joshbear74
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What tools are good to start out with and is a craftsman tool box good to start with ?
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Starting tech
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AceofSpad3s
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joshbear74
New member
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2015
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Going into car and small trucks buying basic hand tools and air tools just enough to get into a shop
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mrjaw14
Well-known member
Just enough to get in a shop? Craftsman box? nah, you don't want to be doing that mate. The craftsman boxes are over-priced junk once you get away from the low-end consumer level stuff. If you're going to be a professional tech you'll need a good box. To start with, consider a harbor freight 44" or 56". Those get decent reviews. I have both a craftsman box and the 44" HF box. The drawers on my craftsman box bend when you put any weight in them and become a pain in the **** to open/close. I've even had one come off the track entirely where I have to bend the sides of the track back. This is the super glide stuff, not the ball bearing line. My harbor freight 44" box I've got loaded up. While it's not snap on or matco quality, it's sure better than my craftsman box in every way. If you succeed in being a tech and out grow the HF box, make it your "home" box and upgrade to a snap on box. a good saying around here is better to have $10,000 worth of tools in a $500 box, than $500 in tools in a 10,000 box.
As for tools, if you're going to be a professional tech your hardline tools (ratchets, wrenches, sockets, etc) need to be high quality. Many techs spend the money on Snap on because a tool truck will service the shop and if you break something they replace it when they come to you rather than you finding where to warranty it. don't need to be wasting time on broken sockets. So if you don't go tool-truck brand have extras of your most used sizes in case you break something.
a few items like flare nut wrenches you'll want to buy snap on. They have the best reputation of not spreading. rounding off a brake line or trans line fitting would really cause you to have a bad day and things take a lot longer than they need to. Harbor freight has some gems, but also a lot of junk, but you can get a very complete set of tools a lot cheaper by incorporating some HF stuff. I'd say ask about specific tools and the good folks here can tell you if there's a comparable option and which way you should go. and there's tons of threads like this you can search through to find similar recommendations.
If you have a shop in mind you might ask what kind of work they see and if there's a minimum beginning tool list and work off that. There's also a "show me your toolbox" thread that's like 1000 pages long showing nothing but toolboxes and tools. you'll get some great ideas just looking through a few pages
As for tools, if you're going to be a professional tech your hardline tools (ratchets, wrenches, sockets, etc) need to be high quality. Many techs spend the money on Snap on because a tool truck will service the shop and if you break something they replace it when they come to you rather than you finding where to warranty it. don't need to be wasting time on broken sockets. So if you don't go tool-truck brand have extras of your most used sizes in case you break something.
a few items like flare nut wrenches you'll want to buy snap on. They have the best reputation of not spreading. rounding off a brake line or trans line fitting would really cause you to have a bad day and things take a lot longer than they need to. Harbor freight has some gems, but also a lot of junk, but you can get a very complete set of tools a lot cheaper by incorporating some HF stuff. I'd say ask about specific tools and the good folks here can tell you if there's a comparable option and which way you should go. and there's tons of threads like this you can search through to find similar recommendations.
If you have a shop in mind you might ask what kind of work they see and if there's a minimum beginning tool list and work off that. There's also a "show me your toolbox" thread that's like 1000 pages long showing nothing but toolboxes and tools. you'll get some great ideas just looking through a few pages
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joshmodelskidoo
Well-known member
im not a tech but mrjaw14 has good advice. i would like to get a bigger box and if i do it will be a hf box. they have good boxes and cheap boxes and there always on sale. the hilo tech at our shop had a hf box for a while till he got a snap on. there good boxes are the 44in and up red ones
What's a 'hilo tech'?
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