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Impact sockets vs regular sockets

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I know that you aren't supposed to use regular sockets with an impact gun.



But what about using impact sockets with hand tools? I plan on getting some air tools and I don't want to have to buy TWO sets of sockets if I can do it all with jus the impact sockets.



Is there any reason I can't use impact sockets with regular ratchets, breaker bars, and extensions??



BTW-- I am looking at the IR2135ti impact gun. 700lb-ft in a 3. 95lb gun!!



Justin
 
On a related note, why are Snap-on sockets so @#$% expensive????



The same metric deep 1/2" set that's $30 in a Crapsman brand is OVER $240 FROM SNAP ON!!



I have never had a Craftsman fail, and they have lifetime warrantee, so what in the heck would I ever buy a Snap-On????



If someone can tell me what makes them so good, then great. But at first glance, it seems to be like Gucci making hand tools... .





Justin
 
I've broken tons of craftsmen sockets. Busted a 15mm deep well socket (cracked right down the side) a couple weeks ago pulling my transmission cross member. Lifetime warranty sucks when the nearest Sears is 45 minutes away!
 
I have never had a Craftsman fail



Put it on a "good" impact wrench and see how long it takes to launch pieces all over the shop. When I say good impact. I am not talking about anything that says Chicago in the name on the side.



That IR impact is a good one. I have a couple of the older model 231's. They last a long time.



I just broke my 15mm craftsmen socket trying to take the balancer off my truck. I had it on a ratchet also. I don't use chrome craftsmen sockets on impacts. I am like Steve it is 20 miles one way to a Sears store.
 
You get what you pay for

I have a full set of snap-on,mac,matco,craftsman tools no one company makes all the perfect tools they each have + and - so I have built a set made of all brands. The tool dealers come to the shops and makes it easy to get stuff replaced. If you have a good dealer you can get away with a lot of warrentied tools even when outright abused try taking an impacted chrome socket to Sears and get it warrentyed NOT. I have broken several Sears chrome socket by hand with short ratchet's, wrenches spread pretty easy too. You pay 10 price's for Snap-on and Mac but they will replace them for life with very little hassle. I have had a 3/8 ratchet gutted and rebuilt at least 10 times and will be rebuilt 10 more times before I quit turning wrenches at no cost. Craftsman is ok for most uses but when pushed, there limit is not quiet as high. I don't like paying $90 for one (big) wrench that I only use a couple of times a year but I will never wear it out. :) Back to the question the price is related to the number of people in the chain to get that tool made to the dealer to you and the NAME!



Craig
 
i have some sears stuff, canadian tire pro series stuff, homedepot's husky stuff for my home tools. i don't break tools too often at home, but at work [with the crap tools the company provides] i break tools too often. cheap channel locks, pipe wrenches, sockets that are older than i am, and have been abused with impacts long before i was assigned them, wrenches that are spread so my 3/4" is now 25/32 & rounds nuts off... a 3/8" drive ratchet that slips when any torque is put on it [makes knuckles get bashed good]... now that's just in my toolbox. now lets look at the shop equipment that doesn't work... engine barring tools, engine power assembly crab stud torque machines overhead cranes. power washer spray wands and pumps... oh the joys of working for a company who is now managed by the usa who is cutting the budget and jobs all round... we use to have a proper lunchroom for eating in, they took that away. they are abolishing jobs that have sat/sun days off and are not posting new sat/sun jobs. they want to cut out benifets... . my job sucks at the moment



no offence to all you americans, but the ones running the company i work for now are all arseholes
 
Justin - You can use impact sockets as regular ones. The only issue would be that the impacts have a thicker wall and may not fit in some spots.



I have crapsman tools because I can break them on a Saturday or Sunday and send the wiffie to Sears and get them replaced. It's also kinda fun to pick them up at garage sales or out of the gutter and trade them in on new ones. I miss road shopping from my motorcycle.



I would love to have a real job that I could justify the cost of the Snap On or Mac line - The wrenches feel better in your hands and the ratchets have smoother action.
 
OK, so how about IR impact sockets?? I figure if they make good guns, maybe the sockets are decent?



I found a decent price on the IR deep dish metric 6-pt sockets (10-20mm for $50)



Justin
 
I worked at sears for 3 yrs in high school and can say that craftsman truly makes terrible tools. hey "recycle" them upon return and my store alone shipped out a 55 gallon drum a week that was chuck full of broken tools, sockets to wrenchs to screwdrivers, they all stink.



I do own some myself, i think husky's are a decent buy for the money. I love how everyone says craftsman's are warrantied and they're easy to replace. Thats exactly what they want you to say people! That way they can keep on making that cheap drop forged crap and have you keep coming in for more. It only takes one broken knuckle over a broken socket for me to realize you need quality tools for quality work.



They do have a purpose though, if your just screw up picture frames in grandma's kitchen you don't need a set of mac tools to do it. It's all what you want and how it suits your needs.



To answer Hohn's question, snapon has a large chain of employees and distributors to pay, but they also have an EXCELLENT product. They take em back if the plating chips off! They are worth the money if you use them to death. I have some snap on, some mac, and a couple matco. Some tools are craftsman, a lot are husky. My high use items i get the good stuff, but that cheesy distributor wrench that's all contorted funny... yeah it's a pittsburgh from harbor freight haha I used it once and low and behold it didn't break! So now it sits waiting for a chance to SNAP.



To all who care, my russian 9X19 Mak hasn't broken yet either!
 
Oh yeah Hohn, impact sockets are unusually large, big and fat. On many occasions this will prove to be detrimental. Your going to want the sleek sidewall, or perhaps the deep well socket or even O ring ratchets for uses. Tools are fun, paying for them isn't! I use regualr sockets with low impact stuff alot, bigger items like vehicle suspensions and high torq stuff i'll pull out my "impact" sockets, but normally they sit in the dark.
 
If your using the tools professionally then I would use Snap-On, Mac, or one of those type companies. But as far as average joe craftsmans are just fine. And I do know some professional mechanics that use craftsman and have good luck with them.



Impacts work fine with regular rachets and such but as said above their sometimes to fat to get into places.



I remeber reading in Motor Age magazine theres a new impact out thats suppose to pack 1000 ft. lbs. of torque in the same 3. 95 lbs. gun. dont remember who makes it.
 
I know a guy who has never bought a tool, but he has a room full of Craftsman tools that he's found on the road. He stops to pick up just about anything. He even stops and dodges trafficc on the expressway, to gather scattered tools. He likes to trade duplicate tools, to get stuff he doesn't have.



I got a full 1/4" set of Craftman's that fell out of a guy's car near my driveway once, but if I see them on the road, I run over them.



Doc
 
Observations from a mechanic...

... guys I turn wrenches for a living. I've got no problems with Craftsman stuff. As a matter of fact 90% of my tools are Craftsman. That being said there are some tools you don't skimp on. Torque wrenches are one of them. All of my torque wrenches are Snap-On,because I. M. H. O. they can't be beat for accuracy. But as far as hand tools Craftsman do good as long as you know there limitations. You can't put an adapter,a half inch breaker bar and a 2' pipe on a 3/8"socket. I've stripped as many Snap on ratchets as I have Craftsman. I also can't see paying $300 for a set of Snap-On hand wrenches when you can get a good set of long Craftsman"Professional"wrenches for $80. They look almost identical and I've yet to break one. Another thing when you get into stuff like welders and A. C. machines if you buy Snap-On you are just paying for the name,because usually it's made by someone else and S/O just puts there name on it and tacks on quite a few $$$. As far as impacts and air guns. You cannot beat I/R impact guns PERIOD. I've got a set of "Sunex"(cheapy) impact sockets that hold up to a lot of abuse. The only draw-back to using impact sockets all the time is the walls are thicker and sometimes you can't fit them in some spots. I'm not saying buy all cheapo tools,just spend YOU'RE money wisely... Doug
 
Originally posted by Hohn

OK, so how about IR impact sockets?? I figure if they make good guns, maybe the sockets are decent?



I found a decent price on the IR deep dish metric 6-pt sockets (10-20mm for $50)



Justin
I've been using four sets of IR 1/2'' drive(deep, regular, ASE and metric) for over five years, high quality, mid priced. Haven't broken one yet which is pretty good considering that many times on farm equiptment a 5 foot cheater bar is the only way. Seems I remember paying $44 for each set back then, the price you got is good.



No Craftsman for me. I like Proto for mid priced tools.
 
I have a 5 year old set of 1/2" Chinese Impact sockets. None are cracked and are still as good as new. I use a Chicago Pneumatic 1/2" drive impact w/ 1/2" I. D air line. 600 Lbs torque.
 
Most of my stuff is Craftsman but if I made my living with it alot of it wouldn't be. When I work on my truck at my fathers house I get to use his and my brothers Snap-on stuff. I like the Snap-on ratchets because they're a little longer and the screw drivers are more comfortable in my hand as are the wrenches. My father had a Snap-on screw driver that was probably 30 years old and he broke the tip on it, he sent it to work with my brother when he was wrenching for a living and when the Snap-on guy came by he replaced it no questions asked. It wasn't even the same style that they are making now, it looked completely different. Try getting a craftsman replaced if it is discontinued with a similar tool. I work in power plants and we have many different kinds of tools but the plant was mostly set-up with Snap-on and the tools are 10 years old, mostly the black finished type and other than thin coloring they are in great condition and they get abused. It's nothing to see a 6 foot cheater bar on the end of a 1/2 drive breaker bar, half the guys using the tools shouldn't be. I think in the end you have to be comfortable with the tool you're using so each manufacturer has their pluses and negatives.
 
I think Snap-On makes the best sockets, I use my 3/4 inch chrome sockets on my 3/4 impact all the time. K series head bolts can be pretty tough and 150 miles from a store is no time to worry about breaking sockets, so I pay the price and keep two each of the most common ones that I use.



On the other hand my two favorite ratchets are the Craftsman 3/8 and 1/2 with flex handles. I believe the guts are 3 times as tough as the Snap-On and 1/3rd the price. I keep one each of the Snap-On for backup. Mac has a 3/8 ratchet out that uses rollers instead of gears and it looks like the harder you pull the tighter the rollers grip the head, really neat concept and virtually a zero lash backstroke for another bite.



I hate the sharp edge on Snap-On wrenches your constantly looking for a wrag to wrap around the wrench, I won't buy them again. They do make the best angle head wrenches.



If your not using them everyday don't spend the money, its not worth it, go for midpriced tools. After a while it becomes second nature to position yourself not to get hurt when a tool fails regardless of brand. They all fail eventually, period.



A Johnson
 
I use my Craftsman chrome sockets on my Blue Point 1/2" gun all the time and have never broken or cracked one yet. I have even put a few of them on my IR 261 (3/4" 1100 Ft. Lbs. ) gun. I guess I'm hard on 3/8" ratchets because I'm all the time replacing my Craftsmen one. I have had my Snap-On one rebuilt a couple times and it doesn't do any better. So far my Napa 3/8" flex head has held up just fine but also doesn't get used as much. I wrench for a living and a good share of my sockets, ratchets and wrenches are Craftsman and I get good service out of them. It just sucks that Sears is about 110 miles away.
 
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