Tools and equipment

[rambo1969]

My socket set is a halfords one, and even my dad who is a brittool user reckons its good. I have had it about 10 years now and never broke any part of it.

[hardyferret]

I have found a britool site well worth looking at and I have bought from them superb kit and service and good prices along with special offers

web site http://www.primetools.co.uk

 

regards Jerry

 

turn to the right and the thread gets tight

[sirhc]

I've bought quite a lot from http://www.justoffbase.co.uk/ they usually have some good deals.

 

Chris

[Mark]

My socket set is a halfords one, and even my dad who is a brittool user reckons its good. I have had it about 10 years now and never broke any part of it.

 

 

I use the Facom tool range, have found them to be good and fit in the hand nicely nice feel to them, use to use Snapon but they kept getting nicked.

[woa2]

If you want a complicated vehicle for spanner sizes, try a wartime British Ford like a WOT2 - The engine is AF threads (mostly UNC) and the body is Whitworth. Ford produced the engines and transmissions, hence AF spanners, and Briggs made the bodies with Whitworth bolts. I've got used to it now, but it was frustrating at first. I agree with using good tools, and use the local car boot sales for Britool spanners, which are usually very cheap as modern car owners only want Metric.

[79x100]

Here's a wonderful tool that no workshop should be without :-)

 

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tork-grip.html

 

 

[Tony B]

You know, that's daft enough to be useful :-D My local guy has just got in Draper fit all socket sets, there about £70 but with the mix I've got they make sense, anyone used them?

[Lauren Child]

My last reply was lost in the forum crash/update so here's the Whitworth links again -

 

Whitworth sockets and spanners -

http://www.baconsdozen.co.uk/tools/whitworth.htm

 

big 3/4" drive and 1" drive whitworth sockets -

http://www.lawson-his.co.uk/scripts/products.php?cat=King%20Dick%203%2F4%22%20Drive%2012%20Point%20Whitworth%20(BSW)

 

http://www.lawson-his.co.uk/scripts/products.php?cat=King%20Dick%201%22%20Drive%2012%20Point%20Whitworth%20%28BSW%29

[LeeEnfield]

Well, I've an umpteen years old set of kamasa 1/2 in drive sockets, and the only bit thats now dodgy is the rachet on the handle,........but it still works ok, so I'll not replace it.........

 

Must admit to looking for 'older' tools when out and about,........even the dreaded e bay, is good, and at times cheap, for some stuff; :-D Got the cylinder head compo spanner for the Bedford off it,...........for a very good price.

[Jimh]

Nowt has happened to this thread for a while so let's see if this sparks off a bit more debate. I wrote this a while back and never posted it.

 

What’s essential?

 

Depends what you mean by essential. If you want to make a new clevis pin for a brake linkage then a lathe is essential as is a micrometer, a reamer of the right size, a pillar drill and a load of other little bits that you take for granted because you have been using them for years. However, if we are looking at some of the more simple restoration projects then you’ll at least need the kit to take something apart and put it back together again.

 

Letter and number stamps

Before you take anything to bits have a set of these handy. You want stuff to go back in the right place and these are the best you will get for sorting out that big pile of clean bits is supposed to go. Before you do anything get a set of these. They don’t cost much and you’ll be really thankful that you marked everything properly when it was all in one piece.

 

Angle grinder

Quite possibly the handiest single tool you can own. Personal preference says a 4” one is nicer than the more common 4½” ones. They are slightly smaller in the hand and slightly more controllable. You can buy these for pennies but I don’t really subscribe to the buying crap which has a lengthy warranty period. Sod’s law states the thing will give up the ghost on Friday evening of a bank holiday. The cheap ones are really nasty to use too, particularly from a vibration point of view. I dare say there are plenty of people who will disagree but I love the Makita stuff. All of their stuff we use (and it often gets used hard) has lasted for years. The 7” disc sander for example finally gave up a couple of months back after only 25 years use.

 

Also buy a couple of boxes each of cutting discs and grinding discs. You’ll get through them at a fair rate of knots.

 

Drill bits

Buy the best you can afford. Really. I have numerous arguments here with someone who insists on buying these bargain multi packs of brittle bits of rubbish. Dormer stuff isn’t that expensive and they are much, much more long lived. Since you’ll be using the drill bits to drill sheared bolts out you’ll need a…

 

Centre punch

It’s a centre punch. You hit one end of it and it makes a dent with the other end. Not much else to say really. Except you’ll need something to drill with so

 

Electric drill

I hate these. Our 1/2” Makita drill is great right up to the point where it digs in and the oh so powerful motor takes you with it. You can buy at least a ¾” one. Ha ha ha no. When things go over ½” we use an air drill which needs a big compressor so probably out with the scope of this thread. Stick to a decent (again, I like Makita best) make with no more than a 13mm chuck. Most DIY shop ones have got useless speed control triggers which are horrible. Get one with a proper gearbox.

 

Incidentally, it is well worth buying a second electric drill which is the cheapest you can find. This is what you use for your cup wire brushes. No point wrecking your good drill on cleaning duties. The el cheapo drills tend to be smaller and you can get them in tighter spots.

 

Once you have drilled out the bulk of the stud you’ll need something to clean the whole out with so…

 

Taps and dies

Well worth collecting a decent set of these. A full set of BSW and BSF from ¼” to ¾” is a good starting point if it is British stuff you are working with. UNC, UNF and metric if you are working with newer stuff or American stuff or stuff that is very old when they seemed to make it up as they go along. Taps, die nuts and split dies are well worth having around for cleaning up threads and getting them back into some sort of useable state. The sort of thing you should keep your eye out for good used or unused second hand stuff at sales. New ones – particularly the bigger stuff – is pretty pricey. If you find a set of metric ones lying around at the right price then just buy them. You’ll be glad you did one day.

 

Spanners.

Been discussed already but just keep an eye out and keep collecting. A decent collection of whit, metric and AF sizes in open end and ring style. Box spanners, if you come across them, are well worth having. You don’t use them very often but when you do you’ll be thankful you have them. There are some nuts which hold down the cylinder heads of Gardner LWs which you would struggle to get off unless you had a box spanner.

 

Steel rule

Yeah, yeah. Hardly difficult I know but rake around for a Moore and Wright imperial one with four imperial scales (eighths, sixteenths, thirty seconds and sixty fourths). These are handier than you could ever imagine and are lovely to work with. The more modern ones with metric scales as well as imperial are very irritating.

 

Oxy-acetylene welding kit

For any remotely heavy restoration work you cannot live without these. People baulk at the cost of bottle rental (which is not cheap) and the idea that gas welding isn’t very easy but if you never join two bits of metal together oxy-acetylene kit is still worth having because

 

 

• You can burn things off with it. Once you’ve had a bit of practice you will be able to wash a bolt out of a chassis member without so much as a mark on the bit you want left undamaged. Very handy.
  

 

 

• You can heat things up. You can lather things in release oil all you want but it won’t do very much. The situation has to be pretty bleak before heating something up won’t help.
  

We’ll do welding in a moment but for now it’s well worth having some gas bottles.

 

Jacks and stands

For anything over a couple of tons then bottle jacks are the answer. Get the biggest one you can – Clarke are knocking 20 ton ones out for about £40 at the moment and they’ll do pretty much anything you need. I’m not a big fan of axle stands (says he with the rear of a Pioneer propped up on them) and much prefer big bits of wood instead. Getting together a decent collection of 24”, 12” and 6” square lumps of timber in various lengths is far more useful than any axle stand will ever be. Bits of 1” thick hardwood planks are handy as packing pieces. Used properly they will support big weights very safely.

 

Tin snips

These are very handy to have around. There is a bewildering array of sizes and shapes – ones which will cut curves this way and that. However, you will find that no matter how many sets you have the ones which has the paint worn off the handles because you use them so much are the big pair. A set of 14” heavy duty snips is a very handy thing to have. You can buy the more specialist ones when you have a use for them. As far as choice I’d opt for Gilbow.

 

Hacksaw

They don’t cost much. Get a decent one (Record are nice) and a selection of blades (Sandvik ones are good). Got three phase power? Take a look at how little powered hacksaws can be bought secondhand. The reciprocating type is pretty much worthless to industry but can still do a job of work. Bandsaws are faster and have bigger capacities but are in greater demand and so more expensive. They are also very space hungry. The bands can be quite pricey too.

 

Given that your hacksaw will spend most of its time cutting rusty things off why not get some…

 

Chisels

Anyone who has had any sort of light engineering training and experience will tell you (and demonstrate) that a chisel can do some very fine work. However, almost all of them are used for splitting nuts which are rotted away, seized solid or just in the way. A couple of chisels one large chisel and a smaller one for finer work should do you. Again with a bit of practice you can split a nut from a bolt or stud without leaving a mark on the thread. You can get nut splitters but as with most things that look like brilliant ideas they stay in the bottom of the tool box.

 

Parallel punches

Very handy to have for drifting things out but do remember to buy the most expensive ones you can find. The cheap ones are utterly useless. Bear in mind that you may find yourself laying into the bigger ones with a sizeable hammer so you do want them made of the right steel and heat treated properly.

[Jimh]

and on and on and on...

 

Lifting kit

Not that long back we ended up with a workshop large enough to fit a 2 ton lifting beam in which had 17 feet of clearance under it. How we managed before is lost on me. However, assuming that if you already have a shed big enough for a lifting beam you’ve probably at least considered one then you don’t need my advice. If you can’t have a lifting beam then a floor crane is well worth considering. Used with a bit of *ahem* imagination you can get them into some tight spots to lift a lot of things. You just need to be careful.

The cheaper ones such as the Clarke badged ones will do the job just fine and they start at about £250 for a one ton version. You can get larger ones but you do have to ask yourself if you should be lifting very heavy things with floor cranes.

The other thing to bear in mind is that although they are a Godsend when you use them for the other 364 days of the year they just take up space. You can knock most down to flatpack them when not in use but then you end up lifting things by hand because you can’t be bothered to build the crane up for a ten minute job.

Other power tools

7” disc sanders are handy to have but far from vital. They also need to be used with care – used properly they are a useful preparation tool however, a look at some people’s finished paintwork with deep circular scratches under the paint reminds you that you do need to use them with caution. Nibblers are very handy if you are doing a lot of sheet metal work but they are quite expensive. Something for the Christmas list. A die grinder can be quite handy to have around but the burrs and stones can be rather expensive if you go through a lot of them. Very handy for reshaping things free hand or for grinding things away in tight spots. Again, Makita for the lot unless you are well flush in which case go for a Fein nibbler. Fantastic quality but prices start at £375 or so. Ouch.

Welding kit.

Worth a thread on its own but some thoughts for a kick off.

Gas welding kit

This is well worth having for other reasons but it is well worth acquiring the skills to gas weld. You will be able to do far more with gas welding skills than any other. It isn’t easy to learn and tech colleges seem to be getting very thin on the ground these days but it’s worth persevering with it. Watching a real expert wielding a gas torch is an impressive sight. Cut, heat, clean, form, shape, braze and weld. The bottle rental is a pain and you always run out of gas on Saturday afternoon but I’d recommend gas welding kit as the first step.

Arc welding

This is only really useful when you get into the heavier stuff. Although you can buy gizmos to allow you to weld light gauge metals these all play on the gas welding is difficult and expensive worries. With arc welders you really are better off raking round for a second hand one. What you will pay for a daft wee Clarke hobbymatic set you will buy a proper industrial one which will let you do a decent job. The duty cycle of the little ones is laughable. Sadly most of the bigger ones need three phase power but you can still find some fairly butch units which run a 240 volt input.

Secondhand rectified arc welders are readily available for little money. The Oxford welding plant we still use is so old it is filled with whale oil. The Lincoln 400 amp rectified DC set was pennies to buy. www.apexauctions.com is worth keeping an eye out on for sales near you. These are good places to pick up kit like this.

MIG welders.

Just to get controversial for a minute unless you are doing high volume fabrication work employing semi-skilled personnel MIG welding sets are a waste of space. This is not to say that they don’t have their uses (they have many) but I have never come across a situation where one is of any use restoring vehicles. Big, butch, industrial MIG units are built properly and nice to use. They are also wincingly expensive. The hobby variety is nowhere near as good and is just a waste of money.

They sell them on the basis that anyone can weld sheet metal together quickly. All well and good but they do not like steel which is not brand new, they lack control where you are having to deal with metals which may be of inconsistent thickness and the finished weld, even if everything is going in its favour, looks crude. Really, save you money for a…

TIG welder.

These are only for professional welders who are welding nuclear reactors together. They are very expensive and very difficult to use.

No they aren’t.

The skills you learned gas welding are transferable to TIG welding. They can be used for very fine work in all sorts of positions. On top of that you can deal with stainless steel and if you have the right kit and really know what you are doing, aluminium. These are available either as boxes which attached to DC arc welders (MTA do one for around £500) or as self contained units with a 240v input - Migatronic do a number of these. Their LTE 200 can be bought second hand for as little as £250. Migatronic are also extremely helpful at getting welders going again if they fail. TIG welders are not cheap but they will give you something for not much more than the cost of a decent MIG welder.

One word of caution. I see that the world and his wife are selling what are to the untrained eye a TIG welder from about £120. These are only the inverters for a TIG set. You would need to buy the TIG control box and all the other bits and bobs to go with it.

If you are starting out I’d get a gas welding set at the start, an arc welding set when it was needed and save your pennies for a TIG set once you’d practiced your gas welding enough to let you use it. If you’ve got a tech college near you who is still running courses then you are luckier than me.

Compressor

Very handy to have. Budget to buy the biggest you can afford then sit on it for a few more months so you can afford an even bigger one. If you get a decent size one then you can run useful air tools like needle guns and chisels. You’ll also have something with plenty in reserve when you start spraying big things. By far the most useful thing a compressor will give you is a plentiful supply of air for blowing things clean.

If you have the space and neighbours who won’t send the lynch mob round you might want to keep an eye out for a mobile compressor. The old piston type are noisy so are not wanted by people who use them properly. Our 115 CFM Ingersol Rand one has a Ruston diesel engine and dates from the late 50s. It cost scrap money and has lasted for the last 25 years or so with one oil change. Things as big as that will run proper rivet guns and big air drills.

[johnguppy]

Richard

 

intresting topic , in the 60s when i was buying my first tool kit

 

1/2" drive Britol socket set was £125

3/8" dive britol socket set was £65

 

buying spanners from the snap on man ment you could afford one a week

 

I kept all my tools when i left the bus service in the late 70s

 

How much does it cost someone starting out !!

 

AF spanners are now becoming difficult to find at an afordable cost

 

A good tip for all those who go to floridia to visit disney go to wallmart ( wollworth here ) and by combination spanners these are very good quallty and will last for years set of 6 for $20 call it £15 !!

 

john

[recymech66]

Hmm, an ex REME mate reckons they had only 'ammers, small, large and larger!

 

Only Recy Mechs have "ammers, small, large and larger" :rofl:

[Glynn]

America has some great shops for tools virtually any decent size supermarket has a fantastic tool section. Tig welders are good if you can use them im struggling a bit with mine but will persevere(i find alloy easy but rubbish with steel) Like the torkgrip link.

[Tony B]

One of the reason for going to BOAR was about a mile down the road over the Dutch border was a B&Q type warehouse. Great tools and about a third of the price in UK. most of the stuff I got is still working.

[antarmike]

Recently bought a Swiss army Knife, but I can't work out what one of the tools is for....

[N.O.S.]

:rofl::rofl::stop:

[Tony B]

It's the mushrooms again!! :rofl::rofl::yay:

[R Cubed]

Ah you have the female model, that's the mini vacuum attachment !!!!!!!!

[marmon]

Worked proffesionally on commission for a lot of years and find it hard going to work without air tools on the occasions I have had to even as a hobby, not just so very slow but so many more problem nuts and bolts...

I recomend 1/2 impact gun with impact sockets same in 3/4 drive a 3/8 butterfly impact and a 1/4 air ratchet all the 3/8 and 1/4 drive sockets at least should be 6 point (not impact) prefferably Snap-on there really is no better as far as never rounding a nut and the impact action works so well. It will halve your job times, get an air gasket scrapper, air screw driver, blast cabinet and decent pats washer and you will be even faster, of course your pay packet won't be any bigger but you'll get to spend more time down the pub or just get so much more done!

[timbo]

Worked proffesionally on commission for a lot of years and find it hard going to work without air tools on the occasions I have had to even as a hobby, not just so very slow but so many more problem nuts and bolts...

I recomend 1/2 impact gun with impact sockets same in 3/4 drive a 3/8 butterfly impact and a 1/4 air ratchet all the 3/8 and 1/4 drive sockets at least should be 6 point (not impact) prefferably Snap-on there really is no better as far as never rounding a nut and the impact action works so well. It will halve your job times, get an air gasket scrapper, air screw driver, blast cabinet and decent pats washer and you will be even faster, of course your pay packet won't be any bigger but you'll get to spend more time down the pub or just get so much more done!

 

 

Would agree air tools v useful esp chisel for getting rid of awkward nuts and bolts. But if you dont have access to a compressor then as a minimum an electric impact wrench can also save a lot of time. Cordless more convenient but corded more powerful...

[Tony B]

One very useful set I've recently aquired, a set of halford's proffesional half moon ratchets. Great for getting into tight spaces and with only a 5 degre ratchet. They are proving very useful.

[Gordon_M]

Well, what to say, you lot are really into your spanners. My spanner collection is a real mixed bag of WW2 originals up to Halfords stuff. I'd better suggest some other stuff.

 

 

Individual essentials that get used again and again;

 

Thread file - essential for restoring threads on impossible-to-replace special fasteners, even the odd thread comb for female threads like the inside of hubcaps.

 

A range of welders - arc welder, mig welder, and spot welder. If I only had one it would be the mig, but the spot welder is also invaluable for some jobs and can be adapted to stud weld and hot rivet.

 

Garage crane - mine is 2 tonne, but you need solid and with adequate capacity for your vehicle type, same for axle stands and jacks.

 

Air hammer - my little Draper air hammer gets more use with the needle gun attachment than anything else, but I have also adapted it to cold rivet up to about 1/4" rivets.

 

Screw extractor - and big enough for the job. Any Dodge owner with headless bolts will know why.

 

Sockets - once you are around 1" nut size you should go to hexagon sockets rather than bi-hex type.

 

Gordon

[mash]

blue point go-thru ratchet set, great set has imperial and metric, ratchet is also flex-head so is perfect for those tight spots

[Tony B]

All tools should be the best quality you can get! Saves on mashed nuts, and I don't mean the metal ones! :cool2:

Also knuckles, temper and other bits of the anatomy. In UK the Halfords proffesional and Advanced sets are good value.