What is being reviewed?
The subject of this review is a set of Proto Reversible Ratcheting Spline Combination wrenches. It's a set of 13 metric wrenches, sizes 7mm to 19mm, in a roll-up pouch. The Proto part number for this set is JSCVM-13S. In order to be more useful to people searching by Google, the contents of this kit are:
What are the review conditions?
I'm a recently-turned-professional mechanic working out of my own shop. I've been working on cars recreationally for about 6 years now and, after my most recent layoff, decided that the best way to get a job in this economy was to make one for myself. The majority of cars I work on are over 5 years old and most have lived in Ohio for all that time. Due to the extremely large amount of salt ODOT spreads on the road, extreme rust and corrosion, and the seized fasteners that result, are a daily part of my life. Since I'm the only one working in my shop and I'm trying to carry a full workload, I think it's fair to say that I swing a wrench more in a week than most people will in a year.
Why was this specific product purchased?
I was in the market for new wrenches due to me effectively "outgrowing" what I already had. When I first began buying tools, I assumed I'd be using them a couple of times a year to do oil changes and whatnot. Since that has grown to using them several times a day, the Craftsman stuff I bought initially just hasn't been cutting it anymore. I've been spreading the open ends, stripping ratcheting mechanisms, etc.
There are a number of decisions that led me to these specific wrenches. Some of it could have been easily fulfilled. For instance, I knew I wanted a industrial-grade tool. I knew I didn't want a flex-wrench. I knew I wanted a ratcheting combo wrench and I knew that I wanted it to have a reversing lever so that I couldn't end up getting the wrench trapped. The sticker, though, was that I knew that I wanted a spline box end. With the huge amount of rust up here, spline wrenches provide a HUGE advantage in grabbing rusted or otherwise damaged fasteners. High quality (read: not Harbor Freight or Craftsman) spline tools will grab and break free a fastener so rounded or so rusted that even a 6-point traditional box wrench won't grab it. The only wrenches I could find on the market that fit my requirements were these Protos.
What were my first impressions?
My first impressions were generally favorable. The wrenches arrived all in good shape with no obvious defects or damage. The ratcheting and reversing mechanisms on all wrenches worked smoothly. There was a certain solidness to them that I can't really give a justification for why I felt that way. It's like the difference between picking up a hunk of Pine and a hunk of Cocobolo. You can just tell the Cocobolo will leave a bigger dent in someone's head. The wrenches are like that, they just feel like they're solid pieces of equipment, rather than toys. In comparison, my Craftsman Raised Panel Made in USA ratcheting wrenches felt like parts of a windchime.
What are some of the stand-out details of the wrenches?
Funnily enough, one of the bigger things is the pouch they come in (which I'll never use). It's one of the few tool pouches I've ever had that really is useful. It's made of a heavyweight Cordura nylon that's been rubberized on the inside. The pouches are formed with a clear layer of PVC. There's a velcro strap to secure the whole thing once it's rolled up. The big difference to most other pouches is that the pouch is tall enough to actually fold a flap down over the tallest wrench, then roll it up. Other pouches leave you struggling to try to figure out how to roll some corner over the tall tool, then fold it diagonally, or whatever, while you roll it up to try to keep all the tools contained. With this one, you just fold the top flap down, all the tools are trapped, and then you roll it up.
The black finish is something I'm not sure about. It definitely makes it easier to lose the wrench under a hood since it won't stand out against a typical engine bay. It also has a strange feeling, almost like it's very slightly tacky. Your fingers don't slide over it easily, which is actually a good thing, but it leaves the wrench feeling slightly dirty. The coating seems tough enough, though I was able to wear a small hole in the coating on one wrench when used in a position where it constantly was ground back and forth over the edge of a rusty piece of sheetmetal (chrome comes off under these conditions as well).
What's the beam like?
In a word? Bad.
The beam is ovoid in shape, which means the radius at the final edge that you pull on is pretty small. This makes the wrench a little painful to pull on hard. Now, I'm a big guy with bigger hands. I can really reef on a wrench when a lot of other guys grab a breaker bar or a hammer. That's when it gets painful. Under normal use of the ratcheting end where you're just driving in/out a reluctant bolt, it's perfectly fine. If you have smaller hands, you'll probably think it's fine. If you like Snap On's beams, you'll probably like these.
Note (pictured below) that the open end of the wrench does kick up off the beam. This isn't easy to tell from Proto's catalog, so I wanted to make a note of it here. The offset is consistent between all the wrenches in the set and appears to be about 15*.
How's the performance of the box end?
I already have a little experience with Matco spline ratcheting wrenches, so I knew what I was getting into. These Proto wrenches are everything I expected. They ratchet smoothly, don't self-reverse, and the spline broaching grabs the hell out of a fastener, no matter what condition it's in. In other words, they're wonderful. I realize this is short for the defining characteristic of the wrench, but it's hard to write a lot about something that works perfectly and is exactly what you'd expected/hoped for.
How's the performance of the open end?
****** fantastic!
I'll freely admit, here, that I don't have a lot of experience with top-flight open ended wrenches. My standard of reference is the Craftsman Raised Panel Made in USA wrenches. These Protos make the Craftsmans feel like cheap toys. I have never before used an open end wrench that can apply so much torque to a fastener without either spreading or rounding the fastener. The Craftsmans I had would actually spread and slip around the fastener without even damaging it. These Protos just pop the thing loose.
As a specific example, the inner tie rod of a Subaru has a 13mm hex on the rod with a 19mm jam nut against the outer tie rod. With the Craftsman, the 19mm would just maul the nut while the 13mm would slip around the inner tie rod without even marring the rust! So I always had to go get the MAPP gas torch, heat everything cherry red, then bang it all apart. I have now successfully broken 6 sets of tie rods apart with these wrenches. 100% of the time, the 19mm Proto will loosen the 19mm jam nut without damaging it. In all but one case, the 13mm was capable of breaking the inner tie rod free of the outer and the nut. In the final case, at about 80ft-lbs, the 13mm hex on the rod rounded over, but the wrench never spread. It actually rounded the rod down to 13mm all the way around. Given that you should NEVER be trying to run a 13mm fitting up to 80+ ftlbs, this is awesome performance from a wrench, as far as I am concerned.
Note that the open ends feature something Proto calls Anti-Slip Design (ASD). ASD is basically a dent in the jaws of the open end. I have a detail shot below for you. I have no idea how much this contributes to the performance of the wrench.
Wrenches in their pouch
Note the extra pouch height to fold over.
Overview of the wrench
You can barely see the ASD on the open end, but the main features of the wrench are visible.
Beam and box end
Here you can see what I mean about the beam being somewhat sharp on the edges and see the offset of the box end.
Box end of wrench
The broaching has machining marks in it, which is interesting. Additionally, you can see that the splines are faceted, which I haven't noticed on other spline wrenches (though I haven't looked)
Open end of wrench
This is a detail shot to show you the ASD feature. Note that the jaws are symmetric (groove is in the same place on the other jaw).
Final throughts?
I'm extremely happy with these wrenches. I think they were worth more than what I paid for them (which wasn't that much, really). They've been very useful so far and are a BIG upgrade over what I've had before.
The subject of this review is a set of Proto Reversible Ratcheting Spline Combination wrenches. It's a set of 13 metric wrenches, sizes 7mm to 19mm, in a roll-up pouch. The Proto part number for this set is JSCVM-13S. In order to be more useful to people searching by Google, the contents of this kit are:
Code:
JSCVM07
JSCVM08
JSCVM09
JSCVM10
JSCVM11
JSCVM12
JSCVM13
JSCVM14
JSCVM15
JSCVM16
JSCVM17
JSCVM18
JSCVM19What are the review conditions?
I'm a recently-turned-professional mechanic working out of my own shop. I've been working on cars recreationally for about 6 years now and, after my most recent layoff, decided that the best way to get a job in this economy was to make one for myself. The majority of cars I work on are over 5 years old and most have lived in Ohio for all that time. Due to the extremely large amount of salt ODOT spreads on the road, extreme rust and corrosion, and the seized fasteners that result, are a daily part of my life. Since I'm the only one working in my shop and I'm trying to carry a full workload, I think it's fair to say that I swing a wrench more in a week than most people will in a year.
Why was this specific product purchased?
I was in the market for new wrenches due to me effectively "outgrowing" what I already had. When I first began buying tools, I assumed I'd be using them a couple of times a year to do oil changes and whatnot. Since that has grown to using them several times a day, the Craftsman stuff I bought initially just hasn't been cutting it anymore. I've been spreading the open ends, stripping ratcheting mechanisms, etc.
There are a number of decisions that led me to these specific wrenches. Some of it could have been easily fulfilled. For instance, I knew I wanted a industrial-grade tool. I knew I didn't want a flex-wrench. I knew I wanted a ratcheting combo wrench and I knew that I wanted it to have a reversing lever so that I couldn't end up getting the wrench trapped. The sticker, though, was that I knew that I wanted a spline box end. With the huge amount of rust up here, spline wrenches provide a HUGE advantage in grabbing rusted or otherwise damaged fasteners. High quality (read: not Harbor Freight or Craftsman) spline tools will grab and break free a fastener so rounded or so rusted that even a 6-point traditional box wrench won't grab it. The only wrenches I could find on the market that fit my requirements were these Protos.
What were my first impressions?
My first impressions were generally favorable. The wrenches arrived all in good shape with no obvious defects or damage. The ratcheting and reversing mechanisms on all wrenches worked smoothly. There was a certain solidness to them that I can't really give a justification for why I felt that way. It's like the difference between picking up a hunk of Pine and a hunk of Cocobolo. You can just tell the Cocobolo will leave a bigger dent in someone's head. The wrenches are like that, they just feel like they're solid pieces of equipment, rather than toys. In comparison, my Craftsman Raised Panel Made in USA ratcheting wrenches felt like parts of a windchime.
What are some of the stand-out details of the wrenches?
Funnily enough, one of the bigger things is the pouch they come in (which I'll never use). It's one of the few tool pouches I've ever had that really is useful. It's made of a heavyweight Cordura nylon that's been rubberized on the inside. The pouches are formed with a clear layer of PVC. There's a velcro strap to secure the whole thing once it's rolled up. The big difference to most other pouches is that the pouch is tall enough to actually fold a flap down over the tallest wrench, then roll it up. Other pouches leave you struggling to try to figure out how to roll some corner over the tall tool, then fold it diagonally, or whatever, while you roll it up to try to keep all the tools contained. With this one, you just fold the top flap down, all the tools are trapped, and then you roll it up.
The black finish is something I'm not sure about. It definitely makes it easier to lose the wrench under a hood since it won't stand out against a typical engine bay. It also has a strange feeling, almost like it's very slightly tacky. Your fingers don't slide over it easily, which is actually a good thing, but it leaves the wrench feeling slightly dirty. The coating seems tough enough, though I was able to wear a small hole in the coating on one wrench when used in a position where it constantly was ground back and forth over the edge of a rusty piece of sheetmetal (chrome comes off under these conditions as well).
What's the beam like?
In a word? Bad.
The beam is ovoid in shape, which means the radius at the final edge that you pull on is pretty small. This makes the wrench a little painful to pull on hard. Now, I'm a big guy with bigger hands. I can really reef on a wrench when a lot of other guys grab a breaker bar or a hammer. That's when it gets painful. Under normal use of the ratcheting end where you're just driving in/out a reluctant bolt, it's perfectly fine. If you have smaller hands, you'll probably think it's fine. If you like Snap On's beams, you'll probably like these.
Note (pictured below) that the open end of the wrench does kick up off the beam. This isn't easy to tell from Proto's catalog, so I wanted to make a note of it here. The offset is consistent between all the wrenches in the set and appears to be about 15*.
How's the performance of the box end?
I already have a little experience with Matco spline ratcheting wrenches, so I knew what I was getting into. These Proto wrenches are everything I expected. They ratchet smoothly, don't self-reverse, and the spline broaching grabs the hell out of a fastener, no matter what condition it's in. In other words, they're wonderful. I realize this is short for the defining characteristic of the wrench, but it's hard to write a lot about something that works perfectly and is exactly what you'd expected/hoped for.
How's the performance of the open end?
****** fantastic!
I'll freely admit, here, that I don't have a lot of experience with top-flight open ended wrenches. My standard of reference is the Craftsman Raised Panel Made in USA wrenches. These Protos make the Craftsmans feel like cheap toys. I have never before used an open end wrench that can apply so much torque to a fastener without either spreading or rounding the fastener. The Craftsmans I had would actually spread and slip around the fastener without even damaging it. These Protos just pop the thing loose.
As a specific example, the inner tie rod of a Subaru has a 13mm hex on the rod with a 19mm jam nut against the outer tie rod. With the Craftsman, the 19mm would just maul the nut while the 13mm would slip around the inner tie rod without even marring the rust! So I always had to go get the MAPP gas torch, heat everything cherry red, then bang it all apart. I have now successfully broken 6 sets of tie rods apart with these wrenches. 100% of the time, the 19mm Proto will loosen the 19mm jam nut without damaging it. In all but one case, the 13mm was capable of breaking the inner tie rod free of the outer and the nut. In the final case, at about 80ft-lbs, the 13mm hex on the rod rounded over, but the wrench never spread. It actually rounded the rod down to 13mm all the way around. Given that you should NEVER be trying to run a 13mm fitting up to 80+ ftlbs, this is awesome performance from a wrench, as far as I am concerned.
Note that the open ends feature something Proto calls Anti-Slip Design (ASD). ASD is basically a dent in the jaws of the open end. I have a detail shot below for you. I have no idea how much this contributes to the performance of the wrench.
Wrenches in their pouch
Note the extra pouch height to fold over.
Overview of the wrench
You can barely see the ASD on the open end, but the main features of the wrench are visible.
Beam and box end
Here you can see what I mean about the beam being somewhat sharp on the edges and see the offset of the box end.
Box end of wrench
The broaching has machining marks in it, which is interesting. Additionally, you can see that the splines are faceted, which I haven't noticed on other spline wrenches (though I haven't looked)
Open end of wrench
This is a detail shot to show you the ASD feature. Note that the jaws are symmetric (groove is in the same place on the other jaw).
Final throughts?
I'm extremely happy with these wrenches. I think they were worth more than what I paid for them (which wasn't that much, really). They've been very useful so far and are a BIG upgrade over what I've had before.
