Recent content by 5ktq

I have the same one and have used it for years, but the mechanism finally wore out after ratcheting once or twice it will skip (and not until its under a lot of load so you throw out your back)

In the past I've got them from mouser and newark. If I have months of time and want knockoffs for peanuts I order from aliexpress. There are a lot of odd OE connector copies on there.

those hip 2000 work great with the compound action. Min looks like that but I thought it had a different PN. pinches from the end or the side.

Probably some time after NAFTA came around? Wonder what the tariffs were like on hand tools prior to that.

I always try to break loose and do final torque with a straight bit or key. I mostly only use ball for driving home / removing fasteners (like when there is no load on the fastener).

That's true now, but before they.. harmonized, older DIN things (eg 80's cars and probably near current german/swiss industrial stuff?) used 17/19 over 16/18. Back then I always wondered why dad's no-skip wrench set had 16/18, as I'd never seen a matching fastener in my life.

Yeah, it goes back to competing metric standards. Germans basically never used 12mm, it's pretty rare. japan loved it, for example.

SBD has Proto for the 10% that want American tools.

I'd imagine one PB Swiss costs more than a whole set of cut down bondhus balldrivers (even if you had to pay someone to cut them!).

The new Proto (or at least some of them) are Wilde.

I can't really see that mattering, the way I see it the surge from the rest of the geartrain getting coupled to the motor is going to be a lot less than the initial inrush when the motor first turns on? I'd imagine that surge on the motor is less than that when you go from idling to taking a...

The last gray ratchet I got (little 32 or 40 tooth 1/4" guy) says "gray tools" instead of "gray canada". I'm pretty sure it's still made here, but why would you move the marketing in that direction. Also their website has so little maple leafs. A US site with US made tools (eg proto) has a US...

I don't know if there's anything like it in your area, but some places have electronics recycling facilities. (I think they mostly just box it up and ship it to the third world). If there's one around you it might be worth asking if they'll separate that sort of thing out for you.

I have a couple rulers, combination square, that are mitutoyo made in USA. Wonder if that means they just sourced them here. (or did they have a plant here for some things?)

I bought the wiha keys in 10 and 12 (i think). Haven't really had to used them yet but they look nice. Figure they'll be useful for some short access things - I changed the seats in my one car recently and the rails are held in with triple square with very little clearance. Ended up using the...