Making a transition…. Sorta

[Brett]

So I know alot of guys on here are professional auto/diesel techs so this is more of a question for you guys.

So I’ve been a professional aircraft mechanic for the past 6 years. I’ve always been sort of a hotrodder I guess, I have my race truck that I’m always playing with but I’ve never worked on cars or trucks professional. I’ve been working on the road moving all over the place for the past 3 or so years contracting and I recently took a job closer to home, really good money, awesome benefits, great money. But the problem I ran into is my shift is 7 days on, 7 days off. I’m too much of a workaholic for 7 days off and my wallet ain’t fat enough to work on a diesel drag truck 7 days straight.

My job made me sign non competition clause so I can’t do any other aviation work and being that my job pays so much I really needed a cash job to help save me, because to file another W4 would kill me.

So I took a job at an automotive shop part time to help fill up some of my time. And I’m just curious what I should do about my tool situation. As an aircraft mechanic 99% of what we do is SAE, I own some metric tools but none except for a few here and there are are decent quality (like I have a set of Mac metric combo wrenches and a set of mac shallow impact sockets). All my SAE stuff is all Snapon, mac and Matco.

So I’m already thinking just slowly starting to accumulate quality metric stuff (ebay) but my main question is currently I keep alot of stuff like all my ratchets and extensions in my travel toolbox that I use at work. Do you guys think I should keep working out of those in combination with my toolboxes at my auto job or should I slowly start to make everything separate?

Any other advise would be well appreciated.

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Topic

[Joshua Eason]

To answer that question, it would be best if we knew what models you were working on and the cope of your work. Needless to say, now most late model cars are predominantly metric. I would buy another set of tools if you are planning on making this a long term thing.

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[Brett]

It’s just a standard repair shop. Alot of domestics, japanese and some euro. Mostly late model 90-08 I guess.

Like I said, I have some cheap metric stuff. But I’m more curious do you think I should try to make my travel boxes 100% separate from my work box (all my ratchets, alot of my pliers, extensions, etc stay in my travel box)

[Greg]

I would build another tool set heavy on the metrics. Oh and add another dozen 10mm sockets and wrenches

[James P Grosso]

I vote for another tool set 🙂
Sounds like you are looking for higher end tools which can get expensive.
It’s hard to beat the value of these Craftsman 250+ piece tool sets with the case
http://www.craftsman.com/products/craftsman-254-pc-mechanics-tool-set-with-75tooth-ratchet
, just need to add the larger combination wrenches, screwdriver set, and various pliers.
The Channel Lock and Gear Wrench tools are also pretty nice for lower cost tools.

[James O’Hara]

Make 2 separate sets 2 separate tool boxes. The reason why i say this is because of the aviation side. You need to know for a fact if you left that tool in the aircraft. I know most aircraft mechanics have shadowed boxes and you need to know if you are missing things cause 1 wrench in the wrong spot could bring down an aircraft in a not so safe way.

For metric stuff I recommend Mac Precision Torque Impacts only (chrome ones break with no effort at all not joking or being funny) or Grey Pneumatic if you do not want toothed sockets or you want it to be decently cheap. Grey Pnuematic has good large sets of sockets they are impact and they are all pretty thin but, do not break easy. Warranting them may be a little bit of a pain as you need an authorized dealer but, most tool stores (not big box stores) sell them. I use them for diesel mechanics and quite honestly they will work well.

I suggest highly that you get combo flank drive + or wrightgrip wrenches by wright tools. I also suggest you get a set of stubbies gearwrench have worked well for me. A good cheap set of precision screwdrivers is Mayhew Cats Paws as they also are full tanged with a driving cap this makes a huge difference with rust.

I would say start off with a tool cart (Harbor Frieght if you are doing it on the cheap) In my experience MAC tools just seem to hold up better then the rest but, with certain things like the flank drive + combos you can not go wrong with snap-on. I would also recommend that you get Mac’s Filter Claw. If you notice i am recommending toothed wrenches and sockets. The reason for this is because quite frankly i am in the rust belt and a large amount of the time if you do not have them you regret it quickly. I would start off with flex head long handle ratchets as well make sure fine tooth im sure you already know. You should really only buy impact stuff it is not very often where only chrome will fit. If that is the case though Snap-On makes the thinest ones and they are still strong. Me and most of the guys at work rarely use chromes and we work on cars, light med and heavy trucks. I highly suggest that you get a set of Mountain or EZ-Red double flex head offset reversable ratcheting wrenches. Standard sizes are pretty much left for lugnuts some drain plugs (mainly chrysler) and fittings for hoses/pipes. I recommend snap-on for your tubing wrenches if you buy them i normally end up just using the flank drive + wrenches tbh.

If you want to know more i have a huge list of things that help all the new techs/diy guys: So you want/are going to be a mechanic/technician

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