Have ya'll given the "infinite depth" socket wrenches a go? A la og Gearwrenches and Craftsman Max Axess? Also quite nice, especially the slim/low profile ones. In some ways, they are better than box wrenches. Definitely not in all ways, though.
My parents got me a set for Christmas a few years back, and they are indeed great.
That's how I feel about their screwdrivers. The cheap Craftsman screwdrivers are crap with easily broken tips, whereas I've found the Professional line to work quite well for my uses. Snap-On might be better, but it's not worth the extra cost to me.
What are these? I failed with the Googles.
GearWrenches are indeed the bomb. I have a set as well as a set of similar Husky ratcheting box wrenches. They're both good to have - the Huskies have more of an angle to them, and as such they have a reversible ratchet feature. Handy.
They are basically a hollow socket, so that you don't have to worry about having shallow and deep sockets. They also are lower profile (or can be) than a standard socket wrench + socket.
http://toolmonger.com/2008/04/16/kob...er-long-bolts/
Whoomah!
The sockets are hollow, so long fasteners fit through them. They'll drive where you'd need deep sockets without needing long sockets. Plus, they put the force at the base of the fastener. Sometimes that's a liability like when you don't have room "down there" to turn the wrench, but they do have extensions to fix that. The sockets are also not super strong (being hollow), but they are strong enough for most everything. I only ever broke my 17mm, and that was loosening a caliper that had been torqued to 125 lb ft... probably a misuse of what would be a 3/8" drive wrench.
Those do appear pretty awesome. I'll keep them in mind for my uncle's christmas present next year.
Also, it appears to have a very similar handle to the craftsman ratchet I mentioned upthread, so thats cool.
-Formerly Stabulator
Yep, bookmarked.
Thoughts on ratcheting wrenches?
Last edited by novicius; January 8th, 2014 at 05:51 AM.
Must have. I got by for a long time with just the GearWrench socket wrenches as they do most of the job of ratcheting wrenches, but really you want both. And you want both normal and stubby ones, because often times the thing that makes ratcheting wrenches useful is they are effective in limited space... stubby ones become even more useful in limited space! I've bought only Gearwrench brand ones, but I think the Craftsman ones you linked to might actually be better.