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Swivel (aka Pinless) Sockets

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crewchief888

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not that i know of :dunno:

of the big 3 truck brands i'd rate impact wobbles like this.

matco
snap on
mac

i have set from them all, the mac's have probably been replaced more than any of the others.


:beer:
 
C

CamarosRus

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Renton, WA (Seattle)
Please describe the technology of my 1/4" drive GearWrench impact swivels.

Are they inferior to the Armstrong/Matco variety ???? To what degree???

Thanks,
 
D

diesel research

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gulf coast, TEXAS
They use a pin and groove correct? If so, hammering eventually causes the pin to "wallow out" and gains slop. Slop=less torque transfer, just like stacking a bunch of extensions.

Since armstrong seems to be only company forging these, and as far as I know only does so in arkansas, my guess is, GW uses pins.

I've had this issue with some larger proto swivels as far as the slop.


009_23765_CRFT
 
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M

mrholeshot

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The Craftsman and Matcos look identical other than markings. I've owned pined impact swivels all my life and they hold up pretty well. The pinless offer a little clearance but as far as how well they hold up against a Snap-On well the Jury is still out on that one.
 
M

MrMark

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I don't think so, but the Craftsman chrome swivels are nice. I think on some specialty type tools, like the swivels, you are not going to see any difference between Craftsman and Matco, because I don't feel that the manf., Armstrong here, is going to change anything around for the limited runs. Perhaps a little tighter QC, or maybe the fact of QC for the Matco. You do have to pick through the Craftsman to get good ones that are tight.

I have a few sets of the Craftsman chrome and a SO set. The SO are obviously nicer, but the Craftsman are very nice as well.
 
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Skin

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bchee said:
Craftsman (danaher) does but I don't know how similar they are.
http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_10155_12602_00915786000P?i_cntr=1299275875915
Click to expand...

very similar. However Matco offers more sizes and deeps, as well as 1/4" drive, which Cman does not. Matco also has better markings as goofy as they look. They're very expensive sockets for Craftsman so i cant believe they sell many, i'd be a little paranoid it would get eliminated from the catalog. Add to that its not an item stores stock making warranty a bit of a hassel and i'd go with Matco [assuming you have a Matco dealer]. Used matco on ebay preferably. 10pc metric sets generally dont get much higher than $100-$120. Older sets that still use pins go for even less.

These are sockets that tend to fail with continuous use and abuse so i'd let my warranty options make the purchase decision as far as brand before i'd worry about pin vs pinless. The pinless style can still blow up if you put enough of an angle and torque on it.
 
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Toolhorder

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I thought Danaher made Matco's wobble sockets. Matco's were suppose to be better than SO's in the pro circle but I see SO has new improved pinless wobbles on the truck now.
I'm going with those. I still have a metric Mac set I need to bring home or sell to get some SO's. Mac ones tend to "stick" and need to be pounded on a table or vise to make them unstick again.
 
S

Skin

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no they have pins as far as i'm aware. Still work quite well as intended.
 
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MattT

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Toolhorder said:
I thought Danaher made Matco's wobble sockets. Matco's were suppose to be better than SO's in the pro circle but I see SO has new improved pinless wobbles on the truck now.
Click to expand...

Are you sure the new SO swivels are pinless? I thought they'd just done away with the collar but still have pins.
 
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Toolhorder

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Fedwrench said:
no, the new snap on impact swivels are collarless.:lol: They still use a pin though.
Click to expand...

Are you sure Fed? They're in the March catalog and my dealer specifically said they were pinless when I told him I like Matco's impact wobbles better, lol
 
T

Tavy

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Jan 22, 2010
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They have pinless. I have a set of Standard ones..cost me a ****** fortune...
 
G

GeorgiaHybrid

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Toolhorder said:
Are you sure Fed? They're in the March catalog and my dealer specifically said they were pinless when I told him I like Matco's impact wobbles better, lol
Click to expand...

As far as I can tell, they still have the pin but the collar is laser welded and flush with the body of the socket now. The biggest problem I always had was that damn collar getting loose and either cutting me or spinning off and letting the socket come apart.
 
W

wafrederick

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Holton,Mi
One huge advantage of the pinless design is they last 7 times longer.Matco did a test on them vs the pin design and this was the result.There is one huge drawback with the pin design,weak and pin can break doing injuries to the user's hand.I have seen it on a boat repair shop owners hand which can be seen,pin broke.It has happened to me too and I was lucky this did not happen to me.Snap On tried to use the pinless design and copied it.Matco has a patent on it and took Snap On to court over this.I have the 1/2 drive Matco set in Metric and it was just over $500.00 for the set.I am impressed and never had one break yet.
 
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