Housemate is moving out, and taking all his tool 🙁

So now I need some…I have most of the bike tools I need. But lacking stuff like pliers/screwdrivers/hacksaws etc. I have no clue what to look for really when buying the other than they feel nice. I know SnapOn are meant to be good, but paying £90 for a set of screwdrivers is daft.

Any brands to look out for?

Cheers

£90 for a set of Snap On screwdrivers? That is cheap-mine cost double that!
For a lot of stuff, Halfords Pro is very good kit & feels nice to use.
For pliers, Knipex are about the best there is.
Hacksaw wise-it doesn’t really matter what you buy as long as you get good quality blades for it-cheap blades are a false economy.

Halfords “professional” range are worth considering, fairly decent and come with a lifetime warranty. Can’t say there especially cheap though, unless on offer, but whatever they cost is probably the going rate for a decent alternative too.
Personally though I know snap-on spanner/socket sets are probably worth there money to professional mechanic’s, but a snap on branded hack saw is unlikely to be anything special (other than warranty).

What I do know of snap-on though, is they have a no quibble replacement warranty, they will replace stuff that years old & broke (but not abused) IIRC. Very useful if they are the full time tools of your trade, but not so much for a bit of occasional bike maintenance.

PS. it probably also worth buying some cheapish screwdriver set to abuse, rather than using a good set to lever/drift stuck stuff (come on you know it happens..)

+1 halford pro stuff, reasonable price reasonable quality.

With all brands (including Snap-on some stuff is a bit crap) so you’ll end up with a mix of brands of good stuff that feels ‘right’ and works.

Park Tool stuff can be patchy (allen keys are rubbish, but ‘cluster tool allens’ arn’t for example)

Unless you are a pro mechanic stay away from Snap-on – total waste of your money.

Stay away from Part for anything other than bike-specific tools, as again, they are overpriced.

For ‘mechanical’ tools i’d recommend Halfords Pro – i’ve got loads of their stuff and it really is great, and comes with a lifetime warranty.

For hex keys Bondhus are pretty good.

Other Brands worth looking at are Teng, Britool, Bahco, Facom, King Dick, Knipex and Maun.
For woodwork/DIY Tools, Stanley are still worth a look.

To be honest, you could do worse than to buy branded stuff from Screwfix – they hold good stocks of Teng, etc and you’ll struggle to buy good brands much cheaper elsewhere.

I’d also recommend trawling a few boot sales for some old cold chisles and big screwdrivers you can bash with a hammer – much cheaper than buying new, and old stuff can be better quality.

I find the Park multitool fits bike stuff better than any other.

I was changing the chainrings on my mates bike the other night using Halfords Pro Allen keys on a socket, and one bolt got stuck on the socket so I used the Park multitool to remove the rest and had no problems.

+1 for britool I got the spanner set and 1/2 drive socket set both imperial and metric. I’ve got no problems with halfords pro as I had those spanners when I first started buying tools at the age of 16 as I was a hgv mechanic. But I found the spanners a little thin and dig into your hands after undoing a stubborn rusty nut/bolt. The halfords pro 3/8 drive socket set however is a nice bit of quality kit and served me well and I still use it now for tinkering with the car and bikes.

So for spanners britool for me every time. Sockets either, not much difference in quality really, just the price.

Edit: 3/8 drive is plenty big enough for bike maintenance.

Halfords have all their Pro socket sets @ half price at the moment I believe..

Halfords Professional stuff has served me well for many years. Used to be a service engineer (Industrial pumps rather than washing machines) so they were actually used professionally too. The ratchet may die after a little while depending on the required duty.
Only look at Snap On if you are going for a career as a lorry mechanic.

dont forget one of these…

😆 😆