Tools Kincrome vs Sidchome and results.

[Ausmartin1]

Hi All,

I have an old Australian made Sidchrome kit from the 80's and other than the odd peeling bit of chrome it had servered me well.
I wished to upgrade to buy a new tool chest and a matching Wall cabinet kit complete when funds became avaialble...

Here is my experiance on the eternal question / delema as to which affordable resonable quality brand of tool kit to buy:

Tried to contact Sidcrome by e-mail & no responce. Apparently they are overseas owned now and made in Taiwan these days much like
Kincrome which source Taiwan / China and even have some Austrain made leather punches in the kit.

Had a look at both and the Sidchrome Wall Cabinety and heaveir duty tools were better than Kincrome, however
Kincrome Contours 472 Piece Chest was really nicely layed out templated trays.

I decided in the end to purchase the Kincrome 472 Contour chest and the smaller Kincrome 226/7 piece wall set.
Interestingly enough Price wise Sydney was the most expensive, Melbourne second and Perth was the cheapest where I managed to get the best deal at that moment.

So here we are now, just like crazy Americans - Cheaper to purchase and freight Interstate - from Perth (Distributor - kincrome is local to me in Victoria) than to buy in Victoria ~ sigh...

Results:
Contour Chest 472 excellent geared wrenches & socket ratchets (ratchets not as heavy duty as Sid's but way nicer and lighter to use for 99.9% of what I need)
Nice kit. Only missing Items I feel are small and large torque wrenches, needle nose pliers and small vice grip type needle pliers. So pretty good & very happy in general.
Negative: Quality of top lid on tool chest 8 draw P/N K7748. The weld It's a joke - lets call it a tack weld) the first time I opened it I heard a SNAP. This resulted the lid going out of alignment.
What mungrel fabricated this lid with out guset plate in each corner? You have high stress loads from the gas struts, locking hinges and all this was being held by a tack weld? LOL!
As kincrome don't warranty the chests (Even If I got it replaced it would last x days long?) I quickly rivited in some plate cut from sheving arms to fix it once and for all see pic's yes bit bodge I know - even the paint was still wet:





The 226 Kincrome Wall cabinet has cheaper spaners & sockets with Hammer handle being of better "visual" quality the notable differance to chest.
Again the let down is the Chinese sourced cabinet, decietful advertising - unless you seach for the cabinet p/n "it self" where you find friction slid draw = professional my a$$.
Not only that - you have to hook internaly the left door to lock the RH door?
The other gripe is you spend a long time unpacking from all the retail security pakaging vs the Contour Chest set which most of it is already in it's trays - nice touch!


Conculsion:
So if you need tools for heavier machinery go the Sidchrome especially their new anti slip 440 spanner range, but for general Motor Bike /Car better off with Kincrome - so get a get a good deal and allow to spend some time reworking their useless Chinese Tool chest/wall cabinets!
Can't understand why Kincrome can't seem to get their act together on the cabinets and lids etc. as they appeared to have put a real effort into making the Contour set a sucess at least.

PS
If you win a million dollars, then lets go Europeon or Snap-on, but most of these don't seem to sell a large "general" set of tools in a kit.
Appears race teams just choose what they need it appears.


Hope this helps people considering a new tool kit or have I just confused you further in your quest ?

Cheers!

Martin