He said the kid wanted to work on cars, not high end electronics, come on now!Need a couple hammers to start with too. A deadblow and a engineer's hammer. He'll need more later, but I would have trouble getting through a day without these.
I like the Nupla Powerdrive hammers. They're often rebranded for truck brands.
Lots of different engineer hammer options. I used an Estwing for a long time that I liked - and it was cheap. I lost it and replaced it with something different, Titan I think. I don't remember exactly because I hated it and bought a Stanley anti-vibe instead. The Stanley is even better, but is more expensive. Were I shopping right now I think I would choose the OSCA 3 or 4 lb. It's beautiful.
These might be a place to save the budget though - upgrade gifts for later dates perhaps. I remember the Titan I bought was like $11 for a two pack with a mini sledge. Super cheap. No reason your son couldn't get by with a cheap hammer to start.
I think it depends on the definition of a set. A 3000pc set, yeah gonna have alot of filler and niche tools. I think a set for the 17 year old in a more simpler style like attached. With something like that you cannot buy a third of the items separately for the money. Throw in a nice starter screwdriver and pliers set and he's off to a good start. My buddys dad always had a hodge podge of tools and you had to hunt for what you needed. My buddy bought himself a starter set when he moved out. The next Christmas he bought his little brother one because he remembered what a pain he had. A decent organized basic set can go along way.
I would check with his Instructor; he may have a connection to someone offering discounts to students.
I have a 3 year old grandson who wants to do everything. We used to ask him ‘Would you like to do do it yourself?’, and he would reply ‘Self do it’ except he pronounced it ‘shelf’, so for some time he had the nickname Shelf.
Agree with this 100%. Snap On offers students in our program a 50% discount. Few if any take advantage of it
The amount of sockets in those sets is just stupid. I've been a mechanic of over 40 years & don't have half that many.Google complete tool set. The variety is amazing but no one set will have everything he will need unless you are up in the huge dollar ranges. That Gearwrench set below is 1799.99 at Home Depot’s web site. The new HF Quinn set is a pretty decent bargain but you will be adding a lot to it.
My two cents?
I'm trying to think of what else might be needed. A pick set no doubt. Mayhew is probably the best (rebrands for Snap-on). Ullman is cheaper and made in the USA (used to rebrand for Snap-on, but it's been quite a while). I'd want a hose pick in the set too.
Pry bars - I might skimp here too. There's perfectly decent prybars to be had for cheap, including a set at Walmart that was the subject of a recent post. However, Mayhew is king of the mountain.
