I recently ordered myself my first set of sockets and wrenches. Now I'm just a DIY homeowner but I splurged a little and picked up a nicer set of USA-made SK long pattern combo wrenches and a SK 3/8" socket set. Quality American made tools and all that.
The tools have been trickling in over the past week or so. I got the first set of wrenches in the mail today, the fractional wrench set no. 86017. But there are a couple of issues:
First off instead of 9/16" size I got a 13mm wrench.
Also I noticed that the 3/4" and 1" wrenches are bent. The first wrench of the set I looked at was the 1" and I noticed the curve immediately. However it is subtle enough that I was not sure if it was there on purpose or not. But then I looked at the 3/4" and saw it was bent in the opposite direction. And the rest of the wrenches in the set were straight. The 1" bends such that when you set it down it bows up in the middle. And the 3/4" bends such that when you set it down it wobbles (bows down in the middle).
Now I will admit that these defects (well except the fact that I am missing a fractional size and have an extraneous metric size instead) wouldn't really impact the usability of the wrench, but for the price I paid I guess I expected a little better quality control. Am I being too picky? A $20 set from HF sure I could see getting the wrong wrench, and some bent pieces. But a set of "professional-grade" USA-made wrenches costing nearly 10x more having these same issues?
In my toolbox now I have a smattering of old cheap K-mart brand made in Taiwan combination wrenches that my dad gave to me and they are all perfectly straight.
In addition to the set of metrics (86040) I bought a 6mm and 7mm long pattern wrench as separates, as it was cheaper to do that than buy the bigger 14-piece set and I get the same wrench sizes. I got those 2 small metric wrenches as well and the 6mm wrench is also very slightly bent too, but kind of in an S-shape, and it is much more subtle. I can kind of understand the 6mm long pattern having some bend as it is a pretty thin wrench and the bends are pretty small, but 3/4" and 1" wrenches being bent? You could say it was damaged in shipping but I would think wrenches would hold up pretty well to shipping, after all you are supposed to really be able to crank on these things!
At this point I think I am going to wait until the parts I ordered are delivered ( metric wrench set is currently on backorder) before I send anything back, just in case the metric set has bent wrenches in it too so I have to send things back just once. Am I supposed to contact Zoro for the returns or just go to SK directly?
Will try to post some pictures to illustrate what I am talking about.
The tools have been trickling in over the past week or so. I got the first set of wrenches in the mail today, the fractional wrench set no. 86017. But there are a couple of issues:
First off instead of 9/16" size I got a 13mm wrench.
Also I noticed that the 3/4" and 1" wrenches are bent. The first wrench of the set I looked at was the 1" and I noticed the curve immediately. However it is subtle enough that I was not sure if it was there on purpose or not. But then I looked at the 3/4" and saw it was bent in the opposite direction. And the rest of the wrenches in the set were straight. The 1" bends such that when you set it down it bows up in the middle. And the 3/4" bends such that when you set it down it wobbles (bows down in the middle).
Now I will admit that these defects (well except the fact that I am missing a fractional size and have an extraneous metric size instead) wouldn't really impact the usability of the wrench, but for the price I paid I guess I expected a little better quality control. Am I being too picky? A $20 set from HF sure I could see getting the wrong wrench, and some bent pieces. But a set of "professional-grade" USA-made wrenches costing nearly 10x more having these same issues?
In my toolbox now I have a smattering of old cheap K-mart brand made in Taiwan combination wrenches that my dad gave to me and they are all perfectly straight.
In addition to the set of metrics (86040) I bought a 6mm and 7mm long pattern wrench as separates, as it was cheaper to do that than buy the bigger 14-piece set and I get the same wrench sizes. I got those 2 small metric wrenches as well and the 6mm wrench is also very slightly bent too, but kind of in an S-shape, and it is much more subtle. I can kind of understand the 6mm long pattern having some bend as it is a pretty thin wrench and the bends are pretty small, but 3/4" and 1" wrenches being bent? You could say it was damaged in shipping but I would think wrenches would hold up pretty well to shipping, after all you are supposed to really be able to crank on these things!
At this point I think I am going to wait until the parts I ordered are delivered ( metric wrench set is currently on backorder) before I send anything back, just in case the metric set has bent wrenches in it too so I have to send things back just once. Am I supposed to contact Zoro for the returns or just go to SK directly?
Will try to post some pictures to illustrate what I am talking about.
But it should illustrate. Given the size of the wrenches, the 1" and 3/4" are pretty obvious. The 7mm not so much as it is much smaller in the hand.
