As long as I've been wrenching on cars, bicycles, and motorcycles, I've needed only metric tools. I've never owned an American car or motorcycle, and although my bicycles were made in America they still used metric-sized fasteners and parts. In grad school I had to get serious about vehicle maintenance—I certainly couldn't afford to pay a mechanic to do any work on my '85 VW GTI—and the theft of my motley collection of tools gave me a chance to start over with a complete collection of new tools.
Craftsman hand tools strike a great balance point between price and quality, and their lifetime guarantee means that even if you bubba something and break a tool, Sears will give you a free replacement. So, I spent quite a bit of time pouring over the Craftsman Tool catalog trying to figure out how best to replace my stolen tools. When this happened back in the early 90's there were dozens of standard (SAE) tool collections to choose from in the catalog, but just two or three that contained only metric tools. If you wanted metric tools you bought a complete SAE tool collection, then added-on one of the supplemental metric collections. Reality, a/k/a my meager budget, made the decision pretty straight-forward, but it was fun to dream about the "master" 3,000-piece toolsets that came laid-out in rolling tool cabinets.
Fast-forward 20 years, and a browse through the online Craftsman Tool catalog shows a slightly smaller selection of tool collections. Interestingly, they all contain both metric and SAE tools and, most frustratingly, there are no collections of just SAE tools! To compound the problem, their website doesn't allow you to search for SAE-only—it'll bring up any socket set that contains SAE, or SAE plus metric.
So, as a service to anyone else who may be looking to add SAE sockets to their collection of metric tools, here are the part numbers you'll probably be interested in:
| Item Number | Description |
|---|---|
| 934550000 | 10-piece 1/2"-drive 6-point standard depth sockets |
| 934576000 | 9-piece 1/2"-drive 6-point deep sockets |
| 934565000 | 9-piece 3/8"-drive 12-point standard depth sockets |
| 934539000 | 9-piece 3/8"-drive 6-point deep sockets |
| 934531000 | 10-piece 1/4"-drive 6-point standard depth sockets |
| 934561000 | 9-piece 1/4"-drive 6-point deep sockets |