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My 1st-ever real job was at a machine shop that turned standard GM, Chrysler and Ford torque converters into high stall speed units, used in drag racing and street performance car applications. I worked there for almost 2.5 years, from the summer after my 10th grade school year, til a few months after graduating high school. We did not have to buy our own tools. During this time, I was paying for my own car, gasoline, insurance, some clothing etc. So I didn't have a ton of disposeable income.
We moved from a rural, 70' x 50' back yard shop, into a much larger shop in town. A Mac tools dealer started showing up in his tool truck weekly. I ended up buying a 1/2" drive ratchet, and a 10pc black coated set of SAE impact sockets(the chrome plates sockets were like $25 more!), paying over $90 for both in 1986.
They were nice tools. A few years later, at my next job, I allowed a co worker to use the ratchet for busting loose a few large, seized axle bearing nuts on a towed seeding combine, with a long breaker bar, and it was the only ratchet he tried that didnt break under the strain. The other tools were a cornucopia of different brands, but they were cheap and moderately priced brands.
I just looked up prices for top-o-the-line independent franchise type tool companies like Snap On and Cornell tools. I'll leave links to price lists from both companies below. A basic 10pc Snap On wrench set is $359, and it seems that Cornell tools can be even more expensive, with the same type of 10-12 pc set costing $378 to over $650! You can buy tools made by reputable companies, with a lifetime warranty for roughly 1/10 to 1/15th that price!
That begs the often asked question, are these tools really worth THAT MUCH money? Are they that much tougher? Is there a significant difference in quality between Snap On, Mac, Matco tools? What about Cornell tools, I know nothing about them?
https://www.bestproducts.com/cars/tools-and-DIY/g1916/snap-on-tools-kits/
Hand Tools - Wrenches - Combination Wrench Sets - Cornwell Webcat
We moved from a rural, 70' x 50' back yard shop, into a much larger shop in town. A Mac tools dealer started showing up in his tool truck weekly. I ended up buying a 1/2" drive ratchet, and a 10pc black coated set of SAE impact sockets(the chrome plates sockets were like $25 more!), paying over $90 for both in 1986.
They were nice tools. A few years later, at my next job, I allowed a co worker to use the ratchet for busting loose a few large, seized axle bearing nuts on a towed seeding combine, with a long breaker bar, and it was the only ratchet he tried that didnt break under the strain. The other tools were a cornucopia of different brands, but they were cheap and moderately priced brands.
I just looked up prices for top-o-the-line independent franchise type tool companies like Snap On and Cornell tools. I'll leave links to price lists from both companies below. A basic 10pc Snap On wrench set is $359, and it seems that Cornell tools can be even more expensive, with the same type of 10-12 pc set costing $378 to over $650! You can buy tools made by reputable companies, with a lifetime warranty for roughly 1/10 to 1/15th that price!
That begs the often asked question, are these tools really worth THAT MUCH money? Are they that much tougher? Is there a significant difference in quality between Snap On, Mac, Matco tools? What about Cornell tools, I know nothing about them?
https://www.bestproducts.com/cars/tools-and-DIY/g1916/snap-on-tools-kits/
Hand Tools - Wrenches - Combination Wrench Sets - Cornwell Webcat
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