Soon after we posted about Channellock’s Dog Bone style wrenches, I thought back to a few months ago when I spotted Channellock-branded ratcheting wrenches. These wrenches were also found at a discount wholesale club, and although I don’t recall the exact price, it was possibly in the $25-30 range for the 7-piece set.
It turns out that this set is made by Allied International, well known for their affordable import hand tool sets. Allied’s hand tools are usable, but I’ll likely stick with Gearwrench for all of my ratcheting wrench needs.
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Dan Richards
I have a set of those in metric with the non-reversing flex head, gifted to me about eight years ago. The box ends of them deflect easily under torque but the ratchets aren’t the worst I’ve ever seen. That’s not really saying much, and they’re definitely not good. I killed the box on the 18mm a few weeks ago doing some suspension disassembly, the stress was just too much for its poor little head. In its defense though, those bolts meant business. I’ve kept them in a tertiary tool kit for a while, they just aren’t adequate for the pro kit or even the home kit, but I don’t have the heart to throw them out and I absolutely won’t sell them to another guy and pass on the junk. I just use them when I absolutely have to.
Dan Richards
And that’s why I’d like to nominate safety glasses as a tool of the week.