Angles

[John PurdyParticipant @johnpurdy78347]

Funny you should mention that, Michael. I have one of those that me son gave me many years ago. Use it all the time. As you say an excellent screwdriver. The end screws off and the handle is hollow to store half a dozen bits. By turning the serrated ring at the business end of the handle fully CW it ratchets tightening, fully CCW, ratchets loosening, and half way in between is a normal screwdriver.  Being “Snap-On” I would hate to think what it would cost new though.

John

[Wade BeattyParticipant @wadebeatty78296]

We are machinist, we can make our own tooling often.

[renardiere7Participant @renardiere7]

John,  re the Snap-On ratcheting screw driver, I’ve also had one for ?40 years. I recently replaced the ratcheting mechanism. I was delighted to find Snap-On still supply a service kit for around £30. I think the cost of a new driver is around £130.

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan Said:

One of my favourite ‘up-market’ tools [purchased very cheaply at a car-boot sale] is this ratcheting screwdriver:

It only does what the cheap ones do … but in every little detail it does it better !

Patent available here: https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search?q=pn%3DUS4777852A

use the 3-dot menu to download the document.

MichaelG.

I have one of the non-ratcheting predecessors to that 1/4″ drive screwdriver. Its at least 40 years old and still my “daily driver” (pun intended). It does have a bit of damage, The end is blued and has a small arc mark. This is a result of deliberate abuse in an urgent situation. It doesn’t say “don’t use to bypass the start contactor on a gas turbine” on the handle. 🙂
Dave asks “What did Britool do that can’t be emulated by any other spanner maker who chooses to go up-market?” the answer is nothing. The question is what the modern tool makers choose not to do. For spanners and the like this is often the materials they use. Good steel and heat treatment and plating costs money and time but the buyer can’t tell by looking at the tool.
I have a set of imperial short offset ring spanners (small sizes up to 9/16) which againt are many years old. Both they and the screwdriver were bought when I was reguarly using them on aircraft as part of my day job. They are very nice to use, don’t damage fasteners etc. I recently thought it would be nice to have a metric set. I can’t remember what I paid for the original set but they are now over £300 a set! I didn’t buy any. I did recently purchase a 5.5mm (for M3 fasteners in electronics) Wera 6003 JOKER Ring Combination Spanner. It wasn’t cheap but it’s very nice and fits properly.
I will buy “pro” tools for things that I use all the time or were if they don’t work properly the cosequences in damage to equipment or injury is high. For something I’ll use onece in a blue moon, is low risk or is a back up I will buy more budget priced.

Robert.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, Britool spanners are the nicest spanners to handle in my opinion, and their design is good, but don’t get me wrong, as they can break, and I had one break, but it was after about 30 years of maybe 80% of weekly use over that time. I still have all the others that I had, except a few that got stolen which were in a Van, ready for the next days site job, but the workshop got broke into and the van and tools of the firm, a workmate and mine were gone, the workmate and my tools were replaced, but I could only have Facom ones that are not even nearly so nice to use, but I don’t need them as much now.

Regards Nick.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

For most hobby use, it can be argued that it is is not necessary to buy industrial quality tools, for relatively low useage,  that super accurate tools provide.

It may not matter if a taper is out by a second of arc or two.

(Matching internal and external tappers can be produced, by not disturbing anything between making the cuts).

But they may not EXACTLY match other tapers, such as Morse Tapers, (But careful setting up, using an existing one as a setting gauge should overcome that problem.

Again, the choice has to be between paying a lot for greater than need accuracy, and the cheap and nasty. You makes your choice and pays the price

Howard

[Author]

Posts