Tool porn

What am I mising... shipping, tipping and carrying across borders seems a lot of effort for a ~£30 allen key set?!

Perfect, thanks!

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What about a German hardware store I could just walk into? Or I could just order them off Amazon or Screwfix or whatever and be done with it.

Plenty of Wera on ebay going cheap in santa packaging, follow a few and wait for offers..

Just get more wera ones, they're worth it, the 2mm has saved me hours of fucking with rounded cheese bolts.

I'm not sure... Bike shops local to my parents aren't amazing (to me) apart for the second hand road bikes sometimes... But tools selection is quite pedestrian (Ice something thingy, BBB - not sure of names, but like in an Evans). But I don't really know the offering elsewhere in France. The few Var tools I have (waiting for one coming thru eBay atm) are a spoke key and cone spanners bought at Decathlon (in London, years ago) and a couple old second hand ones.
Anyway not sure how to get hold of their stuff...

Is it right that there's stainless and non-stainless Wera? The stainless ones would be neat for the on-bike set but I don't know if they do the short ones in stainless.

Although "The BlackLaser surface treatment provides outstanding surface protection, even against corrosion for long service life." so maybe the stubby ones won't immediately rust?

Are the non-colourful ones the same quality as the coloured sets, just cheaper?

ie.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320119227918
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195781974846

Dunno about the stainless, not had any issues with rust but they're not used outside. I think I prefer the basic not colourful ones, probably not an issue for occasional use but the covers do come loose, you also can't use the 2 or 3mm coloured ones for certain tasks where the bolt head is hidden as the fatter round part gets in the way, the 3mm pad adjuster on spyres and similar brakes and maybe the 2mm grub screw to fine tune the angle of Shimano front mechs from memory.

I was told by a Wera rep that the stainless ones were for use on stainless bolts where you don't want deposits from non-stainless keys creating unsightly rust marks over time.

I've managed without colour coded allen keys for over 40 years so I reckon that sleeve interference is reason enough not to buy a set and stick with the "boring" ones.

I'm going to get a set of the shorties for on the bike I reckon and just see how they go. So long as I remember not to put one in the feedbag pocket which has a fucking hole in it (why?!) I should be ok for a few years :)

Interesting. But let's be honest here, you can assume ALL the bolts on hippy and mrs hippy's bikes are already rusty :D

It's not so much the sleeve, but the round section the sleeve sits on, the coloured ones are nicer to hold, a little less likely to bend and you can get the little retaining BB at the ball end, which is nice. But I'd just go with the standard ones, they're very reasonably priced and the best bit about any of the wera ones is the shape of the ends and the resistance to rounding bolts because of it.

I really like them but the spanners can be a bit shit sometimes because of that multi spine thing they use imo

I've not bought any of the spanners, I first got into Wera for the ratchet with the swivel head since then I've bought a few bit sets and some screwdrivers but I'm not into the brand especially.

Yeah im not really one brand specific either, I use a bit of this and that as some brands do better stuff for what I mostly do. The sorta ratchet set with screwdrivers I use all the time but the big spanners I bought for nuts i should have just bought the cheapo ones as the wera ones slip.

A package arrived!

One kit for the bike, the other to assemble Ikea furniture.

Dredge. But just to say that I bought myself the same Knipex cutters recently, and goodness me are they lovely! Slice through cable housing like butter, well impressed.

I don't see a spoke key in there

Just how do SDS drills work?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk9MTADZJ4k

Sorted my Saturday night, I'm getting one :)

TTC is currently one of my favourite yt channels.

Somehow youtube think I'm a carpenter joiner

Essential Craftsman?

Nice, I was looking at these.

I'm happy with my Silca Ti Ratchet kit. As with other Silca tools I've owned though, I wish the magnets were a bit stronger!

Can you still get VAR tools

Got this second hand in the UK... very pleased, though I've never experienced the Park Tool equivalent to compare.

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