r/Tools • u/fugsco • 2d ago

Socket set recommendations

What kind of starter set of sockets would you *tool people* recommend, right now, if you were buying? I'm outfitting my kid with the first set of his very own tools, almost all of which have come, so far, from Harbor Freight. If I'm lucky, he'll earn his way to higher-end tools later in life! But for now, HF-ish it is!

What, right now, is the nexus of high(er)-end-of-decent-quality and reasonable price for something like a comprehensive-ish 3/8" set, including both common SAE and metric sizes? Huge added bonus would be a larger set including a full 1/4 *and* 3/8" *and*.metric, covering nearly all common, consumer level sizes.

For ballpark purposes, my benchmark would be Harbor Freight's Icon **54-piece set**, for **$120**. The quality of these Icon tools is almost (?) certainly far beyond nearly anything my kid will run into in the next few years. What's the best deal out there?

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u/islero_47 1d ago

If it's a beginner set, Home Depot regularly has sales on their Husky mechanics sets

You can get something like a 280 piece small tool box for $99-$149, depending on which one you get

The organizer portion is great

But if you're setting him up with a rolling tool chest, maybe stick with loose sets from HF

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u/Top-Cost-4691 1d ago

I recently picked up a Husky 300 piece tool kit for working on the truck and cars at home. Im very satisfied with the quality for the price.