"Fixman" brand tools?

[JradM]

Anyone heard of this brand or seen the tools before? I stumbled across a local company selling this brand. I suspect it's just a Chinese rebrand, but some of the stuff looks cool.

This tool chest for example:



Looks interesting to me. Reminds me of Facom a bit (before anyone freaks out, I'm not suggesting it's as GOOD as Facom, just has a similar look).



Here's another Fixman model:


They have hand tools as well. I doubt they are anything special, but the prices are cheap. A pair of 10" locking seamer pliers for example, is <$17 Canadian. Irwin's 8" retail for about $35 here. Most random-letter-companies-from-China-selling-only-on-Amazon are still a bit over $20.



Ring wrench set for $26. 8mm to 19mm with no skips - and they have the steep offset I prefer.



Just curious if anyone knows anything about the brand. I found an old GJ thread where someone said they were Australian-based, but no comments on quality.

 

[RTM]

try here

FIXMAN® Tools: Hardware Tools & Roller Cabinet | Professional Tool Manufacturer | Contact us

联系我们

www.fixmanhardwares.com

 

[JradM]

try here

FIXMAN® Tools: Hardware Tools & Roller Cabinet | Professional Tool Manufacturer | Contact us

联系我们

www.fixmanhardwares.com

Thanks. That catalogue shows more tools than were listed from my local retailer.

Interesting... I'm not sure what to make of the brand. On the one hand, I think it would be easy to dismiss as cheap Chinese tools. On the other, they have a pretty comprehensive and coherent and unique line of tools. E.g. they sell a lot of different modular foam sets:


I wouldn't mind a punch set like this.

 

[Ton ton]

I looks interesting to say the least. Not that I need more tools, LOL.

 

[VFlorea]

I'm pretty sure that brand is popular in the phillipines, but don't know much more than that. It's like their Craftsman.

 

[BobsYourUncle69]

Fixman appears to be sold all over the world.
I picked up a 6 point 1/2 socket set from a pawn shop in South Africa about 10 years ago. The sockets themselves are great and seem solid. The ratchet came apart though. It didn't break , just one of the screws came loose and it fell apart basically, but it feels like the same qiality as a pitsburgh 1/2 racthet. The Blow mold is better than many I've seen and hasn't broken or cracked in any way and neither have the sockets, the case is pretty good too. I didn't have my larger Gedore set at the time so I bought this for larger sizes and ended up needing to buy a 29mm socket anyway for my cars drive shaft. I battled to sell the set for $50 before leaving South Africa so it came with me.
No one raves about them and no one disses them.

My personal opinion , the sockets themselves have had a lot more QC than Husky sockets from Home depot and are finished really nicely but that ratchet falling apart made me rather impartial to this set although it does include a 25mm which is nice for some odd uses.
If I need to beat sockets for make a " make a plan "sort of tool , these will probably be the ones I sacrifice.

 

[four.cycle]

^ that ratchet looks very familiar.

Rosewill 40-piece SAE socket wrench and bit set

If your "FixMan" product is coming from the same manufacturer, this is one of the worst 1/4" drive ratchets I have had in my hands in decades. Action is inexcusably clunky for an item manufactured in the 21st century, and it's horribly unbalanced.
I did not attempt to actually use any of the sockets.
I sold it a couple weeks ago to get rid of it.
I could be completely off base here, but there certainly seems to be a resemlance.

 

[BobsYourUncle69]

I think it's some generic Chinese manufacturer as far as the ratchets go. It may have changed over the past 10 years since I got my set. I wouldn't be surprised of you're right

 

[JradM]

That could be the same manufacturer, they certainly look similar, but they're not white label versions of the same thing. Too many minor differences.

The holes under the selector switch, the selector switch itself, the cut where the handle joins the head, the part of the handle before the rubber over-molding, the rounded vs flat quick release...

It's definitely similar enough to merit the comparison, but it's hard for me to imagine a manufacturer making so many minor changes to what appears to be a pretty cheap ratchet. Most would just rebrand, maybe change the colors they pour into the handle mold. That is a lot of small differences.

 

[BobsYourUncle69]

That could be the same manufacturer, they certainly look similar, but they're not white label versions of the same thing. Too many minor differences.

The holes under the selector switch, the selector switch itself, the cut where the handle joins the head, the part of the handle before the rubber over-molding, the rounded vs flat quick release...

It's definitely similar enough to merit the comparison, but it's hard for me to imagine a manufacturer making so many minor changes to what appears to be a pretty cheap ratchet. Most would just rebrand, maybe change the colors they pour into the handle mold. That is a lot of small differences.

Wr are talking about a 10 year difference between tge 2 though ? If I understand correctly from tge set being recently acquired and sold
So it's possible all of it's changed

This one on sale on Walmart seems similar

 

[JradM]

Wr are talking about a 10 year difference between tge 2 though ? If I understand correctly from tge set being recently acquired and sold
So it's possible all of it's changed

This one on sale on Walmart seems similar

Yep, missed that. They could certainly have made design changes in that time.

 

[BobsYourUncle69]

I left the ratchet in SA and had a +30 year old Gedore ratchet that the rest of the set had been stolen , so put that in the Fixman set and brought it over like that. ( the Pic I posted of it was taken before I left SA )
This is it as it is now ( bottom socket set on the Pic)

 

[Beerhippie]

The name sounds really familiar... let me think for a minute....

Oh, yeah, it was twenty-odd years ago when visiting Seattle. That shaky skanky guy with the sharpened screwdriver: "C'mon, gimme the wallet or I'll stick you! I need a Fix, Man!"

 

[four.cycle]

OR... it's always possible that the "Gedore" design was a popular choice for cloning among any number of Chinese manufacturers.