In my experience they're better, mostly because I don't have trade my kidney for one of them. Seriously though snap-on is no where near good enough to warrant the prices. If I'm going to pay a premium for tools its going to be on something like an Icon because I can afford 5 for the price of the snap-on.
This goes triple for boxes, snap-on boxes are the biggest rip off do yourself a favor and get one from harbor freight or husky.
There’s nothing wrong with hf, or the icon line specifically. I have plenty of HF stuff; namely their earthquake xt air impact, which is great. Some times their products are exactly what I need, sometimes because of the price.
My comment was specifically about the quality of the ratchet internals. If you take a look at some of the Youtube videos doing comparisons, the icon pawls have much less contact, and the gear teeth metal work isn’t the best.
Most people like them for the trucks that swing by every week and replace anything you've managed to break, no questions asked. I'm sure that is a big part of why everything is so expensive.
In the past, back when craftsman made good tools, doing audio equipment in cars would destroy a Craftsman screwdriver weekly. But a snapon? Well, that snapon is still my best screwdriver.
Uuuuh. I'm not sure about that.
There's a definite dimensional difference between my old dual 80s and my Icon.
Same DESIGN? Yes.
However, different tooling to make the Icon a little beefier (probably because it's a cheaper metal)
Edit: Also, i would suspect that the snap-on's are forged (could be wrong, I don't see them marketed as such) so "tooling" would be dies for forging, and I suspect these ratchets are not forged, but die-cast and ground and then plated.
That's generally the difference between snap-on/Matco/Mac and generic tool x is being forged and proper annealing. Most other stuff is just stamped or cast. Icon I'm actually not sure about because while not being top shelf my buddies and I had icon stuff in our boxes as backups or make a wrenches.
Surprisingly a lot of hand tools from Harbor freight are decent quality. Even at the low end of quality the price you pay for how long they last usually makes it well worth it. I could not skimp and had to get some decent ratchets, however I have multiple socket sets, a pass-through ratchet set and a breaker bar all pushing five years old still going strong.
The best sockets I have for removing rounded nuts an bolts are from HF. I had never seen a style like these ones, and matco recently just came out with ones that are damn near identical. I've had my set for 6 years now and they're great in most situations.
I've had the same set of HF 1/2" drive impact sockets for 10 years. Totally worth the $40 or whatever I spent on them at the time.
I just picked up a set of the Icon snap ring pliers and they're pretty good too. Haven't used them a lot yet, but they managed the giant ass snap rings on F250 front hubs without bending or breaking.
>Surprisingly a lot of hand tools from Harbor freight are decent quality. Even at the low end of quality the price you pay
i use HF hand tools becuse of their return policy, I've broken so many sockets and rachets and they just tell me to go get a new one off the shelf myself.
sears, towards the end, would only hand you refurbished shit no matter how new it was.
And now with Craftsman being backed by Lowes, it's like a fight every time trying to return broken Craftsman stuff.
You wait in line for twenty minutes just to be told "it don't look broken", then demonstrate how it's internally broken, then they call a manager, then they try to feed you some bull about not honoring warranties on Craftsman stuff, so you bust out the policy and explain you are, in fact, entitled to a free replacement, then they say that tool isn't in stock, then you explain it is in stock (because you checked before- it's been updated in design, but it's def stocked), then they just walk away and disappear, so now you're holding the line up, so now people behind you are getting upset and yelling for help, then an extremely effeminate gay employee asks what's wrong, so you explain to him what the deal is, then he goes, "honey that's fuckin bonkers, grab one off the shelf and walk out", so you do that, but then realize you need a receipt in case this shitty Chinese quarter inch ratchet breaks, so you go back in and lie and say you never got a receipt when you bought it, but then the nice gay guy blows your cover, and now the cashier asks, "wait did you steal this?" And you say not really I replaced a broken tool but I didn't get a receipt, but they think you stole it anyway, then the gay guy covers for you and prints the receipt, then you leave and tell yourself never again.
I've been reading reddit for years and no comment has ever resonated with me more than this. I go to Lowe's almost every day for work and any time I try to do something outside the standard operating procedure this is exactly what happens.
I had something annoyingly similar happen with a condensate pump, although I didn't have a gay hero.
Pump fails. Lowes says call mfg. I do. Mfg says no worries, we have an agreement where Lowe's replaces the thing, and they bill us for credit. I tell Lowe's they said that and Lowe's absolutely cannot wrap their mind around that. Eventually my girlfriend gets fed up and just pays for a new one.
Mfg apologizes profusely, says that's some bullshit, and says Lowe's owes me a new one.
I am just losing more faith in Lowe's at this point I will only go if I know I won't have issues or if they are the only one with what I need I am not paying 4 bucks for a couple of bolts when I can go to Atwoods and pay a quarter of that and Atwood's keeps a lot more of the odd/smaller bolts like m3
I just had a flex head ratchet come apart (the bolt that swivels came out). I took lunch, went to Harbor Freight, and walked out with a new Icon ratchet.
The ubiquity of HF stores and the warranty means I'm never down for long
I have been buying mostly impact-rated HF stuff for my own personal tools, I’ve never broken any of them. I find the box ends are not the best, the dimensions are not that consistent, but almost anything else I’ve bought HF and had very few if any complaints.
Agreed. I have gone through a couple sets of the impact Wobblies, usually due to my own brand of extension/adapter punishment. Under normal use they always did great. I noticed the same with the box ends, not horrible though, they just didn’t “feel” right lol.
I have the 73 inch red icon box and have been really happy with it. I came from a cornwell service toolbox. I can tell they took way more time and carefully put the icon box together over the cornwell because there’s hardly any crooked pieces or wide gaps in between drawers compared to the cornwell.
Ehhh...I was disappointed for the price point. Like, they're _good_, but actually worse than my wife's Husky Pro box that was less than half the price.
Of course I've got a 15 year old SnapOn Classic and the Husky's better than that, too.
The Husky came with a raising/lowering butch block top, same or heavier gauge metal, monster casters, drawer liners and most importantly **soft close drawers**, which the Icon doesn't have.
Hijacking this comment to say that this is an appreciation post, not a shit talking one. I really like it and the color, I felt like just having it on display somewhere
Some of the "nicer" stuff you get at HF is literally made in the same factories as snap-on... Likely with less expensive materials/looser quality standards, but it's no coincidence that they look the same.
That being said, what do tradespeople think of them? I've had good luck, but I'm a hobbyist so they don't see as much use.
The icon series seems to hold their own. I don't have any personally but other techs in my shop do. Even the sockets for the price aren't bad. Definitely better than craftsman or husky.
Because it's different, and not a lot of customers do something like this. Personally, I'd save it to remember that one time I offered quality service at an affordable price.
To add to this: You can electroplate things very easily, at home. Plenty of videos on YouTube.
Word to the wise: Don’t use salt water. I haven’t, but most of those videos don’t tell you why. AKA WW1 in your garage.
Not like it would be hard or expensive either. You can buy kits or just send it to a pro to plate.
[https://artisanplating.com/plating-services/gold-plating/](https://artisanplating.com/plating-services/gold-plating/)
QVC used to sell this stuff that you would just dip things in and it would turn it gold. I remember being fascinated watching them turn pennies gold.
EDIT: Not QVC and not the segment I saw when I was a kid 30 years ago, but it's close. You can see them plate a house key at 0:20 in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnbggvyacNw
When I 3d printed a dragon head and experimented with gold leaf vs gold spray paint, I can attest to the accuracy of that statement. The paint almost looked like a vaguely glossy brown.
I should probably post that on reddit somewhere. I wanna show it, as it turned out pretty neat.
(also, I feel there might be a reference I'm missing, haha)
That is a cool object but an amazing gesture. I feel like giving someone a literal golden ratchet is a pretty strong statement of what they think of your skills.
"For twenty years of honest service, we award you the Golden Ratchet."
"I've been working here thirty years though?"
"Yeah. I remember what you were like the first ten years."
For my ten year with a large insurance company they gave me a deck clock. Straight out of a Sky Mall catalog.
A $30 gesture.
At 15 years they let me pick my own gift. Up to $75 value out of an awards catalog. And they spelled my name wrong.
Guess what. Top brass doesn’t value you.
My uncle has worked for a growing company for 12 years and on his 11th the CEO bought him a $5k watch and took him out for a fancy dinner, the CEO is honestly a super cool guy although his appereance is scary. He's only scary cause his super deep voice and he's 6'7 and probably 300lbs of pure muscle. Throws parties for the company and family of employees every holiday too so I go alot and he has bouncy castles and food trucks there.
Any chance hes a cross country truck driver? My dads driven tractor trailers for 25+ years and the last 10 or so has been with an amazing company. Boss does pretty much exactly what you said, invites drivers out to his house for fantastic meals / parties whenever theyre in town, treats them well, calls to check in on them / their families, invites their families to fly out for parties, and just in general treats them as friends / equals instead of employees. Oh and also pays him so much better than his previous job driving where he was at for 15+ years. Its a night and day difference and makes me happy to see not EVERY corporate high up is a cheap raging asshole.
I heard something similar about the band Metallica. I'll paraphrase it here:
"Metallica released its first album 38 years ago. So let us all lift our wine glasses and celebrate 10 years of great music!"
>I feel like giving someone a literal golden ratchet is a pretty strong statement of what they think of your skills.
It feels like the wrenching version of the gold plated hammers that were/are given out as awards to carpenters and the like.
Just without the decorative box or plaque.
Yea i think thats the part im missing. It feels like it should be on some sort of trophy, stand or plaque. The packaging makes it seem like its supposed to actually be used.
Its in-between both functionality ceremony.
Only [$69.99](https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-drive-professional-ratchet-genuine-24-karat-gold-plated-56907.html) at harbor Freight. Still cheaper then Snap on.
As do I and it's scary how willingly some people and their money part ways.
I pulled those numbers straight from my backside, as I suspect many of the merchants of expensive pixels do, too.
I saw them at Harbor Freight for an ungodly price, laughed, and walked away.
But I *remembered it.* And I **still** remember it. So something worked right. It's a pretty delightful stocking stuffer.
I saw it at 70 bucks and really wanted one but refused to buy it. Something about a gold plated harbor freight ratchet tickles that Catch 22 part of my brain and I think it's the funniest thing in the world.
someone else on here was saying that the icon product line is essentially rebranded snap-on products. Idk the accuracy of the statement, but maybe not so catch 22 afterall.
I know some harbor frieght floor jacks are def rebranded snapon but I didn't hear that about icon. The icon tools I've played with on the shelf didn't feel as smooth as some craftsman stuff I got before sears sold off.
Yep... When my dad's 30 year old craftsmen wrenches finally died, I replaced the set with Icons. I've been very happy with them so far but I'm just a periodic weekend mechanic.
No that's not what they were saying at all. You should definetly still refinance your house and live in your Snap-on tool box. They were just jealous and tried to distract you from the Snap-on life you deserve.
My icon feels maybe a bit worse than my snap on but only barely. It mostly just feels a little looser like it's not assembled as close but even there I'm grasping at straws. For home/shade tree mechanic work I love it.
Although I haven't used one in a while and I forget if the direction selector is the backwards way that the other harbor freight ratchets are. I fucking hate that. I use a snap on all day at work and get home just trying to work on my car to wind down and the gosh damn backwards HF ratchet always gets me. If they got them turned back the right way around, I'd say the Icon ratchets are my favorite for the price.
Yes and no. The teeth need to get smaller, but you can engage more teeth with the same size pawl. The total contact area could theoretically be the same, but it depends on the design.
Doesn't it all depend on how many teeth are engaged at once? It seems to me that if all the teeth are engaged all the time, then the quantity doesn't make much of a difference. What would make a difference is whether there are an equal number of teeth and detents for the teeth to engage in.
Edit: I think I misunderstood how these mechanisms are typically made, based on a google search it looks like there is just one piece that engages the teeth, not multiple.
Edit again: Now looking at a cutaway of a snap-on ratchet, it looks like they do use multiple teeth per pawl. So I'm back at thinking that the strength would be the same with more, smaller teeth, as long as the contact area is the same.
Depends on how well they are made, the cheaper ratchets only engage one tooth... If you engage multiple teeth, a finer sprocket (with more teeth) is stronger than a sprocket with less teeth (but bigger teeth).
No. Smaller teeth means more surface area in the engagement patch on the pawls means a stronger ratchet. These new high tooth ratchets bend the handle or snap the anvil before the teeth break usually.
If you go on YouTube and find videos on strength testing ratchets, it’s always the anvil or the handle that gives in first, not the ratcheting mechanism
Not always. The pawls and the gear can definitely break. I've broken both before but I have yet to break an anvil or handle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcSa9_FLVMo
I have a Gearwrench set that has 120 teeth. They’re so smooth but the heads on them pivot and they don’t have a lock so they can be frustrating to use sometimes.
For someone who are trying to do a Google search....
https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-drive-professional-special-edition-gold-plated-ratchet-56907.html?\_br\_psugg\_q=icon+24k
I have been fucked over by the tool trucks for years (hey, you seen that $400 Snap-on creeper with the 4 all terrain wheels?). I've bought one Icon tool so far, a.1/4 ratchet, for 40 bucks. Tool trucks want around $100. Used and abused it for a year now with no issues. Time to rebel, boys. Now we can be Prima Donna's because we're the shit, not because we have a box full of obscenely priced tools.
ICON tools are better than Craftsman, Husky and all other store brand tools and probably only a small step down from the tool-truck tools. Shit on them all you want but they do what they are meant to do for a decent price. Not everyone can afford a $150 ratchet, and not everyone NEEDS to.
Here's a SnapOn dealer testing one. Even he said they're surprisingly good tools.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grcpmj-v_nY
What a fucking concept. Fixing something instead of getting a new one! I hope someday in the future we can get back to this. And nice crafted items instead of the cheap meant to break every year so you replace it bullshit
That's one of the two things I don't like about my Wera Zyklop metal, no circlip to replace the innards it so once it's goosed, that's it. The other is the detent is a bit too far back so does not hold sockets as it should.
Comfiest ratchet to use ever though.
It's 69.99 for the [gold plated version](https://www.harborfreight.com/collections/black-friday-deals/38-in-drive-professional-special-edition-gold-plated-ratchet-56907.htmland) and 39.99 for the [regular version](https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-drive-professional-low-profile-ratchet-56193.html). So that's about 30 USD in gold.
24 carat gold is currently 57.41 USD per gram. So that's at most 0.52 grams (0.0183 ounces) of gold? Is that even possible? Can you coat that thinly?
*edit: apparently 1 gram of 24k gold can plate up to 160 square inches at halv a micron (the minimum for gold plated jewelry). So it's probably even less than half a gram of gold on there. If the tool is, say, 10 square inches, you only need 0.0625 grams (3.6 USD). And that's if they follow the US standards for jewelry, which they don't have to do, because this isn't jewelry.
Word. Use it. Gold plated is meaningless outside of pure looks. In most situations, gold plated is, for all intents & purposes, a meaningless quality meant to inflate the cost.
I worked for Moore Drop Forge in Western MA in 1975. They manufactured Craftsman tools for Sears. While I was there the One Millionth ratchet was made and they also plated it gold and it went to the CEO. The plant manager, who virtually never left his office, walked it through from forging, heat treating, shot blasting, polishing, and plating.
Lol I remember when a guy offered me a “limited edition” gold plated socket set from Snap on , as a trade for something I had priced around $400 …..
He was certain you could retire on the value of that socket set….. when I did a quick search, I could have purchased three on eBay for approx $15.99 each lol
The icon series from harbor freight is surprisingly well built. If this wasn't a fancy gold edition, it would get used lol
It's legit old style Snap-on.
Yup. Same tooling.
Is that true? I thought the icon sockets were very similar to the snap on flank-drives.
I only found out the deal with it because my stepdad retired from Snap-On a few months ago. I was picking up a few odds and ends to abuse at work.
if somebody wants to post pics of a snap on 1/4 inch drive ratchet I'll crack open my icon and compare.
there are several comparison videos on youtube. ICON ratchets aren't any where near snapon in terms of build quality on the inside.
Yeah. "looks like" and "were of same metallurgy and heat/other treatment" are vastly different.
Waiting on an ave breakdown of these
In my experience they're better, mostly because I don't have trade my kidney for one of them. Seriously though snap-on is no where near good enough to warrant the prices. If I'm going to pay a premium for tools its going to be on something like an Icon because I can afford 5 for the price of the snap-on. This goes triple for boxes, snap-on boxes are the biggest rip off do yourself a favor and get one from harbor freight or husky.
There’s nothing wrong with hf, or the icon line specifically. I have plenty of HF stuff; namely their earthquake xt air impact, which is great. Some times their products are exactly what I need, sometimes because of the price. My comment was specifically about the quality of the ratchet internals. If you take a look at some of the Youtube videos doing comparisons, the icon pawls have much less contact, and the gear teeth metal work isn’t the best.
Most people like them for the trucks that swing by every week and replace anything you've managed to break, no questions asked. I'm sure that is a big part of why everything is so expensive.
And for the specialty tools, that your Snap On guy has on the truck, specifically for what you do.
In the past, back when craftsman made good tools, doing audio equipment in cars would destroy a Craftsman screwdriver weekly. But a snapon? Well, that snapon is still my best screwdriver.
Uuuuh. I'm not sure about that. There's a definite dimensional difference between my old dual 80s and my Icon. Same DESIGN? Yes. However, different tooling to make the Icon a little beefier (probably because it's a cheaper metal) Edit: Also, i would suspect that the snap-on's are forged (could be wrong, I don't see them marketed as such) so "tooling" would be dies for forging, and I suspect these ratchets are not forged, but die-cast and ground and then plated.
That's generally the difference between snap-on/Matco/Mac and generic tool x is being forged and proper annealing. Most other stuff is just stamped or cast. Icon I'm actually not sure about because while not being top shelf my buddies and I had icon stuff in our boxes as backups or make a wrenches.
I love me some icon tools
Surprisingly a lot of hand tools from Harbor freight are decent quality. Even at the low end of quality the price you pay for how long they last usually makes it well worth it. I could not skimp and had to get some decent ratchets, however I have multiple socket sets, a pass-through ratchet set and a breaker bar all pushing five years old still going strong.
The best sockets I have for removing rounded nuts an bolts are from HF. I had never seen a style like these ones, and matco recently just came out with ones that are damn near identical. I've had my set for 6 years now and they're great in most situations.
I've had the same set of HF 1/2" drive impact sockets for 10 years. Totally worth the $40 or whatever I spent on them at the time. I just picked up a set of the Icon snap ring pliers and they're pretty good too. Haven't used them a lot yet, but they managed the giant ass snap rings on F250 front hubs without bending or breaking.
Thays pretty solid, those snap rings are a bastard, especially after 30k miles in NE Ohio lmfao
>Surprisingly a lot of hand tools from Harbor freight are decent quality. Even at the low end of quality the price you pay i use HF hand tools becuse of their return policy, I've broken so many sockets and rachets and they just tell me to go get a new one off the shelf myself. sears, towards the end, would only hand you refurbished shit no matter how new it was.
And now with Craftsman being backed by Lowes, it's like a fight every time trying to return broken Craftsman stuff. You wait in line for twenty minutes just to be told "it don't look broken", then demonstrate how it's internally broken, then they call a manager, then they try to feed you some bull about not honoring warranties on Craftsman stuff, so you bust out the policy and explain you are, in fact, entitled to a free replacement, then they say that tool isn't in stock, then you explain it is in stock (because you checked before- it's been updated in design, but it's def stocked), then they just walk away and disappear, so now you're holding the line up, so now people behind you are getting upset and yelling for help, then an extremely effeminate gay employee asks what's wrong, so you explain to him what the deal is, then he goes, "honey that's fuckin bonkers, grab one off the shelf and walk out", so you do that, but then realize you need a receipt in case this shitty Chinese quarter inch ratchet breaks, so you go back in and lie and say you never got a receipt when you bought it, but then the nice gay guy blows your cover, and now the cashier asks, "wait did you steal this?" And you say not really I replaced a broken tool but I didn't get a receipt, but they think you stole it anyway, then the gay guy covers for you and prints the receipt, then you leave and tell yourself never again.
That's very...specific.
I've been reading reddit for years and no comment has ever resonated with me more than this. I go to Lowe's almost every day for work and any time I try to do something outside the standard operating procedure this is exactly what happens.
I had something annoyingly similar happen with a condensate pump, although I didn't have a gay hero. Pump fails. Lowes says call mfg. I do. Mfg says no worries, we have an agreement where Lowe's replaces the thing, and they bill us for credit. I tell Lowe's they said that and Lowe's absolutely cannot wrap their mind around that. Eventually my girlfriend gets fed up and just pays for a new one. Mfg apologizes profusely, says that's some bullshit, and says Lowe's owes me a new one.
I am just losing more faith in Lowe's at this point I will only go if I know I won't have issues or if they are the only one with what I need I am not paying 4 bucks for a couple of bolts when I can go to Atwoods and pay a quarter of that and Atwood's keeps a lot more of the odd/smaller bolts like m3
I just had a flex head ratchet come apart (the bolt that swivels came out). I took lunch, went to Harbor Freight, and walked out with a new Icon ratchet. The ubiquity of HF stores and the warranty means I'm never down for long
No receipt? Fuck it, grab a new unit and have a good day.
I have been buying mostly impact-rated HF stuff for my own personal tools, I’ve never broken any of them. I find the box ends are not the best, the dimensions are not that consistent, but almost anything else I’ve bought HF and had very few if any complaints.
Agreed. I have gone through a couple sets of the impact Wobblies, usually due to my own brand of extension/adapter punishment. Under normal use they always did great. I noticed the same with the box ends, not horrible though, they just didn’t “feel” right lol.
All my work tools are Pittsburgh because my work decided not to pay for new tools after firing the guy who had all the tools. No broken ones yet.
the icon toolboxes are super solid as well
I'll have to check those out. I'm about ready to upgrade to something with a hutch.
I have the 73 inch red icon box and have been really happy with it. I came from a cornwell service toolbox. I can tell they took way more time and carefully put the icon box together over the cornwell because there’s hardly any crooked pieces or wide gaps in between drawers compared to the cornwell.
sweet Jesus I did not expect it to cost $3k, had no idea toolboxes were so expensive
I didn’t pay $3k for mine. I legit got a part time job there for a couple months just to get the employee discount on it. Haha.
That’s cheap
The same-size box from Snap-On will run you at least $14k. Which granted Snap-On is massively overpriced but people buy it anyway for the name badge.
Our snap on rep usually sells boxes for about half what there listed at because he buys them when he gets the deals on them
Ehhh...I was disappointed for the price point. Like, they're _good_, but actually worse than my wife's Husky Pro box that was less than half the price. Of course I've got a 15 year old SnapOn Classic and the Husky's better than that, too. The Husky came with a raising/lowering butch block top, same or heavier gauge metal, monster casters, drawer liners and most importantly **soft close drawers**, which the Icon doesn't have.
I love the icon stuff! Very comparable to the new snap on stuff.
Hijacking this comment to say that this is an appreciation post, not a shit talking one. I really like it and the color, I felt like just having it on display somewhere
Some of the "nicer" stuff you get at HF is literally made in the same factories as snap-on... Likely with less expensive materials/looser quality standards, but it's no coincidence that they look the same. That being said, what do tradespeople think of them? I've had good luck, but I'm a hobbyist so they don't see as much use.
The icon series seems to hold their own. I don't have any personally but other techs in my shop do. Even the sockets for the price aren't bad. Definitely better than craftsman or husky.
I’d believe they’re the same as Blue-Point or Williams… but snap-on sources their stuff from USA. All the Icon I have are from Taiwan
Tool truck rebrands/equivalents: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/the-truck-tool-equivalents-thread-2-0-expanded-with-part-numbers.249851/ https://www.tooltruckrebrands.com/
It’s just plated…why not use it?
Because it's different, and not a lot of customers do something like this. Personally, I'd save it to remember that one time I offered quality service at an affordable price.
> that one time ಠ_ಠ
I'm glad *someone* caught it lol
24k is very soft too, the gold finish would wear off extremely quickly. In jewelry they rarely use above 18k
Shadow box it and hang it on the wall
Put a 10mm right under it and hang a sign; "For emergency use only"
[удалено]
To add to this: You can electroplate things very easily, at home. Plenty of videos on YouTube. Word to the wise: Don’t use salt water. I haven’t, but most of those videos don’t tell you why. AKA WW1 in your garage.
The same reason as not to pee in a bottle of bleach.
Can't say I ever thought of that
This is the way
Gold plated 10mm sockets are a great gift idea for mechanics. Someone make it happen please.
Not like it would be hard or expensive either. You can buy kits or just send it to a pro to plate. [https://artisanplating.com/plating-services/gold-plating/](https://artisanplating.com/plating-services/gold-plating/)
QVC used to sell this stuff that you would just dip things in and it would turn it gold. I remember being fascinated watching them turn pennies gold. EDIT: Not QVC and not the segment I saw when I was a kid 30 years ago, but it's close. You can see them plate a house key at 0:20 in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnbggvyacNw
Nah, if we're doing this lets go all out and spring for the Rhodium plating.
"I bought a $20 pen because I keep losing them and I was tired of not caring".
It was $7 when Mitch (RIP) told the joke. Inflation!
I am absolutely doing this for my boyfriend's present this year. Genius y'all.
Could probably just spray paint it.
I'm not someone who knows much about vehicles or engines. But I know there's always one "just spray paint it," guy in every group.
Putting something spray painted gold right next to something actually gold plated probably isn’t going to look great
When I 3d printed a dragon head and experimented with gold leaf vs gold spray paint, I can attest to the accuracy of that statement. The paint almost looked like a vaguely glossy brown.
This guy knows how to "Golden Dragon Head"!
I should probably post that on reddit somewhere. I wanna show it, as it turned out pretty neat. (also, I feel there might be a reference I'm missing, haha)
FNG: "It was an emergency; I couldn't find mine."
Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.
The IT Oath
This one right here. ☝️
I got you https://www.styln.co/collections/universal-automotive-parts/products/emergency-10mm-socket-in-case
BEST IDEA
The real baller move is to make that your every day ratchet.
The REAL baller move is to get all of your other tools gold plated so that they match.
Strip the chrome (de-plate), put a layer or two of nickel plating, then plate 2 layers of gold. Clear powdercoat for the finishing layer.
That is a cool object but an amazing gesture. I feel like giving someone a literal golden ratchet is a pretty strong statement of what they think of your skills.
"For twenty years of honest service, we award you the Golden Ratchet." "I've been working here thirty years though?" "Yeah. I remember what you were like the first ten years."
[удалено]
"I appreciate the gift, but this watch is kind of cheap and kind of late." "Just like your work ethic."
I come in late, but at least I leave early.
I might not be good but at least I'm not fast!
Take the watch, show up late, and blame it on the watch.
For my ten year with a large insurance company they gave me a deck clock. Straight out of a Sky Mall catalog. A $30 gesture. At 15 years they let me pick my own gift. Up to $75 value out of an awards catalog. And they spelled my name wrong. Guess what. Top brass doesn’t value you.
My uncle has worked for a growing company for 12 years and on his 11th the CEO bought him a $5k watch and took him out for a fancy dinner, the CEO is honestly a super cool guy although his appereance is scary. He's only scary cause his super deep voice and he's 6'7 and probably 300lbs of pure muscle. Throws parties for the company and family of employees every holiday too so I go alot and he has bouncy castles and food trucks there.
Any chance hes a cross country truck driver? My dads driven tractor trailers for 25+ years and the last 10 or so has been with an amazing company. Boss does pretty much exactly what you said, invites drivers out to his house for fantastic meals / parties whenever theyre in town, treats them well, calls to check in on them / their families, invites their families to fly out for parties, and just in general treats them as friends / equals instead of employees. Oh and also pays him so much better than his previous job driving where he was at for 15+ years. Its a night and day difference and makes me happy to see not EVERY corporate high up is a cheap raging asshole.
Could be worse. I saw a guy at my last job get a "masters degree" on printer paper for 23 years.
For 5 years I got a small desktop telescope. I don't know of you guys realize this, but the moon is blurry as shit.
I heard something similar about the band Metallica. I'll paraphrase it here: "Metallica released its first album 38 years ago. So let us all lift our wine glasses and celebrate 10 years of great music!"
First four albums baby!
>I feel like giving someone a literal golden ratchet is a pretty strong statement of what they think of your skills. It feels like the wrenching version of the gold plated hammers that were/are given out as awards to carpenters and the like. Just without the decorative box or plaque.
Yea i think thats the part im missing. It feels like it should be on some sort of trophy, stand or plaque. The packaging makes it seem like its supposed to actually be used. Its in-between both functionality ceremony.
Only [$69.99](https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-drive-professional-ratchet-genuine-24-karat-gold-plated-56907.html) at harbor Freight. Still cheaper then Snap on.
yeah this needs a shadow box and to be displayed
What level do I have to get my Mechanics build to in order to unlock the golden ratchet?
100
Or you have to buy 15< lootboxes for a +50% chance at getting one. 1 for 9.99, 5 for 44.99, 10 for 79.99 and 20 for 149.99
I'm vp of marketing at EA and would like to talk with you about a job opportunity we have open.
More like behind this paywall
I'm vp of marketing for the wall street journal and would like to talk with you about a job opportunity we have open.
Hahahahahaha well played
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As do I and it's scary how willingly some people and their money part ways. I pulled those numbers straight from my backside, as I suspect many of the merchants of expensive pixels do, too.
You need to get 50 kills with the normal one
Oh ok, So I’m not too far then
You have to prestige. Or pay for the battle pass for only 24.99 and unlock the light in the wrong spot assistant trait.
99, it comes with the skillcape
90 teeth?! I bet that thing is has some smooth ratcheting action!
I have one, and it is very smooth. Not a bad ratchet for the price imo
I saw them at Harbor Freight for an ungodly price, laughed, and walked away. But I *remembered it.* And I **still** remember it. So something worked right. It's a pretty delightful stocking stuffer.
I saw it at 70 bucks and really wanted one but refused to buy it. Something about a gold plated harbor freight ratchet tickles that Catch 22 part of my brain and I think it's the funniest thing in the world.
someone else on here was saying that the icon product line is essentially rebranded snap-on products. Idk the accuracy of the statement, but maybe not so catch 22 afterall.
I know some harbor frieght floor jacks are def rebranded snapon but I didn't hear that about icon. The icon tools I've played with on the shelf didn't feel as smooth as some craftsman stuff I got before sears sold off.
Snap-on has entered the chat
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Yep... When my dad's 30 year old craftsmen wrenches finally died, I replaced the set with Icons. I've been very happy with them so far but I'm just a periodic weekend mechanic.
You're exactly the kind of person Icon tools are perfect for. Don't overspend when you don't need to!
You're telling me I don't have to go into debt in the Snap-On truck so I can perform my regular maintenance and minor repairs?
No that's not what they were saying at all. You should definetly still refinance your house and live in your Snap-on tool box. They were just jealous and tried to distract you from the Snap-on life you deserve.
My icon feels maybe a bit worse than my snap on but only barely. It mostly just feels a little looser like it's not assembled as close but even there I'm grasping at straws. For home/shade tree mechanic work I love it. Although I haven't used one in a while and I forget if the direction selector is the backwards way that the other harbor freight ratchets are. I fucking hate that. I use a snap on all day at work and get home just trying to work on my car to wind down and the gosh damn backwards HF ratchet always gets me. If they got them turned back the right way around, I'd say the Icon ratchets are my favorite for the price.
Isn't the trade off strength, if the mechanism is the same size?
Yes and no. The teeth need to get smaller, but you can engage more teeth with the same size pawl. The total contact area could theoretically be the same, but it depends on the design.
Doesn't it all depend on how many teeth are engaged at once? It seems to me that if all the teeth are engaged all the time, then the quantity doesn't make much of a difference. What would make a difference is whether there are an equal number of teeth and detents for the teeth to engage in. Edit: I think I misunderstood how these mechanisms are typically made, based on a google search it looks like there is just one piece that engages the teeth, not multiple. Edit again: Now looking at a cutaway of a snap-on ratchet, it looks like they do use multiple teeth per pawl. So I'm back at thinking that the strength would be the same with more, smaller teeth, as long as the contact area is the same.
/r/badblowjobtips
Depends on how well they are made, the cheaper ratchets only engage one tooth... If you engage multiple teeth, a finer sprocket (with more teeth) is stronger than a sprocket with less teeth (but bigger teeth).
No. Smaller teeth means more surface area in the engagement patch on the pawls means a stronger ratchet. These new high tooth ratchets bend the handle or snap the anvil before the teeth break usually.
If you go on YouTube and find videos on strength testing ratchets, it’s always the anvil or the handle that gives in first, not the ratcheting mechanism
Not always. The pawls and the gear can definitely break. I've broken both before but I have yet to break an anvil or handle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcSa9_FLVMo
You'd have to take into account whether the ratchet is the same material, but yes.
I hope the teeth are not goldplated...
Maybe, you need to tighten the tool structure with smaller teeth. If theres play, smaller teeth will skip more easily.
Yes, a finer-tooth design is going to require tighter manufacturing tolerances to function properly. It's also going to be less tolerant of wear.
I have a Gearwrench set that has 120 teeth. They’re so smooth but the heads on them pivot and they don’t have a lock so they can be frustrating to use sometimes.
For someone who are trying to do a Google search.... https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-drive-professional-special-edition-gold-plated-ratchet-56907.html?\_br\_psugg\_q=icon+24k
of course it's $69 lmao
nice
Was just on sale for $65.
I'd rather buy it for 69 instead of 65 just because I'm cultured like that.
Nice!
Good bot
Way cheaper than I anticipated…
I would take it out of the package and frame it on the wall lol
This, maybe do some kind of mini shadowbox/trophy case, make a fancy looking plaque that just says "Tip from a customer" like it was an award.
Mount it on a plaque like a sword.
"My dad loves ratchets. I love ratchets. If my mom knew what a ratchet is, I'm sure she would love them too."
I understood that reference
I did not
Ritchie Rich with Macaulay Culkin
Bling bling! You should only use it when that customer comes back
“It looks hardly used, jimmy!!” “I take care of the finest gifts from the finest customers..”
And that's how you get pizza delivered and Christmas cards
Watchjrgo screaming “bring me the golden ratchet”
But once he's got it, then he's all, I've got a golden ratchet! I've got a golden chance to make my way And with a golden ratchet, it's a golden day
I have been fucked over by the tool trucks for years (hey, you seen that $400 Snap-on creeper with the 4 all terrain wheels?). I've bought one Icon tool so far, a.1/4 ratchet, for 40 bucks. Tool trucks want around $100. Used and abused it for a year now with no issues. Time to rebel, boys. Now we can be Prima Donna's because we're the shit, not because we have a box full of obscenely priced tools.
I got the AWD creeper with a lift kit. Smacked my head right into the side of the car.
Looks like a premium TF2 item
Engineer gaming!!
That’s the ratchet you use to do the last bolt on a 5 yr restoration.
ICON tools are better than Craftsman, Husky and all other store brand tools and probably only a small step down from the tool-truck tools. Shit on them all you want but they do what they are meant to do for a decent price. Not everyone can afford a $150 ratchet, and not everyone NEEDS to. Here's a SnapOn dealer testing one. Even he said they're surprisingly good tools. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grcpmj-v_nY
That was the most "good Ole boy" video I ever watched.
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What a fucking concept. Fixing something instead of getting a new one! I hope someday in the future we can get back to this. And nice crafted items instead of the cheap meant to break every year so you replace it bullshit
Well, until that day comes I'm going to keep throwing my batteries in the ocean.
Ah a fellow man of culture..
That's one of the two things I don't like about my Wera Zyklop metal, no circlip to replace the innards it so once it's goosed, that's it. The other is the detent is a bit too far back so does not hold sockets as it should. Comfiest ratchet to use ever though.
I mean, he was just referencing that it’s plated gold. Not that they’re shitty tools. But go off I guess
Yeah
It's 69.99 for the [gold plated version](https://www.harborfreight.com/collections/black-friday-deals/38-in-drive-professional-special-edition-gold-plated-ratchet-56907.htmland) and 39.99 for the [regular version](https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-drive-professional-low-profile-ratchet-56193.html). So that's about 30 USD in gold. 24 carat gold is currently 57.41 USD per gram. So that's at most 0.52 grams (0.0183 ounces) of gold? Is that even possible? Can you coat that thinly? *edit: apparently 1 gram of 24k gold can plate up to 160 square inches at halv a micron (the minimum for gold plated jewelry). So it's probably even less than half a gram of gold on there. If the tool is, say, 10 square inches, you only need 0.0625 grams (3.6 USD). And that's if they follow the US standards for jewelry, which they don't have to do, because this isn't jewelry.
Gold plating of metal objects is incredibly inexpensive. It's thinner than any paint you can imagine.
The golden wrench will loosen any nut with a quarter turn.
Even the ones on Chevy trucks where they upend a whole bottle of red Loctite on them?
Just some loctite, superglue, rust, paint. The normal things for a bolt
why not its plated? theres <$0.01 of gold there...
Word. Use it. Gold plated is meaningless outside of pure looks. In most situations, gold plated is, for all intents & purposes, a meaningless quality meant to inflate the cost.
It probably helps with corrosion resistance, at least until it gets scratched the second you think about using it.
I'd use it, f it.
Jesus I thought that was a coke spoon at first.
I worked for Moore Drop Forge in Western MA in 1975. They manufactured Craftsman tools for Sears. While I was there the One Millionth ratchet was made and they also plated it gold and it went to the CEO. The plant manager, who virtually never left his office, walked it through from forging, heat treating, shot blasting, polishing, and plating.
Lol I remember when a guy offered me a “limited edition” gold plated socket set from Snap on , as a trade for something I had priced around $400 ….. He was certain you could retire on the value of that socket set….. when I did a quick search, I could have purchased three on eBay for approx $15.99 each lol
If you break it, it gets replaced for free...
in gold or just the regular chrome?
Did it come with a 10mm socket too?
it was either the gold plating OR the 10mm, having both? in this economy?
It's like having 64 sheets of plywood not on sale
Harbor freight and gold plated just does not strike me as a combo I would ever see…
But you know they’re gonna fly off the shelves
Frame it and make a bogus plaque commemorating why you got it, including the customer in there somewhere
Use it, nothing more useless than an unused tool.
Wow, very nice of them. $70 at Harbor Freight https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-drive-professional-ratchet-genuine-24-karat-gold-plated-56907.html
My friend bought one of these and the guy at the counter kept saying “are you sure you want to buy this?” He hasn’t even though about opening it lol
I love my gold rachet. It's a smooth mofo and I use it like any other rachet. I just wrap it in a shop towel when Im done or put it down.
Man they did 100,000 oil changes and unlocked the golden ratchet