What brand of tools to buy?

[Old Painless]

I have a 3/8" socket set and a 1/2" socket set. I have 2 torque wrenches from 5-60 Nm and 60-300 Nm.

Buy the torque wrench to suit your socket set as youll be using the sockets and extension bars from the kit on the torque wrench.

The 1/2" is better for big bolts and high torque fasteners but youll struggle to fit it in tight spaces, the 3/8" set is better for low torque stuff and gets in tight spaces better but they arent so good when you need a lot of leverage.

1/4" stuff is pretty useless, too small for a lot of jobs and cant do anything the 3/8" set cant do.

[Man_Named_Dave]

^^^
Thanks, Old Painless.
I think I'll get a 60 socket set from Halfords and then shop around for the torque wrenches, there are a few Draper and Sealey ones on Amazon.

[Neosophist]

I have a 3/8" socket set and a 1/2" socket set. I have 2 torque wrenches from 5-60 Nm and 60-300 Nm.

Buy the torque wrench to suit your socket set as youll be using the sockets and extension bars from the kit on the torque wrench.

The 1/2" is better for big bolts and high torque fasteners but youll struggle to fit it in tight spaces, the 3/8" set is better for low torque stuff and gets in tight spaces better but they arent so good when you need a lot of leverage.

1/4" stuff is pretty useless, too small for a lot of jobs and cant do anything the 3/8" set cant do.

Some good information in this thread.

First off unless your planning on doing some serious mechanics it's not necessary to spend a few £1000 on a basic set of tools.

Starting with a £30 - £50 socket set will do most home jobs and probably last an awful long time.. any other special tools can be brought as and when they are needed, this is also a good way to build up your tool collection.

CK Toolset

I've had this socket set for 10 years now and it's perfect for almost every job, I've reccomended them to several people and not ever had anyone be unsatisfied with it.

Theres a 1/2" version available too

Which costs a little more.

The CK set has a cracking ratchet that has 45 teeth in it... the more teeth you have in your ratchet the less you need to move it back before it'll tighten your bolt some more.. ideal when your in confined spaces, I think you only need 8 degrees of movement.

Not all bolts need to be 'mission critical' with their torque settings unless your very anal.

In other words you can assemble most of a VFR400 without needing to check torque settings once you get a 'feel' for how tight bolts need to be so they wont work loose / strip.

Hub nuts, engine internals, and major moutings that have high torque values are best done with a proper wrench..

Determine what range of torque values you need and choose a wrench accordingly.

The general rule is the bigger the drive size, the higher values it will torque upto as you get a larger wrench.

I have this wrench, 42-210Nm range on it.

One of the most important things whatever you decide to buy is to make sure that the wrench has been calibrated and has a calibration certificate, otherwise it's pretty useless.

That 3/8 CK set in my first link also comes with a 1/2" adaptor too so you can use all of the sockets from that set on a bigger torque wrench :-)

I have a vast collection of other stuff which is really outside the scope and budget of the thread (including a rather large 1" drive 2meter torque wrench that'll torque upto 950nm! and a couple of 1/4 inch baby torque wrenches.. one that'll do 3 - 20 ft lb yet the other baby wrench which is a snap-on will do 30-200lb ft.. which is the same as my big 18" CK wrench but it's diddy :D great for tiny places.. but it was over £200)

So i'll warn you now... that you'll find once you get into it and look back after a few years you'll be surprised at the amount of tools you can accumulate! :D

[chrisja2]

"So i'll warn you now... that you'll find once you get into it and look back after a few years you'll be surprised at the amount of tools you can accumulate! :D "

Amen to that.

[Old Painless]

I would avoid any tool set that has AF (imperial) size tools, not required nowadays.

You could do worse than buy a decent rachet and a set of deep sockets and one 12" extension bar then build up from there.

If you buy sockets on the clip rails you are only buying what you need and that may be cheaper than buying 100 piece tool sets, depends what your aiming to do really.

[Cammo]

These are the tools that I regularly use:

- Small 3/8" metric socket set
- Metric spanner set
- Deep 13mm socket (for spark plugs)
- Sockets for rear wheel nut, front axle bolt, steering stem nut that didn't come in above set
- C-spanner for adjusting chain (honda tool)
- C-spanner for shock preload
- 6 philips head screwdrivers
- 6 flat head screwdrivers
- Metric allen keys
- Wire strippers, soldering iron
- general pliers, shifter, hammer etc


That's really about it when it comes to day-to-day use. I do own a torque wrench but the only time I can remember using it was to put an engine in a frame, not really an everyday task.

I keep all of the above tools in a case that I can easily take to the track etc, and know that I have 99% of tools that I could need there.

[mattUKNC]

Always happy to help a new NC owner. As someone mentioned earlier, you'll need a 'c' spanner for adjusting the chain, as I no longer have my NC I have one of these in the garage!
You might be pretty local so you're welcome to pick it up!

On the tools front I have some Halford's Pro stuff, flexy end rachet spanners and even some stuff from my grandad!

[theoutsider]

I bought a set of Bluepoint tools a wile ago of ebay for about 90 quid,made by snap on.Good quality,and you get everything you need.Lifetime waranty aswell/

[micpec]

At first bought cheaper tools and stuff but remember that failure after failure (snapped bolts, rounded nuts etc.) decided me to go for the better range of tools. So ended up with Tengtools MR101 box, 101 pieces for 195 euro. During time also got few torque wrenches like the 1292AG 1/2" and 3892AG E-3 "/8" That box has more than enough extentions and converters ranged from 3/8", 1/4" to 1/2". I am very satisfied with this brand of tools. No issues ever had since.

Torque wrench according to ISO 6789 specifications. With ratchet the torque wrench can be used for both tightening and final checking of torque settings. Reversible with lever, but only for right handed action torque checking. Equipped with angular gauge for after tightening. Graduated in NM and foot lbs. Lockable setting. Accuracy +/- 4%.
Satin finish.
Rubber handle.
Degree scale for after tightening of cylinder heads.

Stock No. Drive DIN Range Scale L B H
Nm ft/lbs Nm ft/lbs mm mm mm
1492AG-E 1/4" 3122 5-25 4-18 0.4 0.4 277 27.6 20.6
3892AG-E1 3/8" 3122 5-25 4-18 0.4 0.4 277 27.6 20.6
3892AG-E3 3/8" 3122 20-100 15-75 1.0 1.0 368 35.9 27.7
1292AG-EP 1/2" 3122 40-200 30-160 1.0 1.0 465 46.9 33.4
1292AG-E4 1/2" 3122 70-350 50-250 5.0 5.0 632 47.1 37.1
3492AG-E 3/4" 3122 90-450 67-340 5.0 5.0 850 72.5 53.5
3492AG-E1 3/4" 3122 140-700 100-500 2.5 2.5 1065 72.5 53.5
3492AG-E2 3/4" 3122 140-980 100-700 2.5 2.5 1213 72.5 53.5

[HondaSan]

There's some good advice in this thread.

A decent socket set is always a good place to start - I use a Draper one which wasn't too expensive and has served me well.
I also have some tools from the Halfords professional range and they seem pretty good.

The only thing I would advise is to beware of "big number" tool sets -- these are often padded out with cr@p you'll never use. I've never needed anything other than metric sockets or spanners on my bikes yet many of these kits contain imperial stuff

Budget for a good tool box too (and put tools back in it!) -- nothing ruins the workflow more than having to go hunting for stuff