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Impact sockets

Get good sockets. you will break less sockets and round off less fasteners. Craftsman is my minimum but then again I use mine every day...
 
Pittsburgh is a low end. That is what Harbor Freight sells. Auto parts store brands like Autocraft are decent but not great. Craftsman is fine if you are doing this as a hobby. Brands like Sunex, ATD and NAPA are good and less expensive than truck toys. The truck brands like Mac, Snap-on and Matco are ideal but if I wasn't wrenching every day I wouldn't spend the money on them.
 
joejeep92 said:
Pittsburgh is a low end. That is what Harbor Freight sells. Auto parts store brands like Autocraft are decent but not great. Craftsman is fine if you are doing this as a hobby. Brands like Sunex, ATD and NAPA are good and less expensive than truck toys. The truck brands like Mac, Snap-on and Matco are ideal but if I wasn't wrenching every day I wouldn't spend the money on them.
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Thank you!
 
joejeep92 said:
Pittsburgh is a low end. That is what Harbor Freight sells. Auto parts store brands like Autocraft are decent but not great. Craftsman is fine if you are doing this as a hobby. Brands like Sunex, ATD and NAPA are good and less expensive than truck toys. The truck brands like Mac, Snap-on and Matco are ideal but if I wasn't wrenching every day I wouldn't spend the money on them.
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Ill call BS here. I was working in a shop and broke multiple snap on sockets, had to wait for snap on truck to come back the following week, bought a few matco sockets, broke 2. In a rush to be able to get jobs done I ran over to HF and picked up the ridiculous cheap impact socket sets (only place close I could get them right then, had cars hanging)
It has now been 3 years. Have yet to damage a Pittsburg socket. No cracks, no breaks, nothing. Ended up pickin up some of their impact wobblies and extensions. Still no breaks. Their non impact stuff is crap, broken all of it. So ill stick to the snap on chromies. But for less than $80 I got a decent variety of impact sockets. They even make shallow ones as well.
FWIW I was using a snap on mg725 impact while breaking their sockets and not the HF ones. Used daily, in a shop.
 
in4aride said:
Ill call BS here. I was working in a shop and broke multiple snap on sockets, had to wait for snap on truck to come back the following week, bought a few matco sockets, broke 2. In a rush to be able to get jobs done I ran over to HF and picked up the ridiculous cheap impact socket sets (only place close I could get them right then, had cars hanging)
It has now been 3 years. Have yet to damage a Pittsburg socket. No cracks, no breaks, nothing. Ended up pickin up some of their impact wobblies and extensions. Still no breaks. Their non impact stuff is crap, broken all of it. So ill stick to the snap on chromies. But for less than $80 I got a decent variety of impact sockets. They even make shallow ones as well.
FWIW I was using a snap on mg725 impact while breaking their sockets and not the HF ones. Used daily, in a shop.
Click to expand...

That could be a good point...even if they do break, they are inexpensive to replace.
 
I have Craftsman; my wrenching buddy uses Stanley or something from one of the home improvement box stores. If I'm going to break something, I'd rather it be cheap and easily replaced. There's something to be said for being able to run into the store at 8PM on a Sunday and get a new tool so you can still get your junk fixed that night.

I have the 12 pc 12-27mm set of deep impact sockets, and a few other oddballs for axle nuts and whatever else.
 
I have a full set of HF impact sockets, No breaks, I use a Cornwell cat350 Impact.. I've broken any brand.. Snapon, mac, craftsmen, HF.. For *Most* applications, HF will "Work" But i still prefer Snapon for tools i actually plan to keep forever..
 
I broke a HF impact socket once using it with a 1/2 air impact gun (think it was a HF gun as well), this was in a shop class so I'm sure those tools took a lot of abuse. I haven't had any problems whatsoever with my own HF impact sockets, granted I'm using them with their electric impact wrench which only produces like 240 ft/lbs of torque, but I've had them about five years now and they do get a lot of use. Very impressive for a $15 impact socket set.
 
Not a Snap-On guy because I haven't met a rep I can get along with. Matco and Mac I have had zero issues getting replaced and haven't ever broken one of their impact sockets besides pounding them onto stuck fasteners and being unable to remove it. Harbor freight I have a set of for grinding on or other stuff. Don't like them though because my nearest Harbor Freight is an hour away and a bigger pain then waiting on a weekly truck visit.
 
I have Husky (home depot store brand) impact sockets. Haven't broken or damaged any yet.

Mostly metric on jeeps but I find myself using the deep SAE impact sockets on certain engine fasteners because they line up well with the job at hand. Sometimes a regular socket plus a stubby extension is too long, but a deep impact alone is perfect.
 
joejeep92 said:
Pittsburgh is a low end. That is what Harbor Freight sells. Auto parts store brands like Autocraft are decent but not great. Craftsman is fine if you are doing this as a hobby. Brands like Sunex, ATD and NAPA are good and less expensive than truck toys. The truck brands like Mac, Snap-on and Matco are ideal but if I wasn't wrenching every day I wouldn't spend the money on them.
Click to expand...

in4aride said:
Ill call BS here. I was working in a shop and broke multiple snap on sockets, had to wait for snap on truck to come back the following week, bought a few matco sockets, broke 2. In a rush to be able to get jobs done I ran over to HF and picked up the ridiculous cheap impact socket sets (only place close I could get them right then, had cars hanging)
It has now been 3 years. Have yet to damage a Pittsburg socket. No cracks, no breaks, nothing. Ended up pickin up some of their impact wobblies and extensions. Still no breaks. Their non impact stuff is crap, broken all of it. So ill stick to the snap on chromies. But for less than $80 I got a decent variety of impact sockets. They even make shallow ones as well.
FWIW I was using a snap on mg725 impact while breaking their sockets and not the HF ones. Used daily, in a shop.
Click to expand...

my HF impacts have never failed, i have broke Snap on Mac Matco cornwell and blackhawks.

my HF chromes suck they are in my trail box that stays in the jeep. my fav chromes are blackhawk but you cant find em anymore here in socal.

i love my OLD craftsmans (10 Years old) but new craftsman tools are garbage ever since they were bought out by kmart. 2nd is any of the shop truck brands. again in the trail box i only keep Pittsburgh.

HF like any other tool company, you have to be careful what your buying they like all the others have different "grade" tools. but i wont put anything other than HF in my trail box for my jeeps. if im gonna lose a tool in the sand its gonna be a cheap tool.

to the OP buy several 18 mm sockets (impact, non, deep well, shallow well, 3/8 drive 1/2 drive). and the big boy 36mm impact w a breaker bar. that with 2 metric impact sets deep and shallow and your gold
 
It has now been 3 years. Have yet to damage a Pittsburg socket. No cracks, no breaks, nothing. Ended up pickin up some of their impact wobblies and extensions. Still no breaks. Their non impact stuff is crap, broken all of it. So ill stick to the snap on chromies. But for less than $80 I got a decent variety of impact sockets. They even make shallow ones as well.
Click to expand...

You guys seem to praise HF sockets pretty highly. Time for me to play "that guy". I've had 3 harbor freight sockets grenade on me to date. First one was a deep-impact 21 that I was using on my IR air impact gun loosening lug nuts. It blew up into 4 pieces, right in my face. One piece hit my forehead, one knocked my glasses off my face (thank god I had them on), and another piece gave me a nice cut on my arm. the remainder of the socket was still on the gun. If that's not enough, all the deep impacts I've used wobble like CRAZY, like they're not made straight. I'll see if I still have the pieces when I'm at work tomorrow.

Second one was a 1/2" wobble 17mm socket. Their first desgin, which was complete SH!T. Essentially there was a rubber o-ring in a channel that held a metal collar in place. behind the collar was the pin that held the entire socket and spring together. I was again, using my IR gun in a wheel well breaking a caliper mounting bolt loose. The o-ring snapped and I didn't realize. The collar slipped up a little bit, enough to allow the pin to begin to slide out. Once one side of the pin came out of it's bore, the whole thing flung wildly into all 7 or so pieces that it was made of. Bounced off the inner fender liner, floor, etc. Thankfully I wasn't struck this time.

The third experience was the exact same as the second, this time on a 3/8" 14mm socket on my cordless impact gun. I saw the collar sliding up beforehand, so I just stopped wrenching on the bolt and tossed the socket away. Complete garbage. The new design isn't much better. If you get your hand snagged on the edge of the new coiled collar, it's gonna rip your skin open pretty good.

I'm a technician by profession, so I definitely use my tools more than most. Take it for what it's worth. If I were a hobbyist, I'd still go for the wobble sockets (just be careful). But I will NEVER buy another deep impact socket from HF after the 21 incident. They also have a super cheesy coating that wears off quickly, and the numerical markings are invisible. I do have a full set of their extensions, and beat the piss out of them daily. Going on 4 years no problem. If you want decent impact sockets, get Craftsman. You'll be more than happy.

EDIT: It looks like they have YET AGAIN changed the design on the swivels. Here is the latest design. Looks like they just twisted the little coiled collar inside a barrel. I'll take pics tomorrow of the earlier gen ones.
image_14214.jpg
 
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