Toolkit recommendations

[Chris J W]

I've a Beta Marine Kubota BV1903 four cylinder 43hp, with Hurth HBW125 hydraulic gearbox. Could someone recommend a decent toolkit set from, say, Halfords?

(NOT a Mail Order service - too many problems getting parcels delivered here)

 

Most of the tools I currently have are for taking PCs and Servers apart - not much use for bit lumps of metal!

[carlt]

I've a Beta Marine Kubota BV1903 four cylinder 43hp, with Hurth HBW125 hydraulic gearbox. Could someone recommend a decent toolkit set from, say, Halfords?

(NOT a Mail Order service - too many problems getting parcels delivered here)

 

Most of the tools I currently have are for taking PCs and Servers apart - not much use for bit lumps of metal!

I don't know if they still do them but I've got a bright orange, traditional cantilever style metal tool box, which came full of all the tools you'd need to maintain a modernish engine. It's not professional quality and it needs supplementing for my vintage stuff but it's done an engine rebuild on a cavalier and is reasonable kit.

 

It was £40 from halfords.

 

Edited to say: Otherwise a platinum amex and mobile phone should do the job.

Edited June 26, 2007 by carlt

[Chris J W]

I don't know if they still do them but I've got a bright orange, traditional cantilever style metal tool box, which came full of all the tools you'd need to maintain a modernish engine. It's not professional quality and it needs supplementing for my vintage stuff but it's done an engine rebuild on a cavalier and is reasonable kit.

 

It was £40 from halfords.

 

Edited to say: Otherwise a platinum amex and mobile phone should do the job.

 

Cheers for that. (Damn! I've only gotten a silver amex!)

[Machpoint005]

I was always told that you should buy the best tools you can afford. Are the Halfords ones OK or are they made from cast lead, like 1960s Honda spanners?

[Yamanx]

If you cant fix it with a hammer, its an electrical fault

[KenK]

I've a Beta Marine Kubota BV1903 four cylinder 43hp, with Hurth HBW125 hydraulic gearbox. Could someone recommend a decent toolkit set from, say, Halfords?

(NOT a Mail Order service - too many problems getting parcels delivered here)

 

Most of the tools I currently have are for taking PCs and Servers apart - not much use for bit lumps of metal!

 

Halfords do a nice kit comes in a metal case, contains most things to service anything on a boat. Last time I looked it was £99.00, my wife bought me one for Xmas so far it proved to be an excellent buy.

 

Ken

[Norman Bond]

I was always told that you should buy the best tools you can afford.

 

 

Agree wholeheartedly. The first time a spanner slips you will be amazed at just how much skin you can remove from your knuckles.

 

The best always used to be "King Dick" and are well worth searching for if only for the snigger factor.

 

I would also buy separate ring and open-ended sets. Combination spanners look good until the first time you come to remove a pair of lock nuts or a nut and bolt from a panel. Having the sizes you want on opposite ends of the same spanner will then make you wonder who thought up the stupid idea in the first place!

 

 

Norman

 

Edited to add:

 

You are probably better off not buying a set. Get the most common sizes and a tool bag to carry them in. Most of the spanners in a set you will never use. Maybe someone with one of theses engines will tell you which sizes you will need.

Edited June 26, 2007 by Norman Bond

[carlt]

I was always told that you should buy the best tools you can afford. Are the Halfords ones OK or are they made from cast lead, like 1960s Honda spanners?

The halfords tools are reasonable quality but not a patch on my Britool kit. I was always told never put a toolkit in your boot that's worth more than your car.

 

I agree in principle but my professional quality tools have been collected over the past 25 years or more, gradually replacing the basic toolkit I bought as a teenager mucking about with bikes.

 

Modern midrange tools are perfectly adequate for all basic mechanicking. If Chris was going to blueprint his engine I wouldn't have thought he would need to ask the question.

Edited June 26, 2007 by carlt

[Machpoint005]

Combination spanners look good until the first time you come to remove a pair of lock nuts or a nut and bolt from a panel

I agree, Norman, but then you need a socket set anyway (and not a silly little 3/8" drive one, either!).

[Chris J W]

Modern midrange tools are perfectly adequate for all basic mechancking. If Chris was going to blueprint his engine I wouldn't have thought he would need to ask the question.

 

You hit the screw on the head with the right spanner there! Just after a 'basic' kit for everyday maintenance work - belt tightness, that sort of thing. I suppose the aquatic equivalent of enough to "change a car tyre and the spark plugs" (OK, I think that works as an analogy!) For anything more complicated, in an emergency I'll call RCR. Anything else - either ask a friend or a professional that actually knows what they're doing.

[bottle]

Hi Chris

 

Slightly on a tangent, if buying spanners etc. get the best you can afford, cheap ones are a false economy.

 

Cheap ones will not be made to a high spec, size wise and the first nut you burr you will wish you had spent a little more.

 

'Ring' spanners are better than 'open' ones and good 'sockets' are essential you can get extra leverage/less effort.

 

One tip, clean the thread then always tighten a nut/bolt a little before loosening.

 

Stops/reduces the chance of the nut locking up on the threads.

 

Screwdrivers, again buy the best, the blade should always fit the slot etc exactly.

[MasterDabber]

The Halfords Professional range come with a lifetime guarantee and are pretty reasonable value.

 

I've used mine extensively on trials motorcycles and they've performed pretty well. I had one small adaptor break (due to my heavy handiness in reality) and it was replaced with no quibble.

[John Orentas]

When I ignore my thrifty instincts and buy the best quality tools or anything else somebody goes and nicks them. I do however find that comparatively low cost stuff can be quite good these days, not that I earn my living with them, I remember a time when socket spanners were so expensive that you bought then one by one as you needed them, only posh people bought a set.

[Chris J W]

Thanks folks. All very appreciated.

 

It's surprising, for me, that some of the advice I realised I actually knew! Spanners, for instance - I've always gone for open-ended-single-head for server racks, and for screwdrivers (especially the more bizzare Phillips/Torx types....) made sure I've the right ones. Saying that, though, I wasn't paying for them then! Still, that, and this advice, will stand me in good stead when meandering to Halfords ...

 

(Sez he - expecting the Halfords version of the infamous Not The Nice O'Clock News Hi-Fi Shop Sketch!)

 

Cheers, All!

[Guest]

The Machine Mart branches do tools at reasonable prices. They have a lifetime guarantee if you buy from the correct range, and are good enough for intermittent use.

[carlt]

The Halfords Professional range come with a lifetime guarantee and are pretty reasonable value.

 

I've used mine extensively on trials motorcycles and they've performed pretty well. I had one small adaptor break (due to my heavy handiness in reality) and it was replaced with no quibble.

Halfords professionals were made by britool, hence the quality. Not sure if they still are though.

[Norman Bond]

I don't know about most of the Halfords tool range, but I do have a set of their hexagonal (rather than bihex) sockets. These are a matt steel finish ( rather than the usual chrome-vanadium so they will go rusty if you don't look after them ) but they managed to shift some slightly chewed nuts on my car that other sockets could not shift.

 

Whatever you buy in the way of spanners and sockets make sure you get a good "Mole" wrench. There are times when you will wonder how people managed before them.

 

Couple of tips.

 

If you are using a spanner and there is any real resistance stop and push it with the palm of your hand rather than with your hand wrapped around it. If you slip it will be the spanner that hits that sharp bit of the engine that sticks out rather than your knuckles. Car mechanics learn this early on, but the rest of us take years and lots of blood and skin before someone points this out.

 

Box ( or tube ) spanners are something people no longer seem to use. I carry a set around in the boot of my car rather than a socket set. A lot smaller and lighter and because they are so slim they will go into places that even a socket set would have trouble reaching. If you are not going to do a lot of maintenance work on your engine these may be enough and even the good quality ones are really cheap.

 

 

Norman

[boatchad]

I bought some spanners nearly 40 years ago called ETC "Industrial" they have had regular daily use and none have ever failed. Far outlasting others including Facom, Bedford & Britool and at a fraction of the price! The Industrial range has a lifetime guarantee although I have never needed to use it they have been superb. They don't look very fancy and are not particularly shiny just good solid and reliable, I bought mine of a guy who used to travel round the local garages and workshops selling to the trade but they do have a website.

 

 

http://www.etctools.nl/englisch/

 

p.s. I have no connection of any kind to this company, I just fell on them by chance many years ago.

[David Schweizer]

I agree that Britool spanners are of very good quiality, pity about their Lifetime guarantee. I broke the sliding socket bar on my kit about five years ago, so I wrote to them, I am still waiting for the reply.

[carlt]

I agree that Britool spanners are of very good quiality, pity about their Lifetime guarantee. I broke the sliding socket bar on my kit about five years ago, so I wrote to them, I am still waiting for the reply.

I once broke my torque wrench. Entirely my fault (dropped it in the cut and didn't dry it out properly), sent it back with a covering letter admitting all and asking if it could be unsiezed and recalibrated (at my expense) and they sent me a shiny new one FOC. Took a couple of months turnaround but I was happy. That was the last expensive tool that went on my boat btw.

[DHutch]

Weve got a "halfords profesional" socket set.

- It was bought about 3/4years ago to get us out of a hole, and its actauly quite good as mentioned above.

- Its in a plastic case, with metric sockets down one side, imperial down the other, and both 1/4 and 1/2 inch drivers. (19-10mm 1/2inch, 12-6mm 1/4inch)

 

 

Daniel

[davidandheather]

Weve got a "halfords profesional" socket set.

- It was bought about 3/4years ago to get us out of a hole, and its actauly quite good as mentioned above.

- Its in a plastic case, with metric sockets down one side, imperial down the other, and both 1/4 and 1/2 inch drivers. (19-10mm 1/2inch, 12-6mm 1/4inch)

Daniel

[/quo

Halfords profesional"tools at one time were made by Facom one of the worlds leading tool makers not sure who makes them now

David

[wotnot]

I've a Beta Marine Kubota BV1903 four cylinder 43hp, with Hurth HBW125 hydraulic gearbox. Could someone recommend a decent toolkit set from, say, Halfords?

(NOT a Mail Order service - too many problems getting parcels delivered here)

 

Most of the tools I currently have are for taking PCs and Servers apart - not much use for bit lumps of metal!

 

I have a varied selection of tools going back to Whitworth sizes (some of you will know what they are) and lighter stuff for working on early Japanese bikes which are a bit fragile.

 

The question I have is: If my diesel car and van do 12k and 18k miles respectively between services without being touched by a spanner, why does a modern marinised diesel need anything other than fluid checks etc?

 

I'm currently having a boat built and was looking at having a new Beta or Shire fitted, but if they need fettling between routine maintenance I might as will try and find something older and simpler.

[Chris J W]

The question I have is: If my diesel car and van do 12k and 18k miles respectively between services without being touched by a spanner, why does a modern marinised diesel need anything other than fluid checks etc?

 

I'm currently having a boat built and was looking at having a new Beta or Shire fitted, but if they need fettling between routine maintenance I might as will try and find something older and simpler.

 

Talking for myself; I just wanted to make sure I had the right bits 'just in case' situations I could handle myself without having to call River Canal Rescue.

[mayalld]

I have a varied selection of tools going back to Whitworth sizes (some of you will know what they are) and lighter stuff for working on early Japanese bikes which are a bit fragile.

 

The question I have is: If my diesel car and van do 12k and 18k miles respectively between services without being touched by a spanner, why does a modern marinised diesel need anything other than fluid checks etc?

 

I'm currently having a boat built and was looking at having a new Beta or Shire fitted, but if they need fettling between routine maintenance I might as will try and find something older and simpler.

 

 

1) Routine maintenance is typically every 100 hours.

2) Regardless of the engine that you fit, the environment into which it is fitted means that there will be a need to check that things haven't worked loose on a weekly basis.

 

Plus, I always find that you get along better with an engine if you do your own routine stuff, and your own repairs where possible.

Edited August 12, 2007 by mayalld