Craftsman tools are cheap

joey48442 wrote: I prefer the shape of snap on wrenches to craftsman. Like Dr boost says, the craftsman are hard on the hand. I use craftsman sockets, and when I need to buy one, due to loss, not breakage, I buy used from my buddies tool shop. He has a mix of brands for sale. Joey

I used to not like Craftsman ratchets at all, then I bought this one. http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_10155_12602_00944835000P?keyword=ratchet

I've had it about 10 years, and only broken it once. It's by far my favorite ratchet and truly believe it's way more comfortable than any of my Snap-On ratchets.

Bumping this because i made another trip to the Sears Outlet thingy near me yesterday.

I'll have to take a picture of my loot.

$150 got me (well, can i count the $15 gift card i got as a "rebate" against that?)

26 piece metric ratcheting wrench set (craftsman)
10 piece plier/cutter set
3 piece vice-grip set (craftsman)
52 piece screwdriver set. (Didn't REALLY need it, but come on, 52 piece!!!!!)
Nice pair of mechanics gloves
2 cans of industrial engine gunk remover stuff
Ice scraper for the car

I think i'll go back next week and use the gift card and some more cash to finish off the extensions i need, and maybe pick up some wobble sockets, torque wrench, breaker bar, and a pry bar set.

Figure with all that, i'll have all the tools i'll need to pretty much do anything that i'll ever have the knowledge to do.

They also had some good deals on boxes that were hard to resist.

http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_10155_12602_00944835000P?keyword=ratchet

I've had two of these snap at the swivel portion of the handle, once when tighening a bolt, and once when I dropped the wrench. These things are so bad, they have a pile of them behind the counter at the local store and replacement is no questions asked.

I like Duralast tools. Lifetime warrany through AutoZone and they're actually made along the same assembly line as Snap-On tools.

93celicaGT2 wrote: Oh, and the fact that they have the Eastwood Fender Roller copy on their website, but that it's been discontinued. ARG.

Eastwood used some of that money they made ripping people off selling theirs that are also made in china, to sue HF, bastages!@

red5_02 wrote: I like Duralast tools. Lifetime warrany through AutoZone and they're actually made along the same assembly line as Snap-On tools.

Nope....

Most of the Snap-On hard line is made in the USA. Nothing in the Duralast hard line is made in the USA. Despite the outward similarities, they do not share a common design or inner workings.

Please keep your fallacies to yourself from now on.

HF FTFW!

I found myself needing an air-chisel last summer when I put the lift on my XJ Jeep. Went down to Harbor and they had em marked down to $7. That's less than a good sammich!

I've used it several time since then too...always at 150lbs instead of the reccomended 90. The chisels aren't as hard as they should be but for $7...

Schmidlap wrote: Just a reminder about Sears/Craftmans' hand tool warranty: it does not apply to the 'click type' torque wrenches, and they have a reputation for breaking fairly easily (mine did at about 80% of it's rated max). Bob

A few years ago I sheared a 3/8 click-type craftsman torque wrench that I had had for 2-3 years. I walked into sears, they didn't have another one, and they gave me a 1/2" click-type to replace it for free, no questions asked.

93celicaGT2 wrote: $150 got me (well, can i count the $15 gift card i got as a "rebate" against that?)

only if the $15 went towards safety gear, otherwise it has to be counted...per says so

damn! I need to checkout my local sears outlet thingy place.

4 Pumpkin Escobar's of fury wrote:

93celicaGT2 wrote: $150 got me (well, can i count the $15 gift card i got as a "rebate" against that?)

only if the $15 went towards safety gear, otherwise it has to be counted...per says so

LULZ.

Just because Joey linked this thread...

I've since sold off every last piece of my Craftsman stuff. Once i started REALLY wrenching on things, it didn't hold up worth a damn, the ergonomics sucked, and general quality was pretty terrible.

Well... i shouldn't say EVERY last piece. I have a couple old ratchets that are pretty decent. (And a box of probably... 400 sockets and misc stuff that i need to sell.)

But the newer stuff can DIAF.

Swapped it all out for mostly Gearwrench, KD Tools, and Carlyle. Couldn't be happier.

So there's that.

Also: Some of us had some rockin' screen names a couple years ago.

I have mostly gearwrench and the Lowes Brand stuff... except for my torx screwdrivers.. most everthing from craftsman I have bought either died or disappeared over the years.. and without a decent warrenty on their stuff dying.. it was not worth buying new stuff to replace it. (especially since I can easily walk to Lowes in about 20 minutes if I have to)

93gsxturbo wrote:

red5_02 wrote: I like Duralast tools. Lifetime warrany through AutoZone and they're actually made along the same assembly line as Snap-On tools.

Nope.... Most of the Snap-On hard line is made in the USA. Nothing in the Duralast hard line is made in the USA. Despite the outward similarities, they do not share a common design or inner workings. Please keep your fallacies to yourself from now on.

it's a common b.s. story. when NAPA recently switched to "carlyle" brand hand tools, the Rep fed us the same line. I bought two of the ratchets. After two months of working with them, I can tell you without hesitation, they're nothing like snap-on.

Carlyle is made mostly in Taiwan, which is also where more and more Snap-on is moving, but meh...

I've been extremely impressed with my Carlyle stuff so far, but i also don't work in a dealership setting and can't afford Snap-on anyways, so moot point i suppose.

the mechanism in my 1/2 drive ratchet was jamming up the second day i used it. no cheater bars or nuthin, honest.

the rubber handle, and at least one layer of chrome plating has fallen off my 3/8ths version.

belteshazzar wrote: the mechanism in my 1/2 drive ratchet was jamming up the second day i used it. no cheater bars or nuthin, honest. the rubber handle, and at least one layer of chrome plating has fallen off my 3/8ths version.

I've got a buddy that works at Balkamp that was mentioning that some of the ratchets were on recall or something. Mine have been fine so far, knock on wood.

I was just excited to see a line of tools readily available that were a bit higher quality than most of the box stores. I don't think it's massively better than Gearwrench so far, but it's certainly easier for me to get.

pete240z wrote: I was at the mall on Friday night with the 7 year old daughter and I walked her through Sears and stopped in the aisle and told her: "this is as close to heaven (on earth) as you will get". She thought it was kinda funny. Then she got on a riding lawnmower.

That's funny, I told my seven year old daughter something similar after we got kicked out of Toys R Us today.

Seems no one thought to leave the battery out of the electric motocross bike for people her size. I plopped her on the "tank", sat bitch with my knees bent behind 90°, and we tore around the store with my toes dragging until the store manager was really pissed.

Thing rips, I might actually go buy a pair!

/hijack

My name is Dana, and I'm a Craftsman whore. I didn't know any better until I worked in a transmission shop, and EVERYTHING down to the toilet paper dispenser was Snap On, with a very slight bit of Mac and Blue Point thrown in. Hubba hubba, I'll never be the same.

I'll still stick to Craftsman for my home hand tools. It's cheap-ish, but I don't tend to break 'em like the no name stuff. I do still look for the antique Craftsman ratchets on ebay, they're so buttery smooth compared to the new stuff.

for wrenches I love my matco set. I got the box/ratchet metric set and I use it 100000x more than I use my open/ratchet snap on set, because of the snapon wrench shortcomings highlighted above.
Gearwrench ratchet wrenches are amazing though. The only reason I originally bought the snap on set was the truck was out of gearwrench sets=/
for ratchets and sockets I like to have snap on, matco, or cornwell.
same goes for boxes.

"disposables" and light use tools like picks and mag parts trays are HF through and through
it helps that I work three blocks from an HF store=]
/Hi I'm Cory and I'm a tool addict. At 23 yrs old I'm in around $10k so far. lol. Soon to be alot more=/ =]

When I go to Sears to get replacement tools for things I break (occasionally, not often) I always go from work, wearing my suit. I never get hassled.

I even brought in a sheared-off 3/8 drive torque wrench (I had to use it as a breaker bar in a pinch, and it lost the fight with the bolt), and they guy saw me in my suit, probably thought I was a lawyer or something, and since he didn't have the same one in stock he let me replace it straight-up witha 1/2" drive torque wrench. And this was like 4 years after I bought it

that's weird. the torque wrenches aren't covered no matter what happened to them.

I buy "Blackhawk by Proto" now. The ratcheting inch wrenches are works of art, cost about 50% more than a Gearwrench, and were made in America.

On a tangent, are there any tools made here in the US anymore?

Cornwell

wbjones wrote:

On a tangent, are there any tools made here in the US anymore?

Cornwell

Have to watch your labels. I like Cornwell for the price, half of the other guys, but after awhile the chrome flakes off, the sockets themselves are overly thick, sometimes the "overused" sockets lose their sharpness too soon and start to not work worth a damn. They up looking like Crapsman in short order. The Snap-on sockets maybe priced higher then giraffe nuts, but the overall quality is better, even if the chrome plating is crappy, too thin.

I wish you could buy sockets like what Edd uses on Wheeler Dealers. I would love to have a set of unchromed non-impact sockets without breaking the bank.