So to answer my own question.....

[BWright]

Early this week I posted a thread asking about the quality of SK sockets, and the answer is excellent! They are absolutely beautiful. The finish is awesome, the broaches are all perfectly centered, the engravings are perfect. I am super happy with my choice. I only found one flaw with the 14mm socket way deep down inside the broach, the chrome was a little bubbled. One call to tooltopia got that taken care of though. It was very minimal but I figured I might as well see if they would replace it and they said they would. I tried to get a picture of it but I couldn't get it to show up on the camera. I'm not a very good photographer so keep that in mind. lol

And a little comparison to what they will be replacing. It is amazing how much heavier the SKs are compared to the Toptul.

 

[nato]

Wow, that broaching looks like it goes down less from the opening than some of my SK sockets (mine are like the other brand your comparison shows). Mine are all 1/4" dr. though. Those are a newer batch, right?
It also looks like the thin area between the hex opening to the outer wall is more heavy duty & appears to look thicker than some of the other SK's I've seen. Or maybe it's just the lighting effect in that particular photo.

I like them, even though I do not have a grand collection of SK goods.
They are quite shiney

 

[sk farmer]

glad you are happy. i hope people realize that sk is still a good choice. i know sk has turned out some sub-par product as all companies have, but when sk gets it right it is second to none. that chrome is as good as it gets.

 

[BWright]

glad you are happy. i hope people realize that sk is still a good choice. i know sk has turned out some sub-par product as all companies have, but when sk gets it right it is second to none. that chrome is as good as it gets.

I am definitely on board now! The best thing is they only cost $83! A similar snap on on matco set would've been almost $500. Other than the warranty which I will probably never need, I can't see there being that much different between the quality of the sockets. I'm happy with my purchase.

 

[Scout Driver]

Great looking sockets!!

Scott

 

[nolatoolguy]

We love our sk sockets, ours dont look anything like that. After working on manure spreaders and bouncing around in a truck they tend to get more beat up look but we use them every day and they work fine. I dont care how my tools look and i cant say ours look good but i can say SK makes great tools

 

[mrshaun]

I priced a few sets off of sears.com and they were not that cheap. I have the 8-23mm 12 point 3/8 drive sets and I cant get more that 25 bucks on ebay for them. I figured they would bring at least 45-50.... I have 2 sets left and not a single offer they are in a blow molded case to boot

 

[BWright]

I priced a few sets off of sears.com and they were not that cheap. I have the 8-23mm 12 point 3/8 drive sets and I cant get more that 25 bucks on ebay for them. I figured they would bring at least 45-50.... I have 2 sets left and not a single offer they are in a blow molded case to boot

Yea I think all of the horror stories on here have made people scared to buy anymore SK. Its fine with me though, keeps prices on ebay down.

 

[tonydanzah]

I have been very very happy with my sk spline drive set from tooltopia.

 

[selohssa]

Now that you have them, get out and enjoy them in the garage.

P.S. Those pics look good, I can't seem to photograph details on chrome very well.

 

[quattrojon]

glad you are happy. i hope people realize that sk is still a good choice. i know sk has turned out some sub-par product as all companies have, but when sk gets it right it is second to none. that chrome is as good as it gets.

+1 on the S-K chrome.

 

[Stick Figure]

I priced a few sets off of sears.com and they were not that cheap. I have the 8-23mm 12 point 3/8 drive sets and I cant get more that 25 bucks on ebay for them. I figured they would bring at least 45-50.... I have 2 sets left and not a single offer they are in a blow molded case to boot

Thats because ebay ***** lol. I gave up on that site a long time ago. Send me a PM w/ the details on one of the set you have left. I do love the SK product its just freaking impossible to find where i'm at now.


For the original topic ... very nice purchase. I would buy a lot more SK stuff, but i'm very over the whole internet thing for buying new product. I would like to walk into a store and just buy it. Even if it does cost a couple dollars more.

 

[cokeexpress]

These sockets are nice. I just got this same set in the mail a few days ago myself.

 

[MarcSeattle]

I have an extra set of SK 3/8 short sockets, 6-24 mm, excellent condition, if anyone is interested. About 10 years old so made before the recent quality problems.

 

[steelespeed]

nice!! do those have sk's "suregrip" hex design...similar to what the other brands are marketing these days?

 

[BWright]

nice!! do those have sk's "suregrip" hex design...similar to what the other brands are marketing these days?

Yep all of their sockets do. By the way, I was so happy with these that I went ahead and bought some deeps in half inch drive.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...0487319463&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK:MEWNX:IT

 

[dieseldodge01]

I am glad that you are happy with your sockets. SK may have had some problems lately with there QC but the ones that don't are extraordinary. All my hard line tools are SK, even a 1/2 set with the rubber grip breaker bar.

 

[superautobacs]

And a little comparison to what they will be replacing. It is amazing how much heavier the SKs are compared to the Toptul.

The big difference between the two is how deep the broachings are. The SK is simply heavier because the broaching doesn't extend all the way to the bottom of the socket. I prefer this design as it can be annoying when you get a nut stuck/wedged on an angle inside the socket. The shallow broaching minimizes this greatly.

The other difference is the hex profile. The Toptul has that generic offshore profile with those clearly carved out hex corners. The more expensive sockets, where the tool manufacturer actually does the R&D on the hex profile, doesn't have that carved out profile.

 

[BWright]

The big difference between the two is how deep the broachings are. The SK is simply heavier because the broaching doesn't extend all the way to the bottom of the socket. I prefer this design as it can be annoying when you get a nut stuck/wedged on an angle inside the socket. The shallow broaching minimizes this greatly.

I agree because of the shallow broaching there will be more material, but the shallow sockets are heavier as well.

 

[kartracer55]

SK makes some awesome stuff and I am just glad to see that these are nice.


BUT I am curious as to the age of these sockets. The last few items I bought from SK came in a black paper sleeve with the "socket fist" gripping the tools. I am not certain as to what the latest packaging looks like, because the last few things I have bought came in blow molded cases, and the paper sleeves were outside of them. These are "loose" which might explain the difference. Or, they are "NOS" before QC issues. Comments?

 

[sk farmer]

like any manufacturer, sets come packaged many differant ways. the complete sets from sk come in either a molded plastic case or metal box. the sockets only sets come packed on rails with shrink wrap and may or not be in another cardboard box or in flat plastic traywith no cover for use in a drawer. a few sets of bit sockets are in a piece of molded rubber that grips them rather than a rail. i would not consider this set nos as those are current production. that said, they could have been made last month, last year or a few years ago. as far as i know ther is no accurate way to date sk tools to a certain year. certain styles of sk tools can be dated to certain periods of time but not down to a single year.

 

[BWright]

like any manufacturer, sets come packaged many differant ways. the complete sets from sk come in either a molded plastic case or metal box. the sockets only sets come packed on rails with shrink wrap and may or not be in another cardboard box or in flat plastic traywith no cover for use in a drawer. a few sets of bit sockets are in a piece of molded rubber that grips them rather than a rail. i would not consider this set nos as those are current production. that said, they could have been made last month, last year or a few years ago. as far as i know ther is no accurate way to date sk tools to a certain year. certain styles of sk tools can be dated to certain periods of time but not down to a single year.

Yea these were in shrink wrap inside the box pictured. I was kind of hoping when I ordered them that they would come on the green and black plastic rails, as I like those better. I wondered as well about when they were produced and I looked for maybe a packaging date, but to no avail.

 

[arkangel06]

Nice pic's & nice sockets!

 

[BWright]

I also picked up some1/2" metric 6 point deep wells and a sk locking extension off ebay cheap!

My collection is growing!