Yes I have found a lot of modern stuff is rubbish as well, until the middle seventies the local council demanded compression fittings be used on their new houses. So a Conex spanner was usually welded into your hand all day. I still use one on the odd job I do now and then, but the number of backnuts it now fits are getting fewer and fewer. I bough ta new 22 x 15 spanner from Tool station recently, its good but not small and compact like the Conex, which could even reach under a washbasin to release the tap adaptor nuts.
Anyway, nearly all pipework today seems to be end feed. Its cheap I suppose, but when you look at some jobs the number of elbows they use is fantastic I wonder if they calculate flow resistance or just do it?
I find with modern tools, that they may be good ideas, but the metal they make them from is usually very weak and they often round out or break.
The old Footprints still serve well, you can drop them, stand on them and they still come back smiling. The pump gland pliers are still highly useful. But then with so much push fit about you do not need them as much as you once did. They were great until the location grooves wore down and they slipped crushing your fingers.
I must admit though, the modern crows foot or washbasin wrench seem better. The old cast ones seldom fit anything properly now. You can tend to have a go with them though but they slip and risk breaking the basin. I tended in later years to use a box spanner for tightening tap back nuts when dressing basins, tops or baths. But they were a bit useless when on repair work and the tap was already piped up. The pipework gets in the way. I use an old Monument swinging arm crow foot, but its fiddly. The modern bear hug crow foot looks good, but the cost? And I suspect the jaws and head may need more room to work than you find under many modern basins.
GOOD TO SEE YOUR STILL POSTING TAMZ