What socket set would you buy?

[Ozark Lee]

Some pinhead broke into my Suburban last night and, along with a bunch of my carpentry tools, they stole my trusty Craftsman socket and wrench set. I've had that set for going on 30 years but it has been a love-hate relationship. It was a 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" drive kit with deep sockets for the 1/4" and 3/8" drive. Both metric and SAE. It also had a set of combination wrenches and it was all in one inconvenient case that had a habit of popping open and dumping the entire kit on the ground.

The ratchets are course (about 10 degrees between clicks) and they tend to have a fair amount of resistance on the backswing which made getting a semi loose nut or bolt off tough.

If you were to buy a new socket set what would you look at? I can't justify Snap On prices and, from what I can tell, they are more of a finance company that has guys driving around in trucks full of tools than a tool company. I get the impression that the Matco and MAC guys are Snap On lite but I don't know that for a fact.

I'm likely not going to sleep very well until I have a new set.

...Lee

[kahl]

Hi Lee, You may want to visit on line a place called the garage journal. Go to the tool forum and see what those members have to say. If I had to replace my most used sockets and wrenches it would be a la carte type of purchase. SK sockets, gear wrench wrenchs, craftsman breaker bars and ratchets with with 72 or 84 teeth. It is tough to find a better warranty than craftsman if a Sears store is close.