Aldi 1/4" drive socket set £18

[306Puggy]

I went into Aldi today and saw this rather handy socket set. Was tempted to buy it but with certain turbo committments I had to resist the temptation. Looked pretty nice though.

[Niall]

You have a habit of finding shit tools dont you?

[Face.]

You have a habit of finding shit tools dont you?

seen far worse tools tbh.

[Connor]

Here we go again

[306Puggy]

You have a habit of finding shit tools dont you?

Umm...seems quite good to me. German made.

[cwspellowe]

You have a habit of finding shit tools dont you?

Umm...seems quite good to me. German made.

You and Tom would get on well. Just imagine fixing his Golf's broken cams with your German tools?!

[Matt]

Fml..

[Niall]

You have a habit of finding shit tools dont you?

Umm...seems quite good to me. German made.

And because its German built its automatically brilliant? Nope. They might do some things well but not all. Plus, why do you think its £18? Its cheap

[puglove]

Mate seriously when it comes to tools if its cheap stay away. Especialy sockets. Within a week you will have half a socket set. They will crack when put under any tension making them usless. Listen to the voice of experience. These sort of tools are no good for cars

[Piggy]

and round off any bolts/nuts in the process

if you want cheap but usable...go to halfrauds...at least they replace it if broken

[darrenjlobb]

Last weekend me and Ruan were at Marks changing an engine, i bought a few tools, was undoing some nuts on a turbo, using a snap-on 10mm spanner which kept trying to round them, so got my halfords 10mm out the box, no problems at all, then got looking at the snap on tool, and you could visually see how much the snap on spanner has opened out. You could argue that the snap on spanner has done more work / had more abuse, but to be fair, the halfords spanners have been around many years, and had some serious abuse!

I admit that any cheap tools, are a waste time of time and effort, just make the job harder in the long run, but in my experiance "halfrauds" tools arnt half bad, or at least, the older ones anyway, and this isnt the first time ive had a snap on (dogs bollocks) tool wear out / fail very early in life!

[Piggy]

Never bought snap...total ripp off. a lot of it is rebranded cheaper stuff.

looked a set of grips by snap.on once, on offer, peeled the rubber grip back and it said 'sealey' underneath

[306Puggy]

Is this really true? That is serious if so. They are ripping people off charging £100 pounds per spanner (okay slight exageration) if that is the case. Surely they would sink like a lead balloon if someone important found out!? You could damage their business as long as you had evidence of that you could get them done for copying from Sealey at least.

[Piggy]

Not on all their stuff clearly...but quite an amount of grips and pliers we found in me bosses hugely expensive box!

[306Puggy]

I think that could be a legal case right there. I predict the demise of the Snapon brand if this ever gets out.

[puglove]

You will prob find that sealey and snap on are owned by the same "mother company" thats why/how they get away with. I dont think snap are what they use to be back in the 90s

---

The big tool boxes are good though mine still like new after 10years and alot of use

[Toms306]

Cheap tools aren't always bad, I bought this set over years ago and it took a lot of abuse, done many jobs on my car, Rowells, and others lol. Plus they're 6 sided so don't slip on rusty bolts like he Halfords pro 12pt ones.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/store...yId_255215

I did buy a Halfords pro kit shortly after but as its heavy/big I tend to use the small one most of the time. It was fine until last year, I stripped half the golf with it, until the rear calipers, torx bolts snapped the 1/4 to 3/8 converter. And that's all that broke in 4 years! Understandable when I found the torque setting for those bolts though lol. And then I hammered a torx bit in the holder into a brake disc screw on the HDi, which broke the holder as it uses a metal spring to hold the bits. So for the price I just bought another kit lol.... Really can't fault it for £15.

[306Puggy]

Yeah I've got a few Phase tools they're really good, better than some of the Draper stuff I have.

[Connor]

To be fair, if you're using 1/4" stuff, then you should really be doing anything that requires slot of torque in the first place. Would you use it to undo a hub nut? No. Proper tool for the job

[r3k1355]

Cheap tools are great for any job, especially on old cars.

Got an odd nut, maybe it's rusty, nearly rounded or just f*cked?
A normal correct sized socket would just spin, but a cheap smaller one hammered over it will undo it every time.

[darrenjlobb]

Cheap tools are great for any job, especially on old cars.

Got an odd nut, maybe it's rusty, nearly rounded or just f*cked?
A normal correct sized socket would just spin, but a cheap smaller one hammered over it will undo it every time.

Theres certainly a place in every workshop for some cheap tools.

I have a box of "random" shitty spanners, lots of them are cut up / bits welded to them / bent etc for random jobs ive come across over the years, as well as hammering / levering the shit out of them etc, without worrying about breaking your decent set.

[puglove]

Thats true actually darren iv got loads of bent/cut down tools for certain jobs. But i do pick them up alot of the time a think what job did i do that for :S and cheap allen keys cut so much easier . Then i can be lazy and put them in the drill and have a long reach one lol

[londondan86]

To be fair I bought a set of Aldi ratchet spanners in January for 12 quid just to take abuse and all of them are still going strong......

[306Puggy]

Yeah I've had a couple of sets of them as well. They are really well made, you can feel it when you hold them in your hand, solid metal just like Snapon etc.

[ginge191]

I got a cheap'ish socket set for christmas, an ebay jobby if i remmeber right, all marked "Chrome Vanadium", completely brandless, and they've seen me through evey job i've done on my cars; beam changes, engine change, suspension jobbys, interior work and are not particularly expensive.


But, DO NOT let your partner near your tools.... http://i.imgur.com/p1bYkTx.jpg?1

[306Puggy]

My experience is virtually the same as yours ginge with the Draper DIY Series from Asda.

[ginge191]

My experience is virtually the same as yours ginge with the Draper DIY Series from Asda.

I'm sure draper are old school quality; why Asda take them on is beyond me, but i know they're not connected with asda

[londondan86]

Draper used to be good back in the day. Gone really downhill recently if you ask me, I bought draper expert spring compressors a month or so ago and they were just made of cheese

[cwspellowe]

Yeah I've had a couple of sets of them as well. They are really well made, you can feel it when you hold them in your hand, solid metal just like Snapon etc.

But if they're that well made.. why have you had a couple of sets of them?

TBF I bought some poundland spanners, I needed a short 13mm spanner for the Bosch pump, and it worked absolutely fine for the princely sum of £1 for a full set.

Cheap and nasty feel to them but that one spanner in particular has been ideal.

[306Puggy]

One set were flexi head, the other fixed head hence the need for two sets.