DavidB
Well-known member
I went to my local flea market and, after a dismal showing last week, found some new vendors. Shockingly, one guy had mostly USA made tools. It was humorous because he picked up one of the tools and then proceeded to say that the tools he had were good quality tools made in the US. At the time, he was holding a Stahlwille hex socket. I kept quiet though. He did have a good amount of random Armstrong stuff, a little bit of Allen, and two Snap-On. From him I picked up three Armstrong adapters and two 1/4" extensions. It all looked to be brand new! I also picked up a 1/4" and 11/16" Snap-On spline sockets. The SO was used but cleaned up well.
Walked around some more and came across another new booth. He had some larger wrenches and impact sockets. Passed on the wrenches but I took a closer look at the impacts. Turns out they're Wright brand metric impacts! This is big because I rarely find quality brand metric tools at my flea market. Sizes were 10, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 24mm. Here's a pic of the sockets. I jumped the gun and cleaned up the 24mm socket before remembering to grab a pic.
The best way I've found to clean up rusty impacts is with steel wool. It doesn't take long and then you oil the socket afterwards. It seems to remove the rust but not the black oxide coating. The 13mm had the most rust so I figured I'd toss it in the ultrasonic cleaner to see how it did. After 2 minutes it had removed the rust and some of what was left of the black oxide coating. Oops! Therefore, I don't recommend the ultrasonic cleaner for impacts unless you want them real clean. Anyways here's how they turned out afterwards. At some point in the future I may try to redo the black oxide on them.
Final cost was $20 for it all and a little bit of elbow grease.
Walked around some more and came across another new booth. He had some larger wrenches and impact sockets. Passed on the wrenches but I took a closer look at the impacts. Turns out they're Wright brand metric impacts! This is big because I rarely find quality brand metric tools at my flea market. Sizes were 10, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 24mm. Here's a pic of the sockets. I jumped the gun and cleaned up the 24mm socket before remembering to grab a pic.
The best way I've found to clean up rusty impacts is with steel wool. It doesn't take long and then you oil the socket afterwards. It seems to remove the rust but not the black oxide coating. The 13mm had the most rust so I figured I'd toss it in the ultrasonic cleaner to see how it did. After 2 minutes it had removed the rust and some of what was left of the black oxide coating. Oops! Therefore, I don't recommend the ultrasonic cleaner for impacts unless you want them real clean. Anyways here's how they turned out afterwards. At some point in the future I may try to redo the black oxide on them.
Final cost was $20 for it all and a little bit of elbow grease.
