Wiha must buys
- Thread starter ive
- Start date
I have a ton Wiha stuff, but I can't really think of anything that they make that's truly unique. Saying that, their basic screwdrivers, micro screwdrivers, hex keys, torx drivers, nut drivers.... are all awesome. Oh! Their dead blow mallets are fantastic, and I'm always surprised that they're not more popular here. They sell them as singles, and they have replaceable faces
Beauregard
Well-known member
A Whia extra heavy duty Philipps #3?
They'd keep each other company in the drawer.
They'd keep each other company in the drawer.
Tactile
Well-known member
WIha circlip pliers with magic tips are...magic!
CGarage
Well-known member
I like their micro electronics screwdrivers and their Allen/hex keys.
Dave455
Well-known member
It’s hard to pick out any really outstanding items from Wiha these days. A lot of the range has been discontinued, and I think the selection for North America is even further reduced.
All the hard handle screwdriver options are gone, as I believe are the Stainless. Even the German made hex keys have been replaced by poor imitations. Bad enough when someone else counterfeits your products, so I’ve no idea why you would want to do it to your own company.
When you refer to a ”heavy duty” flat head I assume you mean the striking cap version. I’m not personally too fussed on those, as I never find the balance to be that good, but if you are buying flat heads, the hex shank ones with the forged tips are quite nice.
All the hard handle screwdriver options are gone, as I believe are the Stainless. Even the German made hex keys have been replaced by poor imitations. Bad enough when someone else counterfeits your products, so I’ve no idea why you would want to do it to your own company.
When you refer to a ”heavy duty” flat head I assume you mean the striking cap version. I’m not personally too fussed on those, as I never find the balance to be that good, but if you are buying flat heads, the hex shank ones with the forged tips are quite nice.
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Agree.
CGarage
Well-known member
It’s hard to pick out any really outstanding items from Wiha these days. A lot of the range has been discontinued, and I think the selection for North America is even further reduced.
All the hard handle screwdriver options are gone, as I believe are the Stainless. Even the German made hex keys have been replaced by poor imitations. Bad enough when someone else counterfeits your products, so I’ve no idea why you would want to do it to your own company.
When you refer to a ”heavy duty” flat head I assume you mean the striking cap version. I’m not personally too fussed on those, as I never find the balance to be that good, but if you are buying flat heads, the hex shank ones with the forged tips are quite nice.
Would rather have my Vessels.
And my Wiha hex keys are nearly all old versions from the 90s. Nothing special about them but they work and fit nicely in metric German stuff which is why I bought them.
I think PB Swiss makes a finer hex key but these from Wiha, once upon a time, were reasonably priced.
Jeff
Well-known member
Wiha moved much of their manufacturing to ROV. The quality has suffered. Not sure about any warranty issues.
Dave455
Well-known member
Yes, agreed.
I think the Vessel Megadora’s are slightly better drivers than the soft grip Wiha (the tips are better I think, and the handle material is preferable), but the Vessel Powergrip are a league above.
Historically, certainly in the U.K, these soft finish Wiha drivers were always “mid price” - somewhere between the cheaper Taiwanese drivers, and the top end hard handle drivers. They were sold by a lot of the industrial suppliers, and I’ve bought a few myself - including some Torx, which have been good. Here they are.
Note the wear to the tips. Not bad for the usage,
I also have these bit drivers. Again, fine for the price paid, (especially the long one) thy are fine,but the differences between these and better tools such as PB Swiss or Snap on become obvious. The magnets in these are not as good as they might be, the blades are relatively simple in construction, and the handles preclude them being used for anything greasy.
I did also buy the Wiha Torx keys. At the time I don’t think PB Swiss made these bigger than about T25 so the Wiha made sense, and they’ve been good in all fairness, but I assume these too are made in Poland now.
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What else by Wiha is made in Vietnam besides the hex shank driver bits, and the pliers (which have been Vietnam for quite a while)? This is a tiny portion of their catalog. A few products have been moved to Poland- dead blow hammers, and apparently hex keys. I bought a single P2 phillips driver a few months ago and it was still Germany.
There was one report here of poor plating on some of the Poland made hex keys, and all of a sudden Wiha is ****. I guess so is Snap On, and every other manufacturing company, because everyone has an issue on occasion.
Dave455
Well-known member
Wiha are not ****, but they’re not top end. Never were. And it’s not all of a sudden. It’s been a gradual decline as different lines have bern outsourced.
I was more than happy to buy their German made hex keys and Torx keys, because they were good. But put a German made one side by side with a current Polish made one and there is no comparison. Nothing like the same quality. That’s obvious before you use them, and it gets worse when you do,
This isn’t an issue “on occasion”, it’s outsourcing to reduce costs, which works if you can retain the quality, but none of the tools I’ve seen have. Same story when the hex bits were outsourced - the Vietnam ones were never as good as the German. I’ve owned and used both.
I’d still buy their screwdrivers, and in fairness their Vietnam made pliers (which were made in Vietnam from the start) are fine, but I see no sense in buying pliers from a screwdriver maker, and I see no sense in buying Vietnam made when I can get French or German for the same money (if not less).
KnurledNut
Well-known member
This. I've got a few Wiha tools and most of them are decent enough, but nothing special.
The only one I really like a lot and would seek out again is the Centrofix bit holder. It really locks on and gives you the feel of a regular screwdriver, with no annoying wobble and play.
The Wiha 76000 gets a lot of good reviews at Amazon about holding bits tighter than most. But I have seen 2 reviews (out of 200) complaining that the the metal bit holder is tilted (not on the same axis as the handle). I still ordered one at Amazon, for $30.45
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For oily conditions Wiha offers "MicroFinish" handles on some of their tools. I recently bought the made-in-Germany 125mm Wiha bit holder shown below, and I would rate its magnet strength to be identical to that in my Felo and PB Swiss bit holders.
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The Wiha 76000 gets a lot of good reviews at Amazon about holding bits tighter than most. But I have seen 2 reviews (out of 200) complaining that the the metal bit holder is tilted (not on the same axis as the handle). I still ordered one at Amazon, for $30.45
I have two of those and they're awesome. Holds bits TIGHT. Obviously, no risk buying on Amazon with free returns. The reality is that they sold probably 10K of those without any issues and those people didn't post reviews saying "it's great", but when there's a problem those buyers always make it known. This is fine, but you need to adjust the percent "bad" for the other 95% that don't post reviews when the item is fine.
Edit: I also have the non micro-finish bit holder in your other post. I like it, but with they also made a shorter version.
I have recently purchased Wiha bits made in Germany and made in Viet Nam. They differ only in the manner in which they are labeled with the brand. Admittedly, heat treat cannot be seen (and is arguably the most important aspect of tool production), so that can’t be easily compared.
Bits and L-keys are not complicated devices. If Wiha provides appropriate specs, the bits can be made to those specs pretty much anywhere in the world. As long as Wiha stays on top of their quality control and verifies specs are being met, which is very likely, there’s no reason to suspect the bits made in Viet Nam are in any way inferior to the bits made in Germany.
To OP: Wiha‘s Go Box is a reasonably priced bit ratchet, locking bit holder extension, and 30 C6 bits, all in a small metal box, is an outstanding value ($26-$30 typically). The whole kit costs only about twice as much as the extension costs by itself. I find it to be a great compact kit to keep in a kitchen drawer.
Yes, that's precisely my point- they moved some operations to Asia, and to Poland, and then overnite, everything they make is garbage to some here. There's a vocal minority here that blindly equates COO with quality, no matter the actual quality of what's produced. If you stamped "Swiss Made" on a high-quality Chinese widget, it'd be the greatest; stamp China on it and it's junk.
The strange thing is that I've never seen any complaints here about the Milwaukee cordless tools made in Vietnam- they're evidently great, as they should be. So, the Vietnamese can make complex cordless tools with the right materials and equipment, but somehow can't make an identical quality screwdriver or bit as a German can -if you give them the same equipment and material used in Germany? Yeah, I get it, I'd rather pay a few dollars more and have it all made in Germany, but that doesn't make it junk if it's made somewhere else.
Wiha owns the Vietnam factory- they control it. They can ship them the same equipment and the exact same steel. If someone in Vietnam can perfectly sew $$$ designer clothing, I'm guessing they can make an $8 screwdriver that has essentially all of the machining and forming done automatically- it's load the stuff in the machine and hit the "start" button; we're not talking about making a Rolex watch. The Vietnam made Wiha bits were one of the best in the Project Farm test- the main issue was, ironically, that they were too expensive. I have quite a few of the Wiha Vietnam made bits and have no issues with them.
Must have these:
Insulated screw drivers
Look closely at the tip- the insulation is flush with the tip:
Insulated screw drivers
Look closely at the tip- the insulation is flush with the tip:
Must have these:
Insulated screw drivers
Look closely at the tip- the insulation is flush with the tip:
The good is that are so much better than the standard version. The insulation is way too thick on the standard version.
The bad is that the slotted are not sized for SAE screw heads. They are sized for metric screw heads. The vast vast vast majority of hardware in American electrical products is in SAE.
The Phillips are fine for electrical work.
Hello everyone,
I recently came across two Wiha models:
For reference, I mainly use Japanese-spec Makita cordless tools, so the bits I use are all JIS standard bits (as shown in the picture).
I want to find out which Wiha CentroFix model fits JIS bits better and provides more stable installation.
My question is:
Thanks in advance for any insights, especially from those who have used both models or have first-hand comparison experience.
I recently came across two Wiha models:
- Wiha 76000 SoftFinish CentroFix
- Wiha 387 CentroFix (Model No. 3871403501 / 40331)
For reference, I mainly use Japanese-spec Makita cordless tools, so the bits I use are all JIS standard bits (as shown in the picture).
I want to find out which Wiha CentroFix model fits JIS bits better and provides more stable installation.
My question is:
- Aside from the mechanism, length, weight, or handle design, what are the actual differences between these two models?
Thanks in advance for any insights, especially from those who have used both models or have first-hand comparison experience.
Attachments
Dave455
Well-known member
It sounds as though the current Vietnam made Wiha bits are of reasonable quality.
But it was not always thus. I was a regular buyer of Wiha bits back when they changed, and the first bits I received from Vietnam were not the same quality as the German ones.
One of the slotted bits had a bent shank, and the finishing of the tip was not comparable. I didn’t even notice the change in COO at first, but finding an inferior product I looked closer and was unsurprised.
At the very least, the quality control was lacking.
These are very good. Maybe one of Wiha’s better products at present.Must have these:
Insulated screw drivers
Look closely at the tip- the insulation is flush with the tip:
Obviously, the slim tip allows you to access recessed screws, but that’s not the whole story.
The flush insulation means there is nothing to catch. With many insulated blades, even if the insulation does fit into a recess, it’s easy to catch it and tear it. These don’t suffer that way.
The insulation is also much harder and more durable than on many drivers. The insulation to tip fit, is very good indeed.
Incidentally, in much of Europe, and certainly the U.K, these insulated drivers are not for “live line” working, as is sometimes assumed.
The main reason for their use is to provide extra protection in the event that an incorrectly isolated circuit is encountered.
mattstevens
Active member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2023
- Messages
- 44
I believe these are the same product. I have a Wiha 76000 purchased in the US and it says "1/4 387" on it and has an EAN that ends in 403317. The US site lists a UPC code, I'd guess the only difference is the product being packaged for the North American market.
The different model to watch out for is the ESD version with a yellow handle, it is much slimmer. I'd get the standard one.
The Centrofix driver holds Japanese bits with 13mm shanks well, I just recently used mine with a long reduced shank Vessel bit and there was hardly any wobble even that that length. How well it works with double-ended bits like you have pictured can vary, the hex needs to extend a ways below the detent in the bit for the bit holder to really lock on to it. So using a Phillips / slotted bit as an example, the Phillips end might lock in fine but the slotted end might be loose.
KnurledNut
Well-known member
Current stock Wiha bits have been excellent for me.
They are one of the few manufacturers that offer Torx Align bits, and made in Germany to boot.
Here is one I am currently using that has pounded on hundreds of screws with an impact driver. I'd say easily over a thousand cycles. The durability has been exceptional.
I have no problem recommending them.
They are one of the few manufacturers that offer Torx Align bits, and made in Germany to boot.
Here is one I am currently using that has pounded on hundreds of screws with an impact driver. I'd say easily over a thousand cycles. The durability has been exceptional.
I have no problem recommending them.
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The website
Spent too much