Craigslist strikes again!

[McMXi]

A picture is worth a thousand words right! Here are the Facom locking pliers that I mentioned. I had six pairs but gave one pair away to a neighbor in Hawaii who was very taken with them.

You can almost brush off any weld spatter that sticks to them, and the one-handed operation is awesome if you have a welding stinger or torch in one hand and the pliers in the other. Another great feature is that they don't "explode" and whack your hand when they're released. These are all made in France and I've never found anything that comes close to these in terms of quality or function.

 

[McMXi]

In a way, it was the 1 1/16 that ended mine and my snap on dealer's relationship.

Several years ago, I started doubling my tooling setups. I needed stuff at home and despise taking stuff from my main box at the shop.

Up until this point, I was used to couple hundred to several hundred dollar wrench sets I have 3 main wrench sets that I purchased new in 2000 from snap on. All were just over $300 a set. A flank drive combination set 10-19mm, a ratcheting set 10-19mm, and a line set 9-21mm.
View attachment 157382 View attachment 157383 View attachment 157384
Probably 2015ish, I get on the truck actin like a hard ass and tell the snap on boy to order me a standard set so I can take my challenger set home. No quote, hell I got money LOL, or atleast i thought.

It was a 5/16 to 1" set. I typically need 2 of every wrench plus i'll need metrics to go up to atleast 24mm and standards to atleast 1 1/4. So on top of an already almost $700 wrench set, the 1 1/16, 1 1/8, and 1 1/4 wrenches add and additional almost $400 @ almost $130 per wrench. I got almost $1100 ripped out of my rear in a matter of seconds.
View attachment 157385

Meanwhile, my 20 year old $25 pittsburgh set is still going strong as can be.... like most older pittsburgh stuff. Got a 1/2" deep 10-24mm socket set for the same price at the same time as the wrenches. I value those more now than all my tool truck sets. Never broke a single socket in 2 decades. (17&19mm at the house)
View attachment 157387 View attachment 157388

So then earlier this year when our new apprentice decided to start building his arsenal of basic tools, we catch the snap on boy recommending this 39 piece set on "promo" for $2800. I was fightin mad at this dude. Here's an ebay listing of this same set, and that price is current with our local snap on dealers.
Snap-on Tools NEW RED 38-Piece MASTER Flank Drive Plus Wrench Set SOEXFSET1BR | eBay

@BBFarmer, I really enjoyed your post. I have very limited experience with Snap-on, and prior to the 1-1/16" wrench I just bought, I only have one Snap-on socket that I found, and some Snap-on metric triple square drivers that I bought when I was working on an Audi Allroad that I had.

I do have a Snap-on story though from a few decades ago and it was the first time I became aware of the brand.

I had a VW Jetta (Wolfsburg Edition) in Hawaii around 1990 and bought a short-shift kit for it. In those days I had very little in the way of tools, and my father-in-law had bought me a very cheap no-name wrench set for Christmas. I struggled for hours trying to get a 13mm nut removed as part of the short-shift kit installation and eventually drove to a mechanic's shop that my father-in-law used. The owner was a Filipino guy (eventually arrested and imprisoned for firearms and drug violations), but it took him 20 seconds to get the nut off using a Snap-on 13mm combination wrench. He told me that cheap wrenches flex and deform under load and that my 12-point wrench was slipping on the nut due to deformation. His Snap-on 12-point wrench that appeared to have a lot less steel in it did no such thing and it was a good lesson in the benefits of quality tools that are made of good alloys.

 

[RCW]

In a way, it was the 1 1/16 that ended mine and my snap on dealer's relationship.

Several years ago, I started doubling my tooling setups. I needed stuff at home and despise taking stuff from my main box at the shop.

Up until this point, I was used to couple hundred to several hundred dollar wrench sets I have 3 main wrench sets that I purchased new in 2000 from snap on. All were just over $300 a set. A flank drive combination set 10-19mm, a ratcheting set 10-19mm, and a line set 9-21mm.
View attachment 157382 View attachment 157383 View attachment 157384
Probably 2015ish, I get on the truck actin like a hard ass and tell the snap on boy to order me a standard set so I can take my challenger set home. No quote, hell I got money LOL, or atleast i thought.

It was a 5/16 to 1" set. I typically need 2 of every wrench plus i'll need metrics to go up to atleast 24mm and standards to atleast 1 1/4. So on top of an already almost $700 wrench set, the 1 1/16, 1 1/8, and 1 1/4 wrenches add and additional almost $400 @ almost $130 per wrench. I got almost $1100 ripped out of my rear in a matter of seconds.
View attachment 157385

Meanwhile, my 20 year old $25 pittsburgh set is still going strong as can be.... like most older pittsburgh stuff. Got a 1/2" deep 10-24mm socket set for the same price at the same time as the wrenches. I value those more now than all my tool truck sets. Never broke a single socket in 2 decades. (17&19mm at the house)
View attachment 157387 View attachment 157388

So then earlier this year when our new apprentice decided to start building his arsenal of basic tools, we catch the snap on boy recommending this 39 piece set on "promo" for $2800. I was fightin mad at this dude. Here's an ebay listing of this same set, and that price is current with our local snap on dealers.
Snap-on Tools NEW RED 38-Piece MASTER Flank Drive Plus Wrench Set SOEXFSET1BR | eBay

Oh my….. I seldom tell anyone I have some Pittsburgh wrenches for fear of ridicule.

If they work for you in your occupation, I may be less-reserved.