Tools , disposable catalogues

[S-Rail]

Years back when I worked for my FIL he used to get weekly tool flyers through the door , for tools , tool chests , all the gear etc . Likes of Kamasa ( when they were half decent) stack on gear , spanner sets etc .

no longer an option , but who is the turn too for mid range gear now , I don’t mean the likes of Screwfix or Toolstation for butter tools .

im just trying to replace taps , dies , spanner’s etc. Don’t need top line gear as an infrequent user but also don’t want tools made of Swiss cheese .

cheers

 

[James1979]

Teng are pretty good at that price range. They don’t deliver fliers that I know of but I think you can get email ones.
They have fliers in the stockists

 

[8ob]

Msc do a monthly flier with special offers, some good gear at discount prices, https://www.mscdirect.co.uk/CGI/INPAGE?PMPAGE=/hotdeals/digitalpublications.html

Bob

 

[daleyd]

Msc do a monthly flier with special offers, some good gear at discount prices, https://www.mscdirect.co.uk/CGI/INPAGE?PMPAGE=/hotdeals/digitalpublications.html

Bob

My wallet cringes every time that drops through the door…

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Check out zoro, the kennedy gear is pretty good, or Halfords, I've got the halfords gear I bought as a 16yr old when I worked there, still going strong 17yrs later.

 

[brightspark]

taps dies drills i use tracy tools

 

[Brad93]

Had a Selmach brochure through the door today. All Chinese junk

 

[S-Rail]

Thanks guys , I’ll look into the names / brands mentioned . I do have some Teng
Gear and Halfords , but I have a thing for sets , once one item is lost my ocd kicks in and if I can’t buy a replacement correct for the set , it’s a new set on order .

I had two identical sets of satin finished spanner’s from Screwfix , 7 to 36mm . As I always ended up needing two of most sizes , £27 a set , now they just sell nasty chrome IMP / metric sets .
My drill set box in my van is full downgraded sets .

i geared up 20 years ago , full tool chest when the likes of kamasa were reasonable quality for the money and replaced bits as they came up on offer , teng being the ones that made the front line .

ill take a look at the ones you fine chaps have mentioned , and thanks for th

 

[mtt.tr]

Spanners and such I use Halfords mostly based on quality and availability.

 

[S-Rail]

Had a Selmach brochure through the door today. All Chinese junk

Bit like Kamasa , I inherited my late Father in laws set , probably 40 plus years old , and true quality engineering , mine was 20 years old and good sockets , crap ratchets , and recently saw a new Kamasa set , more strength in a can of soup

 

[Bornfree]

Cromwell tools do a nice catalogue

 

[timgunn1962]

Tracy Tools have always been good bang for the buck, especially for anything a little out of the ordinary in the tap/die/drill category.

For drills and the dead common metric taps and dies, I've found UKdrills.com to be very good. We're not talking Dormer quality, but they do seem to have some sort of Quality Control system in place because everything I've had from them has performed well above the standard suggested by the price. The TCT drills in particular have got me out of the mire many times on site and I generally add a couple to any order I place with them.

Kennedy (Cromwell/Zoro) and Roebuck (Brammer/Buck & Hickman) are pretty good for a wide range of spanners, etc. Bahco are also good and widely available (including some stuff at Screwfix). I use Bahco socket sets and spanners for most of my site work: not shiny enough to attract magpies, but good enough not to have to worry (unduly) about breaking things.

 

[MetalMonkey]

Years back when I worked for my FIL he used to get weekly tool flyers through the door , for tools , tool chests , all the gear etc . Likes of Kamasa ( when they were half decent) stack on gear , spanner sets etc .

no longer an option , but who is the turn too for mid range gear now , I don’t mean the likes of Screwfix or Toolstation for butter tools .

im just trying to replace taps , dies , spanner’s etc. Don’t need top line gear as an infrequent user but also don’t want tools made of Swiss cheese .

cheers

There are plenty of brands that are one-stop-shops that do everything, but few of them do everything well.
You are better off shopping around a bit to make your pounds work a bit harder.

Most product catalogues are on-line now, some still do printed ones.

Often a lot of brands buy in the same stuff and rebrand it and charge wildly different markups - so same rule applies.

There was a recent thread on toolchests - but cheap end boxes from the likes of SGS, Clarke Pro, Sealey, US-Pro, Costco, are all reasonable for the money, top end is still snap-on etc, but you pay for it.
Spanners and sockets, budget stuff from Kennedy (Zoro/Cromwell) are solid and serviceable. Toptul, Facom also very good mid range, German stuff such as Stahlwille, Hazet, Gedore - usually very good.
Elora is often overlooked and make very good spanners. Koken is equal to Snapon for sockets but more budget friendly.

If you are starting out from scratch, probably the best advice would be grab some reasonable impact sockets and skip the chrome ones initially. Ratchets are a very personal choice, but I like Koken, Stahlwille and Snapon.

Most (good) ratcheting spanners are made in Taiwan, even if they are from a european brand, so it depends what type you want. A cheap set of aviation spanners is a worthwhile investment too.

Pliers, cutters, grips - Knipex are King, NWS and VBW are also excellent options. Adjustable - Bacho or Irega. Grip-on make great locking pliers.
Screwdrivers - can't go wrong with Wiha, Wera, Felo - lots of options available.

Possibly the best thing would be to decide exactly what gear you want and put a shopping list up here and people will be able to advice you on the best brands and sets for each item, and maybe even where you can pick them up cheap too.

 

[SierraV6]

For spanners look at Unior, they’re top quality at (upper) midrange prices. I like their ratchets too, in fact I can’t think of anything of theirs I’ve been disappointed with (although some things you do pay for).

Bahco is another good shout although more and more of their stuff seems to be made in China (which doesn’t mean it’s rubbish but it’s something to be aware of). Check prices against sister brand Irimo though as sometimes the same thing can be considerably cheaper (works both ways).