I was browsing the tools on Amazon and ran across this ratchet. At $19.95 it seems to be a good price for a well built American made ratchet.
SK 45173 Slim design Pro
Sk 45173 Slim design Pro With the round head fine tooth action in an Slim line body you have a great ratchet for working in tight areas.
Basically it is a 3/8′s in a 1/4 body.
If you need an hard to find part and are not in a hurry for it this is the place to look.
They have an outstanding selection of parts. Many of which I have only been able to find either there or at one of the expensive specialty vendors. Of ten you can find what they call a “Wholesalers discount” these seem to be parts that they have purchased from other dealers who are either overstocked or closing their lines or doors.
These can be bout at a substantial savings. Now for the bad parts.
1. They ship from multiple warehouses. And charge a separate shipping for each warehouse.They do inform you as to the warehouse letter the Item is coming from. So you can try the many different choices of product until you have everything coming from one location if it is possible.
2. You don’t know the location of the warehouses. If it comes from one I can have the item within two days of the order being put in. However it might also be a warehouse on the west coast that will take over a week to get to me. This effectively kills their usefulness for time critical parts.
So if you have the time to wait you can get the parts at a very substantial savings. However if you need it now I would recommend local dealers if possible. Rock Auto does over overnight shipping but at the horrendous cost that the shipping companies charge for it. I can not in good conscious recommend it.
However I must admit that I saved enough on a alternator for my project Volvo that I could have paid for overnight and still been cheaper then local.
You will have to decide dependent on your own needs.
http://bit.ly/eBay25810
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If you need tools at a low cost I highly recommend Cripe. They may sell overstock buy outs but they have some excellent tools at usable prices.They also sell on eBay if you prefer that venue.
I recently bought three 1/2 inch drive Gearwrench quick disconnect ratchets. Allen 3/8′s drive sockets in metric and SAE. Plus a set of 1/2 inch drive SAE sockets for a total cost of $54.00 including shipping.
Now they were all made in China but the chrome is excellent and they have endured continuous use working on rust belt cars for the past few days.
I bought these for a friend who is out of work and needed these to make money. He has used them for 10 to 12 hours a day trying to pull in money to pay the bills. He totally loves them.
Cripe is on the web at Cripes distributing . Their site could be easier to navigate but the check out is painless and they take PayPal.
These little toys have saved the day quite a few times. They come in two styles. One is the deeper style that has a square ratchet drive in the end plus the out side hex for use with wrenches.
My personal favorite is the low profile version. It is much shorter and only has the outside hex to turn it with.
Tapping the bolt out a couple of times to get it started will aid in the removal.
One reason is the vibrations will help to break any rust bonds.
Second reason is that a hard enough tap starts the bolt out cutting into the surface of the bolt. This makes it grip better from the beginning.
As much as I hate to admit it these are my favorite stubbies. The knurling is perfect for allowing you to maintain control in greasy oily situations. I find that the smooth handled stubbies are extremely difficult to have full control of in slick conditions.
I have often either almost lost or have lost the smooth handled one in the depths of what I was working on. This usually requires a protracted tear down to retrieve them.
Or they will twist and make it ten times harder to get the socket on the bolt.
The switch is surprisingly easy to operate on my sample. A simple push of the thumb will switch the direction.
In all I will have to say that I hope Idea continues the production of this series.
This is an older model of this ratchet. I have had mine for a few years now and have found it to be an excellent tool.
My only problems with this ratchet are the slenderness of the handle and a lack of a gripping surface.
In oily or greasy situations my over sized mitts have problems gripping the handle.
Good points I’ve often used this on 1/2 or 9/16′s bolts with out harming the ratchet in the slightest. The long reach and smallness of he head makes it easy to use in cramped surroundings.
In all respects I have found this to be an excellent ratchet and one that is well worth considering if you find one for sale.
Recently Stuey over to toolguyd.com had what seems to be an increasing occurrence.
A commenter left what appears to be a review that could not be true. In the review he commenter states that he had had the tool for a month or so.
However a sharp eyed commenter showed that the tool had only just hit the market.
So as the shill and bot incidents increase are the bloggers going to have to be more and more restrictive of posts by commenter’s?
It is bad enough having to dig through massive amounts of Spam that is washed upon the blogs daily. Having to moderate each and every post allows for less time posting or thinking about what to post.
Will shills and bots destroy the ability to post your thoughts on an subject?
Only time will tell but it appears to be heading in that direction for many bloggers.
Here I will publish my totally biased and opinionated evaluations of different tools.
They may be new or old. But they will be tools I have used and have came to either love or hate.
I will try to state why I like or dislike these tools.
I know I will step on a lot of toes and annoy a lot of people who see this as I totally dis their beloved tools.
At this time I am not sure as to how often I will post here. It may be several times a week or it may be a long time between posts.
One thing comments will be moderated on here simply due to the numbers of spam bots and mules out in the net.