@JimC Little late for that advice.
I did look at getting a cabinet set from one of the various suppliers (hazet, Stahlwille both have “Porsche” sets, Williams and others have some nice giant sets). I think you have a facom set? It seemed really nice (of course I used vice grips and the stuff I brought mostly). Is there a tool deal on a nice set? I could buy it and leave it at the other house.
The problem I have is that I already had a lot of tools even before this latest binge and a lot of them I like even if they are not the very best (estwing hammers, channel locks, old vice grips, even the Williams era kobalt socket sets) so it’s not like I am starting from scratch. I also need standard tools and a lot of the sets are metric only. The other issue is that top brands cabinet sets don’t give you much of a deal where you can piece something together for a lot less money that has a lot more stuff. And the cabinet sets get you 70-90% of what you need and then you are chasing specialty tools and oddball stuff. For example, they rarely have ratcheting wrenches which I use a ton so I would have to add those.
I guess if you are OCD a cabinet set makes sense, but I am a hoarder.
BTW here is an inexpensive Bahco set: $125 for 1/4 and 1/2 72 tooth all 12 point. As I understand it, they are Taiwan made, but the set is equivalent to the Hazet at $244 (or $205) or the Gedore at $207. The 1/4 and 1/2 sets with a screw driver and bits seem to be very popular in Europe.
Bahco ($125 for 72 tooth Taiwan)
Gadore set for comparison ($207 for German 60 tooth)
Hazet set I bought ($244 for German 90 tooth — the non-90 tooth is $205 and linked second)
I was actually seeing what this escapade cost me:
German Tool Purchases
Wera 1/2in set $375
Wera 3/8in set $285
Wera small 1/4in set $103
Wera Joker Switch Metric $340
Wera Joker metric 5 piece $60
Wera bond screwdriver $32
Wera L-keys metric $30
Wera insulated screwdriver interchangeable blades kit $36
Wera chisel driver set $103
Wera screwdrivers $30
Wera small screwdriver $2
Wera tool check plus $75 (went down to $65)
$1476 on Wera
Gedore 1/2in set $96
Hazet 1/2in and 1/4in set $244
Stahlwille 3/8in set $174
$514
Knipex 36in bolt cutters $111
Knipex cutters $20
$131 on Knipex
$2121 on German
Hammer dead blow $13 (it’s a hammer)
Gearwrench 6 point wrenches $45 (could not find German 6 point wrenches)
1/2in torque wrench $25 (don’t ask, I could not make up my mind what nice one to buy between the various German brands and I will just use it for lug nuts).
Channel lock pick set $10 (could not find German, these are American made and seem nice)
$93 on non-German crap
$2214 ouch
The italics ones I would not have bought it I could do it again. I’d get and may still get the Stahlwille or gedore 12 point wrenches instead of the normal jokers 5 piece and it would be like $10-50 more for a full set. Just need to figure out what set I want. The bond screwdriver is cool, but I don’t really like it so it’s now a junk drawer screwdriver for around the house. And I don’t need three 1/2in metric sets so one or two of those should go (I like them all — $375 for the Wera was really steep and it has all sorts of stuff like torx and hex I will use and the gedore was so cheap, but assuming it meets my expectations when it arrives I would probably keep the hazet if I had to have only one).
