To Mechanics In School

[mossyoak83]

I would

Topic

[671tamuning]

I like this thread, i agree with clicknclack.

I’m 1 year in tech school in the local college. Next semester I’ll start on some diesel classes.

I’m the only one in my whole family that likes automotive repair and maintenance.

So, unlike some of my fellow students I don’t have the luxury of inheriting tools from a relative. Except some basic screwdrivers and the like.

Most of my tools are craftsman, including my box, I have some duralast, powerbuilt, evercraft, harbor freight, great neck ratchets, kobalt, stanley ratchets, and just recently started buying Matco tools.

Basically, a little over a year ago i bought a 266 pc. set from sears that i paid $150(it was 50% off for 1 day)

My advice is just start small and build it up from there.

I pay cash for my tools. Our school deals with Matco and Snap-on. I just recently started buying MATCO tools, this past Christmas I got some as gifts.

I don’t play favorites with tool brands but, I’ve been picking Matco over snap-on over and over because I get more value out of my dollar than I would with snap-on and their customer service is good.

And a tip for tool buying, just go for metric. nowadays you don’t use standard sizes that often unless for older american cars, but have them around you can buy alot of SAE sizes from swap meets/flea markets.

I think partly because American cars are being sold internationally and most of the world uses metric sizes. Just a theory.

[Ron Price]

i am no mechanic and have never been to school. but i do work on cars alot. and my father used to own his own repair shop/ used car dealership for years. i am actually pretty new to mechanics. and i am just learning on my own. i have a whole jumble of old tools and some newer cheap ones. i have stuff from almost every brand ever made. and this is what i have to say. there are certain tools you can buy cheap. say brands like duralast, stanley or even cheaper stuff like tekton. which i actually like quite a bit. even though they are super cheap. you basically have to buy the cheapest tools you can get away with for certain jobs. things you have to put alot of pressure and use on, buy better stuff. but i would say that craftsman or s-k is about as expensive as anyone really needs. i really wish s-k was easier to buy. seems there are no dealers for them any more. i know you can buy some of their stuff from sears website. but not in store.

also i think a really good way to go is to try and find older tools at garage sales, flea markets, pawn shops… you can often find snap on tools there even. but there are also some really good old brands that arent around any more, that you can buy from people super cheap. i would say some of the best are j.h. williams, proto/plomb, bonney, barcalo, cresent, duro-chrome/ indestro, wright, new britain, (old) stanley, par-x (older economy snap on brand, before blue point. has snap on warranty), herbrand, walden, thorsen (make sure its old thorsen, not the new hijacked name, made in china junk), wizard (western auto house brand)… and many others. in fact many of these companies were located in buffalo new york, or a short ways away. and i live 65 miles from buffalo. so i especially love to find and use j.h. williams, cresent, barcalo, mckaig-hatch, and old blue point (before they were a snap on company). these old tools were made very well. and i have plenty of tools from the 30’s and 40’s that i use. i got some recently from an estate sale and they look brand new! and they work great. you can always buy them cheaper than the new made in china stuff. and they will last years longer! another thing that was kinda cool was i have a really old family owned hardware store in my town. i was looking through all their bens of sockets. most of them are from the 1930’s-1960’s. and i found alot of new old stock snap on. and they only charged me about $1 a socket. so get out there and take a look. i bet you can find the same type of stuff in your area.

i think its kinda dumb for people to go out and spend all their money on brand new snap on , mac, matco, or cornwell even if you work in a garage everyday. i mean really. how often will say a craftsman tool break or not do the job? i mean even some of the harbor freight stuff works just fine. and is MEGA cheap. so people should save their money. only buy some of the expensive stuff if you keep breaking a certain tool or something. spend you money more on specialty tools, to do jobs right. and the better electronic tools.. save your money!

[Author]

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