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Socket pricing

Ed_Wischmeyer

Well Known Member
The other day, I needed a 15/16" deep socket, 3/8" drive, for something on the RV-9A. Fortunately, I was able to borrow one from the shop on the field.

Today, I looked on eBay and found a Craftsman 15/16" deep socket for $35, and another priced at $45. A 7/8" socket was $10. Hmm.

I priced a full 3/8" drive Matco socket set, 1/4" to 1" in 1/16" steps, $360. The 15/16" deep socket by itself is $47, and their more general purpose socket sets don't include this size.

I bet we'd all like to upgrade our hodge-podge tool assortments that we've accumulated over the years, but...
 
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Since I just found a need for some 10mm universal sockets, you made me worry, and made me look: 3/8" drive 15/16" Carlyle deep socket $8 at NAPA online.

My 10mm's $11-ish. Phew.
 
Seriously, I think Harbor Freight is your friend here.
 

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$8-$10 on Amazon, $9.47 at home depot. Harbor Freight has a 1/2" drive 15/16" deep impact socket for $3.99.
 
Harbor Fright

Seriously, I think Harbor Freight is your friend here.

Yep. You can buy a whole set of the pro sockets for that much. I haven't cracked one yet and I work on a lot of auto stuff. I've even used their cheapo line on my tool killer 1/2" impact.
 
Sears generally has Craftsman socket sets, screwdriver sets, wrench sets, complete toolbox /wrench sets of various number of pieces, at decent prices from Black Friday on through Christmas.
 
The last sets I bought were at Sears but now that you mention it it's been a few years. I know they sell them at Lowe's, Ace hardware, and Blain's Farm and Fleet (Midwest).
 
Sears generally has Craftsman socket sets, screwdriver sets, wrench sets, complete toolbox /wrench sets of various number of pieces, at decent prices from Black Friday on through Christmas.

I didn't realize they were still in business. All the local ones have long since closed.
 
Points

By the way. It's usually best to use a socket with the same number of sides as the part. Hard to find six point.
Twelve are more common these days.
Most of mine are six.
 
I had Sears stock and it is no more as we used to know it. Yes the old stores all closed I believe.
No lifetime warranty, no support, Made in China. Might as well be Harbor Freight.
I've been pretty happy with Tektron tools to add to my old Snap On and Craftsman stock.
I will say one thing. You will get a free heart attack if you walk into a Snap-On or Mack tool truck. High priced for sure.

Art
 
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With low expectations, I went shopping for a 3/8" drive, 15/16" deep socket.
* NAPA is on the way to the airport. Their wall assortment of sockets was well picked over and sparse.
* Lowes was on the long way home, but I wanted to check them out again, anyway. Their individual sockets of all sorts and wrenches were in drawers under the socket sets, well jumbled. There was little order to what was where... and their app on the iPhone, for whatever reason, showed me metric sockets and short sockets, ignoring the search criteria.
* HomeDepot was next door. Hanging from a tidy wall display was a 15/16" socket, but 1/2" drive. It looked like they would not stock that in 3/8".
* Across the street was HarborFreight. No individual sockets.
* Another VAFer found an $8 socket, correct specs, but shipping was almost as much.

I dislike Amazon, but free shipping and next day delivery is hard to beat, even if it's an off brand socket.

"If God had intended man to fly, he would have given him a great deal more money."
 
Socket drive adapters can be very handy if the excess length presents no problem. I have a 1/2 drive spark plug socket for the RV that has a 3/8 socket adapter that just stays attached to it. I often use two socket drive adapters together to change back to the original size if I don't have an extension short enough.

Alternatively Lowe's and Ace (among others) let you order online with free shipping to your local store and curbside pickup at no additional cost.
 
Socket Pricing

Ease on over to Grainger and get a Proto Master Tool set. 1258 pieces for only $30,752.28. But you will have to wait, they are back ordered!
 
Ed,

Your story exactly why I just go to Amazon in the first place. I have done exactly what you did many times before so now I don't even try. In the time it took me to respond to your post I could have purchased your socket from Amazon and I would have it tomorrow.

BTW I formerly was in the Craftsman camp too, but their quality has gone down hill lately. I've now moved over to Gearwrench and they seem pretty good. I bought some Lowes tools before they started selling Craftsman and those are ok, but all of the hex bits are rusting so I guess they weren't so great either.
 
Ace is the place

Ed, there is only one place I could find HF/HD/Lowes in one place. It seems pretty close to ACE, and ACE carries Craftsman tools. It looks to be two miles away??

Southside Ace Hardware of Savannah
706 Mall Blvd
Savannah, GA 31406-4836
(912) 544-6453

Only a few hardware stores in our town. No big box stores.
Everyone at Ace knows me. They give a senior discount. Guess where a lot of my airplane fund gets spent?
I always check Ace first before ordering online. 90% of the time they get so close, it's not worth waiting.
 
When I need a one off hand tool such as socket or wrench, I go to a my local pawn shop.
Bins of pawned tools to look through. Price ranges from free on up depending on size. It's a good option especially if the tool will be modified after the purchase.
 
A tool junkie's thoughts on sockets...

20210731_tools.jpg


If you just want to turn a fastener with the least possible expense, almost anything will do. Sometimes you need a "disposable" socket that you can grind or weld to fit a particular application, in which case - well, you probably have a Harbor Freight store nearby.

Over the years I have evolved my approach to buying tools from "what's the cheapest" to more of a "buy once, cry once" philosophy. That's certainly not to say that I always go straight to the Snap-On truck (though the Snap-On guy would be happy if I did)... but I'm not afraid to spend more on a tool if it provides a corresponding value, is a pleasure to use, and is likely to last a lifetime. Not everybody feels the same way or is in a position to do so - it's down to personal preferences and circumstances.

What I'm getting at is: you'd think a socket is a socket, but there are differences in the designs of different manufacturers' sockets that not everybody knows about. I didn't, until I started looking closely.

The type of socket I like best is one that will apply torque only to the flat faces of a fastener, and won't round off the corners of a nut or bolt. 6-point is better than 12-point for this, and different manufacturers provide varying amounts of relief at the corners to prevent rounding. Typically the cheaper sockets are more likely to strip your nuts.

Deep sockets are funny... most of the time, what I want is a socket that is long but also shallow. That is, I want the hexagonal broaching at the business end to extend not much further into the body of the socket than the thickness of a nut. This allows me to load up a socket with a nut and then use the internal shoulder to push it onto a waiting bolt or screw, rather than having it slide all the way to the bottom. I think everyone has at some point experienced the hassle of having to put a bunch of extra nuts into a deep socket to get threads to engage; a "long but shallow" socket helps prevent this. Counterintuitively, it's been my experience that shallow broaching is generally found in more expensive socket sets.

Here's an illustrated example - identical bolts, two different brands of deep socket:

20220908_sockets2.jpg
20220908_sockets1.jpg


Having said that, deep sockets that are broached all the way to the base have their purposes (example: threading a nut onto a stud or threaded rod) which is why I keep a basic set of "long and deep" sockets around.

Given the relatively small / low-torque fasteners used throughout 95% of our airplanes, you're not likely to break a socket from overstress - unless you get a random bad one or you're trying to use that free socket left over from when you assembled that Ikea bed frame. Still, if you're buying a complete socket set that includes larger sizes, you might feel better about the future health of your knuckles if you get a set that will stand up to abuse from a breaker bar when you're working on your tractor.

Material strength is hard for we consumers to evaluate, so I tend to use country of manufacture as a rough proxy for quality. Where a tool is manufactured may also be important to you for personal reasons. There are certain countries from which I personally try to avoid purchasing tools, unless I can't avoid it or I need something disposable (see above).

Again, speaking very broadly and from my own personal experience: I've found that Taiwanese-made tools are generally quite good and an excellent value for the money. In terms of sockets, this includes Tekton, Gearwrench, I believe some Matco sub-brands, and plenty of others.

I haven't checked recently, but I believe SK Tools still has some US manufacturing, despite being Chinese-owned at the corporate level. The local industrial tool supply place carries SK sockets and they seem pretty decent.

You can imagine there are more brand names than there are actual factories. Many tool brands are part of a larger conglomerate, for example Apex Tool Group. Something to consider when tool shopping, if it matters to you personally.

The Craftsman tools you remember from the Sears days were mostly manufactured in the US, usually by Western Forge. Their sockets were pretty basic, but if you're at a garage sale and you find a complete set of US-made Craftsman 6-point sockets for a good price, it would be hard to find a better value for money.

The current Craftsman label now belongs to an imported "zombie brand" - I have found their tools to be roughly equivalent to Harbor Freight, and treat them as such.

As for what I use... my socket drawer is mostly full of Gearwrench products, primarily because I found a great deal on several complete sets. They have a good internal profile, and the deep sockets have shallow broaching. The sets I have also include a third "medium length" that's halfway between shallow and deep, which comes in handy sometimes. The included ratchet handles are also pretty decent, although I typically reach for one of my Snap-on ones (nothing beats a good ratchet handle). I also keep around a small set of US-made Craftsman sockets that I've had forever, since the deep/deep profile is occasionally useful.

20181102_tools1.jpg


All the above is based on my personal experience and preferences - your mileage may vary. Buy tools that do what you want and provide appropriate value for your needs!
 
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Pawn shops have all gone out of business in my area because of Craigslist and Marketplace.
Art

That's unfortunate. Not all change is progress. My first and only experience as seller on Craigslist involved a scamming buyer. Marketplace is out because I will not support FB.
There remain a number of pawn shops here. Differing inventory. Some specialize in jewelry and electronics. My favorite one has the big section of tools as mentioned and is also an FFL with antiques.
 
As for what I use... my socket drawer is mostly full of Gearwrench products [img said:
https://www.rv7blog.com/images/20181102_tools1.jpg[/img]

What and where did you get these drawer organizers??
 
I'm sorry I posted this thread. This could get expensive...

My 3/8" drive Craftsman deep sockets are 12 point, all the way down. My excuse is that the tools are 50 years old...

And I just sorted my hangar tools, now for the garage tools...
 
Was in the neighborhood and went by Ace Hardware. They had a nice selection of Craftsman sockets, and I got a 12 point, 15/16" deep socket with the shallow well.

Now to replace the belly strobe and trim indicator...
 
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