TOOLS AND THE SHOP > MECHANIC HAND TOOLS WE USE

The SK Tuff1

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highland512:
I have always been a fan of these facum I mean SK ratchets. When you find a NOS tuff1 the actions are smooth and butter right out of the box and only get better with time. They are a bit of a pain if you get the urge to disassemble and clean them and from my experience are picky when comes to what lube the prefer. When I find a tuff1 out in the wild I buy it, I guess Im a tuff1 snob. Usually the first thing I do is soak the the ratchet in parts cleaner for a few days, just spinning the action in both directions usually cleans out the factory lube and whatever else has collected in the head. I then let the head dry our and lube with...... wd-40. My shop is not heated and when the temps go below 20*F its the only product I have found that keeps the tuff1 running smooth, almost all other lubes put loads of drag in the action and the factory lube almost gums it up entirely in the cold plus it dosnt leave a mess. Here are a few examples I have in my tool box in the shop. I have 4 or 5 more but they are in the truck or in my house box, I know I have one marked JS but it didnt make this photo shoot. Notice the different SK stamping as well, I dont know what stamp line up with what years but my feeling is <SK> is the oldest, and S dot K being the newest. Anybody know differently?

bonneyman:
As S-K got licensing to make those from FACOM when they were owned by them (1985-2005) I'd tend to think the logos would be FACOM-era specific. I believe that S-K lost the licensing when they went independent again in 2005, which is why you can't buy them new or get rebuild kits for them from S-K. (But other brands of TUFF 1 kits fit).

FACOM was then bought by Stanley in 2005 - must have been right after S-K took flight. Thankfully!   ;D

Davethorik:
Didn't you have this thread at the old GG? I think I contributed to that one, but I can't remember.

skfarmer:
my local sk store did not have  tuff1 kits for a while. they did get some in and they are in new packages. now if they where new kits or nos i don't know but i do know i could get a kit not long ago.

bonneyman:
Nice line-up, highland! I still have a regular length 3/8" TUFF 1 which I use for those jobs that require low backdrag and have minimal swing area.

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