Questions on socket sets

Hiya all,

Due to me hogging my Dad's sockets and ratchet when he needs them, I figure the time has come for me to get a socket set of my own...

After trawling through the Screwfix catalogue, I've got a couple of questions...

Basically what makes do people use/recommend? I know with socket sets good quality is paramount so cheap ones are out of the question (good job I'm back on overtime at work!) and 6-sided sockets are better than 12-sided ones. I've heard good things about Teng and Britool but are there any other good makes around?

Also, and this is a bit thick of me, but you can get 1/2", 3/8" and 1/4" socket sets, is there any advantage to using a particular size? There's not much difference in size between the 3/8" and 1/4" sets.

Cheers all I hope I've explained myself ok...

[cymroboi]

personaly if you can afford it id pay a little extra to get good tools ,teng are pritty good for the price used to have a set years ago in the 3/8 i gave them some abuse as i used to do a lot of work on heavy truck with the old man ,i had 1/2 and 3/4 and 1" drive before any smart coment comes along ,as for the single hex and multy hex question i prefer the single hex "sry six point" they dont chew up the bolt heads as bad as the 12 point if you have 1 which has started to round off ,but for a bike i recon 3/8 is big enough m8.halfords pro are good ass well which have a life time guarante so dose the teng i think

[Dave20046]

I've got a clarke set from machine mart. Not sure which brands are good really but I go for the hexagonal shaped sockets (not lots of little splines) and ratchets with an oval head and slider to swap clockwise and anti clock wise. avoid the cheap round headed ratchets with a swivel thing in the middle.

*wonders if that made sense*

i just got some halford pro ones mint in my oppinion the all singing all dancing set is under £100 and as said before lifetime garrantee

[cymroboi]

did they come with allen key and torx bits as well in the set ????if so a good deal

Originally Posted by davepreston

i just got some halford pro ones mint in my oppinion the all singing all dancing set is under £100 and as said before lifetime garrantee

Ahhh nice one. I'll have a ganders about for the Halfords ones and in machine mart. I've done a search (should've done one earlier, oops!) and there's Bluepoint, Sealey and Draper Expert stuff I'll look for as well.

So the difference between the 3/8 1/4 and 1/2 is basically just strength, i.e. bigger size for tighter bolts?

[cymroboi]

Originally Posted by skyline

Ahhh nice one. I'll have a ganders about for the Halfords ones and in machine mart. I've done a search (should've done one earlier, oops!) and there's Bluepoint, Sealey and Draper Expert stuff I'll look for as well.

So the difference between the 3/8 1/4 and 1/2 is basically just strength, i.e. bigger size for tighter bolts?

im a mechanic mostly on heavy trucks (gritters) my self all i buy is snap on but if you work your tools hard like me you need them ,what im saying is the bluepoint set they have a life time as well as the snap on but when you brake any of them all the snap on bloke will give you is the value of the piece against a snap on peice the same ,because they dont produce the bits for the set seporatly to replace damaged goods just to let you know

[punyXpress]

3/8 should do for most on a bike, but would 1/2 be better for rear axle nut ?

[cymroboi]

rear axle nut would be torqued to 65 nm so to do the job correctly youd need a tourque wrence so why go for 1/2 " no good to do the small fiddely bit you could always borrow a 1/2" if desperate ,thats in my opinion

Originally Posted by punyXpress

3/8 should do for most on a bike, but would 1/2 be better for rear axle nut ?

[Bibio]

halfords tools .... nuff said...