Remember the Newbie Tool Thread?

http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthr...5&page=1&pp=10

I synthesized Bill R's detailed recommendations, printed it out, went to Sears, and stood in front of the choices a very long time. The sales guys left me alone, which was good. All of the sets on sale have what Bill recommends to varying degrees. There are more sets than these, but these were the ones on sale. Anyway, wanted to share what I figured out about the various options so someone else doesn't have to spend so much time figuring it out.

Here are the five choices (no guarantees on the accuracy of my scribbles):
263 pieces, $199 (normally $269): 56 1/4 inch, 77 3/8 inch, 25 1/2 inch, 105 specialty.

190 pieces $159 (normally $179): 39 1/4 inch, 60 3/8 inch, 13 1/2 inch, 78 specialty.

155 pieces $99 (normally $149) sorry, didn't write the details down

117 pieces $79 (normally $99): 31 1/4 inch, 38 3/8 inch, 8 1/2 inch, 40 specialty.

83 pieces $49 (normally $69): 19 1/4 inch, 26 3/8 inch, 38 specialty.

My synthesis of Bills recommendations is (and Bill and everyone else correct me where I am wrong)

12 point sockets are bad, 6 point sockets are good. (All have both, but the 190 piece, $159 set seemed to have the fewest 12 points as a %. The 263 piece, $199 set had all 12 point in the 1/2 inch size).

In 3/8 and 1/4, regular depth, deep depth, and mid depth are desirable. (These sets have regular and deep, but not mid unless I am mistaken).

Extensions are good. (I think most if not all had them).

Regular and metric are good (I think all had had both).

On the 1/2 inch Bill prefers a brand other than Craftsman. He prefers other brands for screwdrivers, wrenches, and flare wrenches. (These sets have one magnetic handle and a bunch of screw and nut driver tips. No flare wrenches. The biggest set has 10 combination wrenches and 12 metric combination wrenches and the next one had some lesser number.)

I narrowed my selection down to the two largest sets. The larger set had more sizes but the additional ones were smaller than Bill recommended, so that may not be any advantage. The 263 piece had 20 ignition wrenches that the next size didn't. As previously mentioned the 263 had all 12 point in the 1/2 size (bad), while the 190 had 6 point in the 1/2 size (good). The 263 piece set had a 4 drawer chest and all the others had suitcase like carrying cases.

I made a chick choice. The 4 drawer chest seemed friendlier. The black suitcase intimidated me. It seemed like the tools would get disorganzied more easily in the suitcase. I had visions of them all falling out or me getting confused about what was what. I figure I will need all the warm, fuzzy vibes from the tools I can get so I got the 263 piece. Rationalized the 1/2 inch 12 point problem by telling myself Bill doesn't like the Craftman 1/2 anyway. I am kind of stoked about the idea of going to Costco shopping for screwdrivers.

Now that I have tools, I might actually have to work on the car now.

Here are the links from Sears:

263 piece, $199

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...nics+Tool+Sets

190 piece, $159


http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...nics+Tool+Sets

155 piece, $99

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...nics+Tool+Sets

117 piece, $79
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...&bidsite=CRAFT

83 piece, $49

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...nics+Tool+Sets

Happy tool shopping.