cheap style ratchet ring spanners

Had a flat set & offset set of these some time ago but gave them to a burmese friend who has a motorbike repair shop as he took a liking to them.
Picked up another set at weekend as cheap handy abusable loosable tools. I got 5 flat & 5 offset spanners for around 12GBP.
Granted they not the best ratchet spanner around but they surprisingly useful, surprisingly cheap & very good at construction & fabrication stuff & still useful on a lot of car stuff too.
I use them on thread bar stuff a lot & on my back fence wire tensioners, Also abused a 14mm & 19mm when doing some brakes on a subaru & they stronger than look & kind of useful. My first lot was taiwan made & besides bit of light rust they never broke & these seem same & probably china made but at price they damn useful .

Looks like you got quite a bargain there ! Like you say reckon they'd be handy to have around

Thats well cheap.
Aldi was selling some a couple of years back. Looked like the balfords professional ones. Workmate or something like that.
They were only around £13 a set. Ive been looking ever since for them to come back in a store and they havent

Have seen and heard good things about tool stuff that turns up at aldi every now & again . they done their own brand which was 'workzone' I believe ... they done some stainless tool chests which was made in taiwan & outstanding quality & price .

Workzone. Thats the one. Ive seen quite a few things in there for sale at good prices.

Stu wrote:Thats well cheap.
Aldi was selling some a couple of years back. Looked like the balfords professional ones. Workmate or something like that.
They were only around £13 a set. Ive been looking ever since for them to come back in a store and they havent

Yeah I got a set from my Dad for Christmas was quite useful although the heads are bigger than normal spanners so harder to get into some spaces

Alot of them are like that i guess its just the design to accomodate the rachet piece in the spanner ....

Funny just been in today and they are in the thursday 13th 9.99 for 5 peice set!

shroom wrote:Funny just been in today and they are in the thursday 13th 9.99 for 5 peice set!

Sweet. I will be in there thursday then
Thanks for the heads up.

Cool no problem mate was destiny that I should see them in there the pulsar gods have spoken to me!!!

shroom wrote:Cool no problem mate was destiny that I should see them in there the pulsar gods have spoken to me!!!

Funny how things go sometimes :-)

personally I don't like them as they are cumbersome and difficult to get into places where the slimline type spanners fit easily.
also the ratchet system on them is very notchy so when the nut loosens it will not undo any further as the ratchet mechanism over rides the nut your undoing.

Handy for big easy to get to nuts but far from ideal on vehicles where space is an issue. w ould rather spend a few quid extra and buy the Halfords ratchet spanners which are fantastic with a really good ratchet mechanism

I like these for kicking round the work bench, good for fabrication stuff & adjusting bolts/nuts on jigs & the likes, also good in general construction work where bigger size not a real issue. for potential price they real handy kick about ratchet & a spanner all in one.
Facom do nice quality ratchet spanners & sealey have a nice set of reversible offset ratchet double ended ones which are slim & minimal drag & fine tooth movement.

I second the halfords ones ive had them for atleast 3years and used them a fair bit .... that being said i dont mind buying a cheap set and if i chuff them up im not to gutted about it ...

first set of proper ones I had was draper expert swivel head. they quite good & would imagine much same as halfords, I wanted some fixed offset reversible ones & found sealey 7pc set AK63817 good with slim heads & nice neat reverse button & not crazy price (around 60 to 70 GBP)

Thats where machine mart vat free weekends come in handy