four.cycle
Well-known member
^ can't remember exactly what we did to get it out but we could have used that widget on that Ford truck last summer when replacing the side glass.
Tools of Japan
- Thread starter Frankstools
- Start date
Unfortunately I can't help there as I am in Australia and ordered it from within the country.
Finally got a update from KTC on my order from December 12th... after I sent a second email asking for an update. They expect it will ship mid or end of February. I hope they can figure their logistics out. I like the tools, but 2+ months to get them direct is kinda a deal breaker for future orders.
Of the many things I ordered, the only one I "needed" was a 32mm socket to do rear axles on my BRZ. Now I "need" to get a Koken Z-series socket now, since using my only other 32mm socket, a Taiwanese impact socket, wouldn't feel right
Of the many things I ordered, the only one I "needed" was a 32mm socket to do rear axles on my BRZ. Now I "need" to get a Koken Z-series socket now, since using my only other 32mm socket, a Taiwanese impact socket, wouldn't feel right
Shocker
Well-known member
Regarding the Koken window trim remover tool. There are a couple of US sites that have it listed for sale. Not sure if they are trustworthy, but they do have US addresses and phone numbers.
ustoolhub.com
Koken 169WM | Window Molding Remover
US Tool Hub offers the Koken 169WM | Window Molding Remover to order online with a best Price Guarantee. Fast Shipping Available.
ustoolhub.com
Koken 169WM - Window Molding Remover Tool-KOK169WM
www.toolpan.com
Reliable USA sources for Koken tools:
kokenusa.com
palmac.net
Window Molding Remover Length 210mm - Ko-ken USA
Length: 210mm Product Dimension (Refer Line Drawing Image): H Size: 100mm L Size: 210mm - Ko-ken USA
kokenusa.com
Ko-ken Tools Window Molding Remover Length 210mm - Palmac Tools
Length: 210mm Product Dimension (Refer Line Drawing Image): H Size: 100mm L Size: 210mm - Palmac Tools
palmac.net
pizza
Well-known member
Reliable USA sources for Koken tools:
Window Molding Remover Length 210mm - Ko-ken USA
Length: 210mm Product Dimension (Refer Line Drawing Image): H Size: 100mm L Size: 210mm - Ko-ken USA
Ko-ken Tools Window Molding Remover Length 210mm - Palmac Tools
Length: 210mm Product Dimension (Refer Line Drawing Image): H Size: 100mm L Size: 210mm - Palmac Tools
more like source... singular.
same source, different pricing
KokenUSA prices include "free" shipping, Palmac charges separately for shipping.more like source... singular.
same source, different pricing
Qualitytools
Well-known member
Wow a bit on the expensive side, $40 and $52?more like source... singular.
same source, different pricing
pizza
Well-known member
nice, never noticed that. that is possibly worth it for small orders. all my palmac orders have been big enough to get free shipping, so i didn't notice before.
is there a permanent coupon for kokenusa like on palmac ('mrsubaru5')?
is there a permanent coupon for kokenusa like on palmac ('mrsubaru5')?
A quick review of my Anex 3775 driver which i bought over 2 years ago from Amzn.jp
I use mine for automotive and household work and enjoy using it. The shaft to handle tolerance is excellent and there is no free play while using it. I often wondered how the inside of the plastic handle was made to manage torque being applied on the blade and found that there is a metallic portion in which the blade engages, this is good design and has held up well with my usage. I have also used the handle with shorter Wera, Vessel & Trusco bits and they perform well with the only issue being that the ball detent position does not match (obviously) but the ball detent of the Anex bit does not match with the handle either so i guess i've got nothing much to complain about.
Overall, i like this driver very much but i'm unaware of any torque ratings for it. The handle is shaped well with a partial soft grip which is my only concern. While using it in narrow spaces with sharp corners (say sheet metal and confined engine bays) the soft handle material has taken several cuts / nicks over the years - Not enough to damage the handle or to take chunks of the soft material out but the cuts are visible when dirt, grease and grime gets into them. There is also noticeable amount of wear of the soft handle material with my occasional usage so i'm guessing in a heavy use environment it may not last long. The handle washes up very well with just soap water and has also held up well against automotive fluids like coolant, gasoline, various greases & oils etc so far.
I use mine for automotive and household work and enjoy using it. The shaft to handle tolerance is excellent and there is no free play while using it. I often wondered how the inside of the plastic handle was made to manage torque being applied on the blade and found that there is a metallic portion in which the blade engages, this is good design and has held up well with my usage. I have also used the handle with shorter Wera, Vessel & Trusco bits and they perform well with the only issue being that the ball detent position does not match (obviously) but the ball detent of the Anex bit does not match with the handle either so i guess i've got nothing much to complain about.
Overall, i like this driver very much but i'm unaware of any torque ratings for it. The handle is shaped well with a partial soft grip which is my only concern. While using it in narrow spaces with sharp corners (say sheet metal and confined engine bays) the soft handle material has taken several cuts / nicks over the years - Not enough to damage the handle or to take chunks of the soft material out but the cuts are visible when dirt, grease and grime gets into them. There is also noticeable amount of wear of the soft handle material with my occasional usage so i'm guessing in a heavy use environment it may not last long. The handle washes up very well with just soap water and has also held up well against automotive fluids like coolant, gasoline, various greases & oils etc so far.
ronkz650
Well-known member
Yes, use mrsubaru10 at Kokenusa for 10% off.
Qualitytools
Well-known member
Thanks for sharing, good information!A quick review of my Anex 3775 driver which i bought over 2 years ago from Amzn.jp
I use mine for automotive and household work and enjoy using it. The shaft to handle tolerance is excellent and there is no free play while using it. I often wondered how the inside of the plastic handle was made to manage torque being applied on the blade and found that there is a metallic portion in which the blade engages, this is good design and has held up well with my usage. I have also used the handle with shorter Wera, Vessel & Trusco bits and they perform well with the only issue being that the ball detent position does not match (obviously) but the ball detent of the Anex bit does not match with the handle either so i guess i've got nothing much to complain about.
Overall, i like this driver very much but i'm unaware of any torque ratings for it. The handle is shaped well with a partial soft grip which is my only concern. While using it in narrow spaces with sharp corners (say sheet metal and confined engine bays) the soft handle material has taken several cuts / nicks over the years - Not enough to damage the handle or to take chunks of the soft material out but the cuts are visible when dirt, grease and grime gets into them. There is also noticeable amount of wear of the soft handle material with my occasional usage so i'm guessing in a heavy use environment it may not last long. The handle washes up very well with just soap water and has also held up well against automotive fluids like coolant, gasoline, various greases & oils etc so far.
Jeff
Well-known member
I found two SP Air tools on clearance. Amazingly quiet little buggers they are.
pizza
Well-known member
i was bored, so i spent 5 minutes recreating my most recent palmac order on kokenusa.
palmac:
palmac ships free over $199, so i guess it could be worth comparing if your order is less than that.
palmac:
- subtotal: 755.14
- total (-5%): $717.37
- subtotal: $980.79
- total (-10%): $882.71
palmac ships free over $199, so i guess it could be worth comparing if your order is less than that.
Qualitytools
Well-known member
Looks great, care to share where and how much please? ThanksI found two SP Air tools on clearance. Amazingly quiet little buggers they are.
Jeff
Well-known member
National Tool had them. Unfortunately they're OOS. I paid $32 shipped.
Jeff
Well-known member
SP Air Hex Driver
Reed Prince
Well-known member
A recent "off-label" Ko-ken/Nepros application.
Super cool...I'm the same I was on AmazonJP again and filled my cart up with 93 itemsThe Anex is my current favorite ratcheting screwdriver. My fumbling fingers inadvertently turn the direction ring of the Vessel too often. The PB Swiss has the ratchet in front of the handle, and it ends up feeling sort of like the Frankenstein thing at the bottom of the photo, luxuriously smooth but heavy and imbalanced.
...and when I spend idle time on Amazon Japan I often end up with nice looking things I might never need.
and checked out. I bought a few more 397 Anex and 3 of the stubby versions. And the older red 60T versions. And a whole bunch of stuff. A good steal was the Koken 4pc thin wall wheel socket set 17 19 21 & 22mm for $21au. Probably like $15US. That set sells here for like $145! I found they were a bit low on stock and wouldnt ship certain items that didnt make sense. I wanter the Tone socket adapters you put in a box end wrench and they wyer all in stock but they would only allow me to order the RA1 which is the 1/4" one and not the RA2 or RA3 3/8 and 1/2. I hope the Annex ball grip screwdrivers are close in quality to the Vessels as I have 1 or 2 on there way. U chose well the purple strike through Vessel is 'made in Japan' where as the yellow and red ones can be 'made in Thailand'.When only buying a single Koken tool, it can be cheaper to buy from KokenUSA, in my experience. The minimum shipping charge at Palmac seems to be around $11.50.
I posted this before, maybe in this thread... I needed replacement plastic sleeves for the Koken wheel nut impact socket. Amazon.jp didn't have them (this was a year or more ago, before they stopped shipping some items to the US), Palmac didn't even list them, Koken US listed them and had multiple in stock. No idea what's going on with Koken US and Palmac, it seems redundant, but Palmac doesn't list everything that Koken US stocks. Palmac has always been considerably cheaper for items in stock that I checked on.
Odd-job
Well-known member
how much was shipping if you don't mind me asking? In the US that would be $380 in shipping costs from Amazon Japan.Super cool...I'm the same I was on AmazonJP again and filled my cart up with 93 items
Maxcustody
Well-known member
Vessel 1/4 impact ball bit set.
Qualitytools
Well-known member
Very Nice! Quite also, thanks for sharing.
4xdog
Well-known member
Throwback Thursday.
These are out of my father's workshop, brought to mine when I cleared their old house. Probably dating from mid-1970s to very early 1980s. Back when Japan was "simpler". Anybody recognize that imprint? An "H" inside a five-pointed star?
These are out of my father's workshop, brought to mine when I cleared their old house. Probably dating from mid-1970s to very early 1980s. Back when Japan was "simpler". Anybody recognize that imprint? An "H" inside a five-pointed star?
Shocker
Well-known member
So I think that might be a Hitachi tool mark. The ones I have seen are a 6 pointed star but otherwise the same.
rick carpenter
Well-known member
My Anex ACMH9-EH bit set came in today. Some 65mm hex, plus, & minus bits, an extension that's most likely an AEH-100, and a 3780 non-rat stubby handle. I miked the Anex bits vs some Vessel bits I have and my manual Mitutoyo mike shows right at the same size across the hexes for both. I think the difference between Anex and Vessel is the receivers on the driver handles with Anex 3780 and 397 having a tighter fit vs the Vessel 270 (the receiver barrel depths are comparable) with the same bits.
The reason I'm only about 98% sure the kit's extension is an AEH-100 is due to cosmetic differences. The one in the kit has a translucent gray-ish collar and no markings vs the online pics of the extension with a translucent red collar and markings. The bit retention is two small spring-loaded balls 180* apart in the extension chuck. They do hold the Type A (13mm anvil) bits but allow some free play in and out because they're not nearly the size of impact driver balls. When driving though, the bit butts contact the chuck's barrel end. Anyhow, I'll soon grind the hex end down to fit my western Milwaukee impact drivers' 9mm anvil chucks.
Wifey ordered this through her Amazon Prime account along with the 397 driver I got the other day, but the bit kit came via Amazon Japan.
The reason I'm only about 98% sure the kit's extension is an AEH-100 is due to cosmetic differences. The one in the kit has a translucent gray-ish collar and no markings vs the online pics of the extension with a translucent red collar and markings. The bit retention is two small spring-loaded balls 180* apart in the extension chuck. They do hold the Type A (13mm anvil) bits but allow some free play in and out because they're not nearly the size of impact driver balls. When driving though, the bit butts contact the chuck's barrel end. Anyhow, I'll soon grind the hex end down to fit my western Milwaukee impact drivers' 9mm anvil chucks.
Wifey ordered this through her Amazon Prime account along with the 397 driver I got the other day, but the bit kit came via Amazon Japan.
I spent about $950-1000 on products and shipping was about $200. I made sure to only buy 'in stock' products from Amazon JP believing that if they all come from the warehouse they can bulk ship and reduce cost. You have to buy id say at least 10+ items to make it worthwhile otherwise a $5 item will have $30 shipping lol. My last order was delivered by DHL. Now this is in AU dollars so USD would be roughly equal to USD$75 equals $100aud. Shipping is the BIG consideration and you have to almost chechout before you know what the total is.
Odd-job
Well-known member
Thanks for the detail and the data points. I can stomach 15-20% shipping costs.
Here's an example of the screwed up Amazon Japan shipping algorithm for us in the states - 45% shipping costs:
I figured out its basically calculating a $5 per item on top of a $20 flat fee. ($55X5) + $20 = ~$295
To make it worthwhile you have to buy lower volume higher dollar items which means stuff under $15 doesn't make sense unless its at least $5 of savings vs buying domestically. Buy a wrench set instead of single wrenches for example.
This was my last order for 6 items for reference comprising 4 vessel powered screwdrivers, a shun knife, and a set of Top combination wrenches:
Probably my last order hopefully for a while.
pizza
Well-known member
azjp not shipping to the usa (at least for everything i'm looking at) is such a bummer.
even if you use a re-shipper in japan to get the stuff, then you're paying jp sales tax. amazon used to remove that when you could ship to the us.
examples of items i bought before but can't buy the same way now..
even if you use a re-shipper in japan to get the stuff, then you're paying jp sales tax. amazon used to remove that when you could ship to the us.
examples of items i bought before but can't buy the same way now..
Amazon | トップ (TOP) ハイパーモンキ ZERO ガタ無しワイドモンキレンチ 口開き0~32㎜ ガタ無しウォーム採用 HM-32 モンキーレンチ | DIY・工具・ガーデン
トップ (TOP) ハイパーモンキ ZERO ガタ無しワイドモンキレンチ 口開き0~32㎜ ガタ無しウォーム採用 HM-32 モンキーレンチがDIY・工具・ガーデンストアでいつでもお買い得。当日お急ぎ便対象商品は、当日お届け可能です。アマゾン配送商品は、通常配送無料（一部除く）。
www.amazon.co.jp
Amazon | 室本鉄工 メリー ZA185 ネジラー | 標準ペンチ
室本鉄工 メリー ZA185 ネジラーが標準ペンチストアでいつでもお買い得。当日お急ぎ便対象商品は、当日お届け可能です。アマゾン配送商品は、通常配送無料（一部除く）。
www.amazon.co.jp
Yeah I get it. Likewise I can justify a 20%ish shipping charge. Its something Amazon wants to get right as it is often the deciding factor on purchases. Im a Prime member for AmazonAu but I dont think you get any benefit shopping on Amazon de/jp or US. Maybe costs went up with covid or whatever. Its odd to see folks in the US get the raw deal, its usually us or countries other than the US. I wouldnt probably do orders if it was 30/40% shipping. But also I made sure all items were 'in stock' at Amazon.jp warehouse so everything could be sent together in bulk. Having said that they did split my order into 2 deliveries 
pizza
Well-known member
interesting. so far i actually can't find ANYTHING i'd want that will actually still ship to the US, so i haven't noticed this shipping cost hike.
i'm going through my past orders and clicking on anything i'd consider rebuying as a gift or whatever. lol
it just lies and says:
but then when i put in a jap zip code like 100-0004 (tokyo) in the deliver-to thing in the upper left corner, it's magically in stock and ready to ship:
Had a tight spot yesterday - needed to remove the nut from a solenoid to add another hot lead. A tight spot, and the plastic barrier between the solenoid posts didn't help. Could only barely get my fingers back there to pop the red rubber cap off the nut, and the only wrench I could get on it was an offset 10mm that I could only get 1/12th turn on. Really pleased with the little 1/4" Ko-ken ratchet, wobble extension, u-joint, and nut-grip socket.
I did *not* want to drop that nut into the narrow abyss, so the nut-grip added a lot of assurance. The negative terminal (in front) was a lot easier!
I did *not* want to drop that nut into the narrow abyss, so the nut-grip added a lot of assurance. The negative terminal (in front) was a lot easier!
I was looking for some metric & inch combo tape measures and picked up these two from Mitutoyo. One made in Japan and the other in England. Pretty modest cost and there are several other versions available as well. Purchased from https://www.bmikarts.com in Ohio.
Attachments
Reed Prince
Well-known member
rick carpenter
Well-known member
My wife has the Prime account with Amazon.com, so I have her order all my stuff. The last tool order she made for me was an Anex 397 driver and an Anex bit kit. Both made in Japan. The 397 was a regular Prime item but the bit kit came via Amazon Japan.
Yeah but your dealing with local US amazon that will offer products from Japan through that system BUT....go check the prices in Japan Amazon & the price could be a LOT better. But you then need to consider shipping, import fees etc. Its a juggling act.
I think Koken makes THE best tools for this type of situation. They dont just copy others, they invest and innovate in this area.Had a tight spot yesterday - needed to remove the nut from a solenoid to add another hot lead. A tight spot, and the plastic barrier between the solenoid posts didn't help. Could only barely get my fingers back there to pop the red rubber cap off the nut, and the only wrench I could get on it was an offset 10mm that I could only get 1/12th turn on. Really pleased with the little 1/4" Ko-ken ratchet, wobble extension, u-joint, and nut-grip socket.
I did *not* want to drop that nut into the narrow abyss, so the nut-grip added a lot of assurance. The negative terminal (in front) was a lot easier!
