wheres the best place for tools

[Mick_Anik]

Good advice re the jumbles for used tools - I suppose the outdoor car boot season is over now. Check out the possibilities locally. I've picked up some good stuff at recycling centres which sell on anything useful.....unfortunately not all councils do this (health and safety....what if a customer scratched himself using a spanner he bought!!?).

Old Britool stuff is very good, as mentioned. Not metric, mostly. But you should try to build up a collection of old 'specials' - for example, a slightly worn 1/2 inch AF that is perfect for the new size of rust-diminished 13mm nuts and bolts.

Engineering bankruptcy auctions are everywhere - just Google for ones in your area. If you ever go to one, don't be afraid of the grey-haired men with a drooping shoulder, odd neck angle and one eye quite a lot larger than the other.....they're just the engineers!

[dp]

When I needed a socket to shift a dynamo bracket and was parked outside Halfords, the chap in the shop said that as Minor owners tended to do all their own work, it was branch (and possibly company) policy to give them a trade card, just show your MMOC card and sound knowledgeable.

Which branch in Essex? I've tried Southend (London Road) and told I had to bring in either headed paper or my City and Guilds (neither of which I have being a hobbiest)

[linearaudio]

People joke about Halfords, but the BEST EVER tools I bought were Halfords ratchet-ring spanners, (open at the other end). I have caned the popular sizes of these for the last 8 years, and not had a problem.
Again- don't get a set, get 10,11,12,13,17 &19mm and 9/16" AF and you won't be far wrong.

DON'T go fo r the cheap look-a-likes as they are thicker radially, and won't fit in a lot of tight spaces! So my cheap-skate farmer friend discovered