For hand tools, you'll find most of the affordable stuff comes out of the same factories. Personally, I have some mastercrap pro/maximum and a big set of craftsmen I bought almost 20 years ago. It all works decent. I have a snap-on ratchet I got as a present that is really nice, but not nice enough for me to wish I has spent 10 times as much to get tools off the truck. A lot of mac tools are rebrands with a big markup to cover the truck, name and support. If you look around you can find other brands stamped onto the identical tools for at least 50% less.
As far as kits vs pick and choose. Almost always kits. Even if you put half of it in the spares drawer, it was still cheaper than trying to buying in smaller quantities.
I'm with MM, I have had bad luck with
Dewalt cordless (normally stripped low gear, but also premature battery death [I have a 12V that has been relegated to a
coffee grinder because the battery only has 15 minutes of life]). For the past decade or more, the vast majority of my cordless has been Milwaukee. I have nothing bad to say about it. For the vast majority of people, 12V stuff is more than enough. It really has come a long way. I only pull out the 18V stuff a few times a year. I have a
makita 12V driver that is great for low torque (good feel, light clutch) but terrible for construction. Their 18V stuff is great for construction, but like I said, most people don't need 18 (unless you are making money using them). Cordless stuff has come so far that for most projects I just use the cordless circ saw and don't even bother pulling out the corded ones.
For corded stuff, most of the collection is Makita. Some were specifically chosen as they were the best choice for me at the time (7.5" sliding CMS, 8 1/4 circ saw), others it just happened that they were the cheapest decent quality version of a tool I needed. For a portable table saw, I got dewalt because their fence was imo the best at the time.
Like CC said, what is he trying to do? How much space does he have? For limited space, a 12V drill/driver, bit set and a blowmold case of ratchets will probably do >90% of what most people need. I intentionally left off impact driver. I hate them and rarely use them. They are better for a few things (partially stripped screw heads, screwing off a deck as quickly as possible) but for most things they are just loud and give you very little feel as to how tight things are and when you are on the edge of stripping.
Lowes/Rona/Reno-Depot is having another round of blood-letting. There may be deals there but be careful. The last round, even when marked down 30% many of their tools were higher than HD daily price. Great time/place to buy fasteners though.
Edit:
CT sale ending today has a Stanley
ratchet set for sale at $120 (absolutely crazy and probably fake original price of $550). Given the insane mark, maybe they are high tooth ratchets. If so, it's not a bad set for 120 (no annoying cover on the lid that results in dumping the kit half the time). It's missing 21 deep which many cars use for lug nuts, but you can always grab the
tire iron from the trunk. For what it's worth, I find the wrenches included in all of those kits to be useless and normally take them out to save weight. The want to get the count up so they include the smallest sizes.
Stanley Professional Black Chrome Socket Set, 229-pc | Canadian Tire
