Wera Tools and “Woot!” in the same sentence. Surprising.

[Packard]

Woot!, Amazon’s clearance website is having a clearance sale on Wera tools.  These sales usually last one or two days (until all the inventory is sold).

Woot! Will honor your Amazon account and Prime’s free shipping if you are a Prime member. 

Also Knipex (which I am not familiar with).  This is starting to sound like an advertisement so I am signing off now.
https://tools.woot.com/plus/knipex-...content=Subheader-B&ref_=pe_3185080_903499720

I would be wary about the “refurbished” or “factory reconditioned” products on Woot!, when queried in the past to define these terms and the difference they signify, I got no response from their customer service. Their ambiguity was sufficiently unsettling to put the Kabosh on the transaction at the time.

I have been happy with the items that are listed as “new”, though.  And they take returns  as does Amazon.com.

But still, I don’t consider their “refurbished”  and [gasp!] “furbed”, or “reconditioned” products.

 

[smorgasbord]

Thanks!
Knipex pliers and wrenches are really great - if I didn't have what I needed already I'd order some.
Note that the Woot! savings are relative to some kind of high MSRP prices. I tried copy/pasting the model numbers into amazon directly and it looks like the Woot sale is another 10%-15% off those.

 

[semenza]

Yup, the prices are great compared to the crossed out retail. However I checked other sources on a couple things I was interested in and found only a few dollars difference. In one case only 3%. Still maybe worth getting but shop around first.

Seth

 

[Packard]

Reminds me of a “sale” at Macy’s a few years back.  “Up to 50% off on selected items”.

One pair of shoes had a “sale” sticker covering the old price.  The new price was $129.95.

I was able to peel the “sale” stick off.  The original price was $129.99.  So a savings of $0.04.

Worse was Kohl’s.  I had bought some flatware (spoons and forks) the week before and paid $6.99 for three spoons.  The sign said “half off”.  So I carried the spoons to the cashier who rang it up at $9.00.  Half-off should have been $3.50.

The cashier explained that the half-off was from the original suggested retail of $18.00.

So the “sale price” was actually a price increase from $7.00 to $9.00 and not “half-off”. 

Trust, once lost, is almost never re-gained.  Retailers should remember that.

 

[Holzhacker]

I looked at this earlier. On the torque wrench and joker set, the prices are well enough below KCtool to make it worthwhile. Some of the other items are also cheaper than the daily kctool prices.
I would love to order a number of items but just can't right now.
If you can do it, order. The savings are real.

 

[rst]

I’ve been buying most of my Wera & Knipex from a Chadstoolbox.com. Pricing is usually cheapest and they have a rewards program

 

[Michael Kellough]

I bought two Wera sets. They cost about 20% more at Chad’s.

 

[Packard]

Of course WOOT! Isn’t really a “vendor”, and I hope I did not present them as such.

They are opportunists, selling select goods at select times.  When you need something they would not be a favored vendor.

But if they are opportunistic in selling, we’ll we can be opportunistic in buying.

I am on the Woot! Mailing list, so I peek at what they are selling.

I got a very nice woodworkers vise a couple of months ago for $39.95.  I would have to pay three times that elsewhere.  So, worth the peek.

 

[smorgasbord]

My hex wrenches arrived today. I was surprised how big and beefy they are:
[attachimg=1]

The AA battery is for size.

The metric set in particular is great for my bicycle work - has the smallest ones (1.5mm) used in some fiddly handlebar mount thingies as well as a big 8mm/10mm ones for pedals. The Imperial set is, well, unfortunately needed for some things. The holder thing is nice, too, with a good locking mechanism. And, of course, the labeling is top notch.

Looks like I have some old hex wrenches to add to the box I have to give to my son when he gets his own place.

 

[smorgasbord]

My hex wrenches arrived today. I was surprised how big and beefy they are:
[attachimg=1]

The AA battery is for size.

The metric set in particular will be great for my bicycle work - has the smallest ones (1.5mm) used in some fiddly handlebar mount thingies as well as a big 8mm/10mm ones for pedals. The Imperial set is, well, unfortunately needed for some things. The holder thing is nice, too, with a good locking mechanism. And, of course, the labeling is top notch.

Looks like I have some old hex wrenches to add to the box I have to give to my son when he gets his own place.

 

[Packard]

My hex wrenches arrived today. I was surprised how big and beefy they are:
[attachimg=1]

The AA battery is for size.

The metric set in particular is great for my bicycle work - has the smallest ones (1.5mm) used in some fiddly handlebar mount thingies as well as a big 8mm/10mm ones for pedals. The Imperial set is, well, unfortunately needed for some things. The holder thing is nice, too, with a good locking mechanism. And, of course, the labeling is top notch.

Looks like I have some old hex wrenches to add to the box I have to give to my son when he gets his own place.

Huh.  It appears that they start with round wire, and then forge the hex.  An expensive way to produce these, but doubtless resulting in more robust tools. 

Most of these tools hex-shaped wire which is bent to shape and then heat treated.  Forging aligns the direction of the grain in the steel (yes, like wood, steel has “grain”) resulting in greater strength in the direction of the grain.  So I would expect these Wera Allen wrenches to last longer and suffer more abuse before failure.  Interesting.

 

[smorgasbord]

Yeah, the hex profile is intentionally not perfectly hexagonal, too:
[attachimg=1]

It claims less wear on the hex head of the screw and better holding ability in the wrench. Supposedly a larger surface area of contact.

I also picked up 1000 nitrile gloves for $20, so now I have a lifetime supply and will probably give some boxes away as gifts.

If only they had Torx wrenches on sale, too.

 

[Packard]

By the time I ordered the 1,000 nitrile gloves they were $29.00/M. I ordered it yesterday anyhow.

I got an email from Woot saying that it should arrive within 3 - 5 days.

I got another email directly from UPS saying it will arrive between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m. today.  It is now 2:30. 

I still have a half full box of gloves, but they cost 3 times as much.  I hope these are decent gloves.  I should know in 2-1/2 hours or in 3 - 5 days.

 

[smorgasbord]

By the time I ordered the 1,000 nitrile gloves they were $29.00/M.... I hope these are decent gloves.  I should know in 2-1/2 hours or in 3 - 5 days.

My mistake - they were $29.99 for me, too. They're decent but not as good as the Park Tool MG-3 gloves I have been buying.
Link here:https://www.parktool.com/en-us/product/nitrile-mechanics-gloves-mg-3

The Park gloves are thicker with a nice texture at the fingers. These are not blue (kind of lavender). The thickness isn't bad, but with the Park gloves I would sometimes take them off and then put them back on later that day. With these I'm going to toss after each usage. They're cheap enough that I'm probably going to use them even for small jobs, and like I said, probably need to gift some boxes since I won't go through them all in my remaining lifetime.

 

[Packard]

When President Obama was running for office, he promised to ban all plastic supermarket bags.

At the time I was using (new) plastic bags to clean up after my dog. They were bigger, stronger and cheaper than the plastic bags meant for that sanitation application.  They cost $10.00 per thousand.

Also at that time I had a months old puppy.  So I did the math and concluded that I would need, at the maximum, 15,000 bags ($150.00).

Of course Obama never banned the bags (happily, they never rot or spoil).  For a long time that inventory was an embarrassment. I now have just over 1,000 bags remaining and when people see me carry something in one, they ask where I got it.

Do the math.  How many gloves will you use a week? A month? A year?  And keep in mind that the price of the gloves will go up over time.

The last selling price for the plastic bags was $26.00/thousand.

 

[smorgasbord]

One item I'm looking for is a ratcheting spinner handle with a ¼" square drive end.

One of the first tools my dad bought for me when I was like 10 or 11 was a ¼" socket set. Thorsen is the brand, all made in the US. This would be late 1960s. I still have the set - lost one socket which I've replaced. The big problem with it as I got older was that it was SAE only, so after years of using some metric sockets I picked up cheap at a job lot store in LA, I finally broke down and bought the nice Milwaukee ¼" Metric & SAE combined set from HD during one of their sales.

The Milwaukee set, while not US made, is pretty nice. The square socket outsides near the drive end stop rolling and you can put a big wrench on them (never had to to that). And, it's got the usual extensions and a decent ratchet. What it doesn't have, however, is a spinner handle. This is really a screwdriver like thing with a ¼" square end instead of a screwdriver (slot/phillips/whatever) end. It's handy for starting and for when you've got a long scew length to travel.

Here's one:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000Y8NSIY
[attachimg=2]

I'm probably going to give my old Thorsen set to my son, which means I won't have access to that spinner handle, so I could buy that one I show above. Thinking about it, however, I'd like that handle to have a ratcheting mechanism. But, what I'm finding is that spinner handles with ratcheting mechanisms all seem to have the hollow hex end to take the short (< 1") screwdriver bits. Yeah, maybe I could put an adapter on, but the adapters all have the longer hex shank with the big ball detent that doesn't work in these spinners. My primary usage will be for ¼ drive sockets, not screwdriver bits.

About the closest I could find is GearWrench's GearDrive sets. Here's a $38 set from Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HBF5IO

[attachimg=1]

It should do what I need and then some. But I really want something with a good ratcheting mechanism and I don't trust GearWrench for whatever reason. Anyone got any pointers for me?

 

[Packard]

The gloves arrived when I got home.  Size large.

I compared it with the gloves I get from Harbor Freight, also size large.

The Woot gloves call out 3.5 mil.

The Harbor Freight gloves do not call out the thickness.

I weighed both on an accurate kitchen scale.  Each pair of gloves was 0.8 ounces.  So 0.4 ounces per glove.  So both vendors appear to be selling comparable gloves.

The fit was very similar for both.

The Woot gloves are packed more densely in a smaller box, and come out of the box looking more wrinkled.  But the wrinkles quickly disappear once worn.

I just went to the Harbor Freight site, and they are only listing a 5 mil glove.  That would be heavier duty than what I have.  The price is $12.00 per hundred. 

So 12 cents each vs 3 cents each.  I probably go through a dozen gloves per week.  So 1,000 gloves = lotsaweeks.

 

[smorgasbord]

The Woot gloves call out 3.5 mil.

Hmm, mine are quoted at 4.0 mil:https://tools.woot.com/offers/1000-pk-4mil-blue-nitrile-gloves-24
[attachimg=1]

But what I got are labeled 3.5mil.
Trying to decide if I really care enough contact Woot.

So 1,000 gloves = lotsaweeks.

Yeah, even me at average 1/week is almost 20 years. Assuming I keep them away from light, heat, and moisture I still wonder if they'll last that long.

But, I really do want a spinner handle, see above....

 

[Packard]

I was just going by the imprint on the boxes.  I was guessing that “core 3.5” was the thickness in mils.

 

[Packard]

My effort to remove a single glove from a package of 100 too tightly packed yielded this bloom of gloves.  Not a disqualifying fault, but very untidy.