Combination spanner quality/prices

[premmington]

If you buy individually it does work out dear. I always pay cash, no receipt and he knocks a load off for that.

I don't often go on a Snap On van now - yes you can have deal with them.

I only buy ratchet repair kits and abuse them for the "lifetime warranty".

I am in my fifties now - I lost any interest in shiny Snap On tools.

I spent thousands on them in my youth - I think I have grown up (out of it).

 

[premmington]

I have sort of settled into:

Knipex for pliers - cutters.

Wera for screwdrivers

Any cheap brand impact sockets

Laser and BGS stuff for automotive stuff I am not gonna use too much

I have so many chrome spanners and sockets it is unlikely I will need to buy anything before I die...


AS I got older I get more enjoyment making a special tool to do a job than buying anything new.

I have too many tools - I been to the "toy shop" again and again...

 

[Richard.]

Halfords Advanced are decent.
I’ve had mine a good 8 years.

There is something about snap on spammers though. They just feel good in the hand.

Without a doubt the best imho but certainly couldn’t justify the expense nowadays with the very little use they get now compared to what they did.
I really don’t know how I afforded it in my apprenticeship days. My spanner’s equate to thousands of pounds worth and it’s just not getting the use anymore

 

[brightspark]

I also have halfords professional spanners and are nice to use

 

[keithski122]

Snap on was a pound a mm when I bought mine.............mind you that was in 1989.

 

[MetalMonkey]

BGS is Chinese, same as most of the Bergen, US Pro, Welzh Werkzeug etc.

If you want made in Germany, look for Stahlwille, Hazet, Gedore.

Beta are mostly Tiawanese (lots of the Laser stuff is too), which is a step up in quality from China, but if your canny you can pick up Stahlwille for less cash, and they are about as good as a spanner gets IMO.

King Dick are still going, and while they import a fair bit now, their hardline sockets and spanners are still British made.

I never cared much for snapon - good gear but just not worth the pricetag for most of it.

Forgot to add, Facom are nice (Taiwan now) same as Mac, you could also check out Toptul (OEM for Facom, but cheaper) their long pattern wrenches are especially nice.

 

[graffian]

A good slim 17mm openender?
get one from a Fiat toolkit.
My die grinder chuck is 11/16 and not many spanners are slim enough, the Fiat spanner is.
I have had it about 30 years and it's been used n abused seems a pretty good spanner.

 

[SierraV6]

A good slim 17mm openender?
get one from a Fiat toolkit.
My die grinder chuck is 11/16 and not many spanners are slim enough, the Fiat spanner is.
I have had it about 30 years and it's been used n abused seems a pretty good spanner.

Quite possibly made by Beta which is somewhat ironic!

 

[SierraV6]

BGS is Chinese, same as most of the Bergen, US Pro, Welzh Werkzeug etc.

If you want made in Germany, look for Stahlwille, Hazet, Gedore.

Beta are mostly Tiawanese (lots of the Laser stuff is too), which is a step up in quality from China, but if your canny you can pick up Stahlwille for less cash, and they are about as good as a spanner gets IMO.

King Dick are still going, and while they import a fair bit now, their hardline sockets and spanners are still British made.

I never cared much for snapon - good gear but just not worth the pricetag for most of it.

Forgot to add, Facom are nice (Taiwan now) same as Mac, you could also check out Toptul (OEM for Facom, but cheaper) their long pattern wrenches are especially nice.

I don’t have any Stahlwille spanner’s but I’ve used my mates and I agree they are as good as anything you can buy. His have ‘STRONGER THAN ANY BOLT’ stamped on them, I’m not sure if they still bother with that but I find it strangely amusing!

I have a few Hazet spanner’s in the common sizes, again very nice tools but quite chunky actually.

Most of my tools are German although I have a fair bit of older Britool and quite a lot of Unior as I mentioned previously.

 

[graffian]

I doubt the fiat spanner is made by Beta, I have had a few sockets and ratshits; they are not great.
Seems the 17mm has yellow tape on it, that means it's been made into a cone spanner.

I measured the thickness of the heads of a few open enders, surprised me how thick the snap-on was. But the one I checked looks old, I checked a 1980(new) 17mm and it's .279", the same thickness as the Herman's spanner.
I think its only stahlwilly's ring that have stronger than any bolt on them.

 

[ronan]

BGS is Chinese, same as most of the Bergen, US Pro, Welzh Werkzeug etc.

If you want made in Germany, look for Stahlwille, Hazet, Gedore.

Beta are mostly Tiawanese (lots of the Laser stuff is too), which is a step up in quality from China, but if your canny you can pick up Stahlwille for less cash, and they are about as good as a spanner gets IMO.

King Dick are still going, and while they import a fair bit now, their hardline sockets and spanners are still British made.

I never cared much for snapon - good gear but just not worth the pricetag for most of it.

Forgot to add, Facom are nice (Taiwan now) same as Mac, you could also check out Toptul (OEM for Facom, but cheaper) their long pattern wrenches are especially nice.

I have a few older stahlwille spanners and have to say they are quality. If they are the same quality now, i'd be buying them, but i don't know. King Dick are good too, have a few of them and like them, but again are the newer ones the same strength and quality as the older stuff ?

 

[Maker]

I doubt the fiat spanner is made by Beta, I have had a few sockets and ratshits; they are not great.
Seems the 17mm has yellow tape on it, that means it's been made into a cone spanner.

I measured the thickness of the heads of a few open enders, surprised me how thick the snap-on was. But the one I checked looks old, I checked a 1980(new) 17mm and it's .279", the same thickness as the Herman's spanner.
I think its only stahlwilly's ring that have stronger than any bolt on them.View attachment 193817

Just gone out and measured a couple you've missed, I've moaned about the thickness of Wera spanners before, biggest of them all at 0.345"! Hazet are my favourite, I've not got them in metric but a 3/8 Whit (About 16ish mm) is 0.250" thick, not bad at all.

 

[MetalMonkey]

I have a few older stahlwille spanners and have to say they are quality. If they are the same quality now, i'd be buying them, but i don't know. King Dick are good too, have a few of them and like them, but again are the newer ones the same strength and quality as the older stuff ?

I have some older Stahlwille with "Stronger than any bolt" and some newer (2 or 3 years old) of the same pattern and they appear identical.
The newer stuff has their AS (AntiSlip) profile (i.e. flank drive) on the ring end, but aside from that the design hasn't changed, probably one of the few manufacturers where you can fill in a set 40 years apart and have them match.

Obviously it is hard to say if the materials are the same specification, but I've never heard anything negative to suppose they are any weaker, and I'm not prepared to destructively test them to find out!
I'm not sure when they dropped the "Stronger than.." slogan - I have a feeling it was around the early 70s but I couldn't swear to it. Probably sensible given the proliferation of exotic super strong fasteners there are around now.

No idea on the newer KD stuff - I've got some very old sockets and spanners, and they were, as you said, good stuff indeed.

 

[Afterimage]

I also have halfords professional spanners and are nice to use

I bought a set of Halford Advanced spanners, they looked lovely but were thin and bendy. Bendy isn't something I look for in a spanner.
I guess Halford tools aren't what they used to be.
I returned them and bought a set of Facom Expert spanners that I like a lot.

 

[Robbie260]

You can get brand new mac tools fairly cheap through ebay as people get the deals and then sell on the extras they have and they are less recognised here in the uk. Hazet is what dreams are made off and is more expensive than snapon i have found. King dick is good stuff though thier ratchet spanners are gearwrench but nothing wrong with that.

 

[chris pruteanu]

I have a set of old (year 2000) Halfords spanners and they are the thinnest spanners in my tool box...snap on is good gear but there are better offerings from likes of Gedore, Hazet and Facom- i like older made in france tools...

 

[Munkul]

Kennedy professional is very good bang for buck when shopped around. So is King Dick (and I always try to buy King Dick when i can for our lads and for myself, support a dying british company)

Stahlwille make probably my favourite spanners ever, followed by MAC tools/Facom (clearly made in the same factory as each other!)

Halfords pro is still very good.

For a cheap disposable spanner set I bought an 18pc set of Spectre combi spanners for less than £20 on ebay last week, they feel really nice tbf and are perfect for a loaner set, or to live on the tractor, etc.

 

[Richard.]

Snap on was a pound a mm when I bought mine.............mind you that was in 1989.

I was buying mine as single items (all I could afford at the time) in the late 90’s and they were just over £1 a mm back then. My 30mm was one of the first I bought at about £40.

 

[p0689109]

Just checked the Stahlwille prices(not that I need any spanners, or tools in general that is!) and they are not cheap are they. With a trade card Halfords top range are IMHO good value for the diy er and general mechanic.

 

[keithski122]

With the snap on ones being available in different lengths I bought 8mm to 12mm in short length(not stubby) and 13mm to 19mm in a longer length.