Quality small metric spanners

I have lots of 'shiney toys' . . sometimes I actually use them as 'tools'

I also have a lot of my late grandfathers tools, these are very much treasured and loved.

Hi Dave, I can't agree with you, but if you can not understand my statement "very nice to handle" I don't know any other way of describing it to you, but, if you were using 24mm ring spanners almost every day of your working life at some point and having to undo and tighten up say up to a dozen or even more bolts you may be able to understand what I mean.

Regards Nick.

Some years ago I treated myself to a set of 10 to 19mm Snap.On spanners, mainly because I was in the workshop when the rep turned up on my birthday. Like all SO stuff the finish is excellent. But, the beams are thin and have square edges, and are not as nice to use as other, cheaper spanners I own. Even if I could buy them for the same £100 I paid, I wouldn't buy them again, unlike the ratchet screwdrivers and 1/4" drive sockets which are better than any others I've used over the last 30years.

One thing that I find annoying about most high end tools is the shiny, slippery chrome finish. A matt finish like on traditional Britool and Stahlwille is much more practical. I have some Teng tools finished this way and they're OK, but don't like the design.

Another Nick

Otherwise they're not magic and don't tighten and undo ordinary nuts and bolts any better than ordinary spanners.

"Nice" spanners do have another disadvantage - they have a bad habit of "walking".

When I was mobile & worked in many different places, decent spanners disappeared from my tool case regularly. I bought an inexpensive set of metric combination spanners (6 - 24mm) from an autojumble. The machining of the bits that mattered was good, as was the material used, but they looked rough - coarse forgings not well fettled, but they "did the job". Never had one of those walk ! Not particularly pleasant in the hand, though I wasn't using them all day every day .

Nigel B.

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Of course I understand what you mean Nick, and you're exactly the type who needs to choose tools carefully and probably does. I wasn't criticising your post or Tim's question, just making a general point about engineering questions and answers.

My point is it's important to express engineering requirements precisely whenever possible. Otherwise we can only guess and generalise. In this example I can't tell if Tim's innocent call for 'some decent small metric combination spanners' has any relationship to your Britool are 'very nice to handle' answer. Tim might be after value for money utility for occasional work rather than the big money comfort needed by a professional mechanic.

Another silly example, my daughter has a pair of fashionable sunglasses and jolly good they look too. Useless for me. Apart from being too small for my big head, I only need polarising sunglasses in the car for when low sun dazzles by bouncing off wet roads. Her idea of a decent pair of sunglasses is completely different to mine, not least because I'm well past the age of looking cool. Others will disagree with both of us, having good reason for wanting prescription Ray-bans, Reactolites, wrap-arounds or whatever. 'Can anyone recommend a quality pair of sunglasses?' is only useful if the answers explain 'quality'. Advice to buy a massively expensive Brand Name is unlikely to be a good answer unless what constitutes 'quality' is agreed.

Apologies for any offence caused. I mentioned it's a Hobby-horse!

Dave

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My most used spanner is a SNAIL

:0)

Martin

Stahlwille. and, NO... they are not just for the avation industry [ as some folks think ] Pricey though but superb gear.

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It may not be magic but a suitably accurate flank drive ring spanner can, as well as being better for peak torque, reduce bruising of flats in those more aestheticly challenging situations. As Tim Pointed out in his OP, and I agree, you can't get cheap decent small spanners, they are all crap.

Anyone suggesting Britool should be aware that they have been nothing but a branding exercise for quite a while now, and should be treated with appropriate caution.

Also the correct answer to any sunglasses question is invariably Serengeti, I'd pick non-polarised glass lenses in the original drivers tint.

You have to laugh at the snap-on pricing, when you hear of some poor dealership mechanic lamenting about how he had ten grands worth of snap-on tools nicked, I always wonder who is it that nicks half a socket set?

Also thanks to Barrie (and others) for putting those Stahwile 16 spanners on my radar, another expensive addition to my "want" list, thanks a bunch

Edited By Cabinet Enforcer on 30/07/2020 19:26:00

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Bergen tools - I have found these to be excellent design and price. I believe they are, or at one time were owned by 'US Pro Tools'. They also sell the very rare 'ratchet-less ratchet' (as did Britool, but I haven't seen one of theirs in ages). Ratchet-less ratchets utilise a sprag clutch system and when using on small thread sizes they have the advantage of not dragging the bolt/nut back and forth on the return stroke - a very annoying habit with even fine tooth ratchets. I have these in 1/4" and 3/8"th drives along with others more common ratchet tools from Snap On and Britool. For small nuts and bolts they are the 'go to' tools for me. The Bergen also has a very short handle 2 1/2" on the 1/4" drive and 3 3/8" on the 3/8th" drive. They are good for getting into tight spots and do not allow abusive over tightening being short handled!

The other 'nice' (sorry SOD!) ratchet I have is a offsetting handle on a Snap On (although I am sure it's a Blue Point - Snap On's lower market brand). I have as far as combination spanners a set of Halfords Pro's, and an assorted bunch of Britool (issued at Lucas in the 80's), Sears Craftsman (very highly recommended), and the odd Stahlwille, Facom, and Elora. Even have an odd 'India' brand spanners that get modified as required (rough as the proverbial dogs rear end but good quality steel but with a rough forging finish)

BTW - SOD tell your daughter the world's best sunglasses are Serengetti without a doubt - used by Arizona Highway Patrol and far better than Ray Bans (they're for the downmarket Californian Highway Patrol!) The 'Blue Blockers' are the eyeshades to have when driving over a dessert terrain.

Just found a photo of the Bergen tools mention above:-

Bergen seem to have been entirely subsumed into US.pro for the moment, the US.pro mini spanners are the same dreadful ones sold by many others, at least they sell them cheap...

A man of fine taste regarding the the ratchets I see, before the last branding shuffle the better Britool stuff was marketed under "Britool England" and included the clutch ratchets, you can see from my 1/4 drive one here that they probably came out of the same factory as the bergen ones.

.

Permit me please, Dave, to refer you back to my post of 28/01/2020 17:52:13 on a previous thread

**LINK**

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=148841&p=4

Prisig had the concept of ‘quality’ sussed

MichaelG.

Quality: when an item is noticeably better than it needs to be.

Discuss......

HI,

Personally, I feel that "Pride of Ownership" is quite separate from "Bragging Rights".

I confess, I love my tools, and probably spend an inordinate amount of

time fondling, caressing and generally caring for them.

They are my friends and we work together.

Of course, like good friends, they are chosen carefully and must be

very capable of fulfilling their side of the relationship.

Leaving aside the extremes (e.g, Holtey planes et al), what a particular tool

costs, is not a primary concern. If I can afford it, or not, is an entirely different

issue.

It's feel, it's ability to perform it's function with relative ease and comfort, it's

accuracy where neccesary (sorry Dave), are all important to me.

If a certain manufacturer then, for whatever reason, chooses to go that extra

mile, and make the tool aesthetically pleasing as well, I think that's wonderful.

On the premise that they have, first, developed a tool that works very well,

why should they not, then, demonstrate their justified pride in their product, by

making it something that is worthy of being on display.

All this costs, however. I for one, am happy to pay the extra (funds of the

moment permitting), for this.

Hoping some of the above makes some sense.

ATB,

Daniel

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Branding has become divorced from who actually makes stuff these days, I believe that a factory in Taiwan makes excellent spanner’s and sockets and will customise for whoever the customer is, this leads to well respected brand names who have earned a good name on other tools turning up on spanner’s and sockets. I understand Teng do not make anything but have tools manufactured to their spec. and quality standards. They have earned a positive reputation fairly quickly. Tools have become relatively cheaper I feel, in 1977 I was after a 3/8” drive socket set, I popped into Sarjents in Reading where the Britool set I fancied was £123, I left empty handed, that is probably the equivalent of £500 today. A chap at work was selling Kamasa sets at a price that you wouldn’t cry too much if it didn’t turn out well, that set did a lot of work on my bikes and various cars, you would never kid yourself that it was competing with Snap-On but it was remarkably good for the money, I still have it but it is a reserve set now as better kit has replaced it.

Mike

Edited By Mike Poole on 31/07/2020 09:16:41

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