to start with harbor freight to stay in budget.
You used the word syntax properly. Think your English is just fine 😉
I can’t really add anything to this thread. I’m more taking notes myself and trying figure what I’ll be needing when I get a job.
I will say that Milwaukee cordless tools are great. Snap on ones are amazing but I’d say not worth the extra cost. Their electronic tools also don’t have the same lifetime warranty as well. I think that it’s only 3. Personally, I think that the only electronic tools I’d get would be the torque wrench since it is handy. Insanely expensive though.
I have one of the snapon electronic torque wrenches, picked it up on sale a few weeks ago. Its a lot better than the first version they made. A new tech wouldn’t really need one, they would just need a click style torque wrench from one of the tool trucks(don’t bother with harbor freight). Just follow the instructions on use of them, and religiously setting them back to their lowest setting when done. I have a matco 1/2″ torque wrench, must be 17yrs old or so, and still works reliably. I just needed one to do torque angle measurements. A good quality DVOM is a must, and a firm grasp of ohms law.
Toolboxes,look on Craig’s List for used toolboxes and trade ins tool truck dealers have.With an used Snap On toolbox used,ask this question to the seller: Is there any money owed on it still?If they say yes,run and there is a reason why.Snap On can still repo it if there is money still owed on it and you don’t get your money back.Have a Snap On dealer run the serial number as well to see if money is still owed on it.
Quick question, warpzoneqc. Do you mean that you have been “approved” for upto $5000 credit for tools as a student by either MAC or Snap ON? Or that you have $5000 to spend? I ask because I would seriously NOT recommend going the “credit” route. That is pretty much signing over your first few months paychecks to whomever you buy the tools from. I’m sorry to say this but not everyone lasts at their first job. Whatever you decide, don’t go crazy and get the biggest toolbox you can buy. Start small and compact and build from there.
Buy used. Both tools and tool cart. You really don’t NEED a full on “box” or “system” yet. You need basic hand tools and maybe a 3/8″ impact wrench. Maybe 1/2″ if you’re working on larger vehicles. you DO want to spend money on quality torque wrenches (and USE them). Not Harbor Freight, Not Craftsman. Just don’t. Both those brands make decent hand tools, but DO NOT buy their torque wrenches for professional use. A LOT of it depends on what you’ll be working on.
Make sure you have some thin wall impact sockets in common lug sized for custom wheels that don’t allow room for the standard socket. Also a good idea to have a variety of common wheel lock keys for when the customer cannot find theirs. A good set of pry bars and a dead blow hammer will be worth their weight in gold. Also, an electric impact driver will save lots of time if you have to remove hubcaps held on with torx screws.
Do you know what your duties will be at the dealership?
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