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[tidla]

seeing that some on here like there tools..

i have had the fine tooth 72 facom ratchets, nice , but dont last two minutes.

brittool, heavy and clunky with over sized flip lever.

any with the flip lever generally i find are a pain.

the one i dont mind using at the moment believe it or not is an old halfords 3/8 with the flip lever half way down.

im not a snap on type, (paying on the never never)

what would you recommend for an 1/2 replacement?

[feeutfo]

er, Halfords ........or, er, .......Snap on.
Treatred my self to swivel headed snap on a while back. Handy, but doesn't get the use the Halfords do.

[mantagte]

halfords professional

[waspy]

seeing that some on here like there tools..

i have had the fine tooth 72 facom ratchets, nice , but dont last two minutes.

brittool, heavy and clunky with over sized flip lever.

any with the flip lever generally i find are a pain.

the one i dont mind using at the moment believe it or not is an old halfords 3/8 with the flip lever half way down.

im not a snap on type, (paying on the never never)

what would you recommend for an 1/2 replacement?

I'm not suprized, chinese tat.
Buy a very decent make & you'll buy it once
I use King Dick at work, i give it some right humpty & it stands up to it + you can buy replacment parts

[Marks DTM Calib]

I dont rate Snap-on, its not that they are not good as they are ok but, they are double the price they should be and hence poor value for money.

I have had mixed resutls with the halfords ratchets, the 3/8 one has been ok but the 1/2 inch one with the change over switch half way down has needed repairing twice due to the internal ratchet spring fracturing.

My 1/2 of choice now is an older Britool part and the 3/8 I use is a machine mart one.

From what I have found, most of the Halfords stuff is draper expert with some of it being draper pro, machine mart pro stuff is the same for some of the tools also.

I have to say though, if I was in the position where I needed to buy again then I would be going for Teng tools.....I have some of thier sockets and a full set of spanners and its very nice stuff!

[Omegatoy]

well most of mine is snapon stuff, have also got some halfords pro stuff, and had a giant britool socket set for over 25years(half inch drive though) but it has imperial/metric, and whitworth full sets of sockets, never had any problems with it,
snap on stuff agree is expensive, however a month ago i broke my 10mm flatface 3/8 drive socket, had it over 11years constant use, sent it to uk to me mate, who saw the snap on man for me and exchanged it no problem, thats the advantage to me, yes i paid top dollar for them, but the amount of use and the easy replacement with no quibbles, literally means i never have to worry about buying anymore tools

horses for courses i guess,
best advice is always buy the best you can afford,
old saying "buy cheap buy twice or thrice"!!!

[Lazydocker]

A lot of my tools are Snap on or Mac tools because it was easy when I was in the workshop... Paying by installments and offsetting it against tax as I was self employed. That said, I used some of the Halfords Professional stuff whilst at Tunnie's and it was good enough for medium to heavy usage... Not sure how well it would stand up to the abuse my tools used to get though.

I did buy some cheaper stuff when I was buying tools too, only for hand use though, and it seems to be virtually identical to the Halfords gear. Not sure I'd spend the sort of money the likes of Snap on ask if I were buying again now as it doesn't get as much use.

[Marks DTM Calib]

well most of mine is snapon stuff, have also got some halfords pro stuff, and had a giant britool socket set for over 25years(half inch drive though) but it has imperial/metric, and whitworth full sets of sockets, never had any problems with it,
snap on stuff agree is expensive, however a month ago i broke my 10mm flatface 3/8 drive socket, had it over 11years constant use, sent it to uk to me mate, who saw the snap on man for me and exchanged it no problem, thats the advantage to me, yes i paid top dollar for them, but the amount of use and the easy replacement with no quibbles, literally means i never have to worry about buying anymore tools

horses for courses i guess,
best advice is always buy the best you can afford,
old saying "buy cheap buy twice or thrice"!!!

Beware, 'man father' has loads of snap on stuff and when his toolbox fell apart (not hugely old and pretty well cared for) he did the same.

The guy just gave him the 200 quid he had bought it for and then tried to sell him a new one at 4 times the price.

[feeutfo]

well most of mine is snapon stuff, have also got some halfords pro stuff, and had a giant britool socket set for over 25years(half inch drive though) but it has imperial/metric, and whitworth full sets of sockets, never had any problems with it,
snap on stuff agree is expensive, however a month ago i broke my 10mm flatface 3/8 drive socket, had it over 11years constant use, sent it to uk to me mate, who saw the snap on man for me and exchanged it no problem, thats the advantage to me, yes i paid top dollar for them, but the amount of use and the easy replacement with no quibbles, literally means i never have to worry about buying anymore tools

horses for courses i guess,
best advice is always buy the best you can afford,
old saying "buy cheap buy twice or thrice"!!!

Beware, 'man father' has loads of snap on stuff and when his toolbox fell apart (not hugely old and pretty well cared for) he did the same.

The guy just gave him the 200 quid he had bought it for and then tried to sell him a new one at 4 times the price.

heard various storys re snapon men. Some good, some not so, worth trying the next nearest snap on man?

[HerefordElite]

I dont rate Snap-on, its not that they are not good as they are ok but, they are double the price they should be and hence poor value for money.

I have had mixed resutls with the halfords ratchets, the 3/8 one has been ok but the 1/2 inch one with the change over switch half way down has needed repairing twice due to the internal ratchet spring fracturing.

My 1/2 of choice now is an older Britool part and the 3/8 I use is a machine mart one.

From what I have found, most of the Halfords stuff is draper expert with some of it being draper pro, machine mart pro stuff is the same for some of the tools also.

I have to say though, if I was in the position where I needed to buy again then I would be going for Teng tools.....I have some of thier sockets and a full set of spanners and its very nice stuff!

Got to agree with the Teng stuff but again only if money is no object
Personally I've got a nice big set of Draper Expert that has not let me down (plus mate who is manager of local partco gives me nice discount on it )

[Marks DTM Calib]

I found Teng stuff reasonably priced....if you shop around   

[waspy]

I've just had a thought (dangerous).
PM me your address & when i get back home, i'll have a look in the garage, because i'm certain i have a good spare 1/2" ratchet kicking around.
Remind me though, because i'm likely to forget

[TheBoy]

A lot of my tools are Snap on or Mac tools because it was easy when I was in the workshop... Paying by installments and offsetting it against tax as I was self employed. That said, I used some of the Halfords Professional stuff whilst at Tunnie's and it was good enough for medium to heavy usage... Not sure how well it would stand up to the abuse my tools used to get though.

I did buy some cheaper stuff when I was buying tools too, only for hand use though, and it seems to be virtually identical to the Halfords gear. Not sure I'd spend the sort of money the likes of Snap on ask if I were buying again now as it doesn't get as much use.

Mine have taken a fair amount of abuse.  I've yet to break the rachet mech on a rachet, despite using long jack handles as breaker bars  .  I have broken the mech that retains the socket on so you no longer have to press the button to remove sockets.  What I do regularly break on Halfords is the 1/2" to 3/8" adapters. I guess, really, 3/8 sockets just aren't designed to have big long breaker bars on them 


That said, day-to-day I use a Clarke 72 tooth rachet, unless I need to get leverage (then back to Halfords).


I have never had any trouble with getting Halfords Pro/Advnaced stuff replaced at local stores, just some insist on seeing receipt (so I have the receipts in a safe place)

[TheBoy]

I like the Draper Expert screwdrivers. They can take some abuse as well (not using the smallest one as a small chisel though )