I like SOME Craftsman tools. dont mind the sockets n wrenches, open-ended and cresent. but i hate their damn Robogrip. the 2nd day i had it, i noticed the teeth were already waring down to nothing. and it doesnt work really well in tight corners, as to really put some force on something, requires a bit of room.
I really like matco, mac ans snap-on stuff better, but it can be pricey. Like stated, you get what you pay for.
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Originally Posted by RoadWarrior - ocforums.com
Yes, SATA is faster however..... putting full spec formula one tires on a 1.6L stock honda civic will not make it capable of 200Mph......
oh and BTW... sears companion brand suck my nutz! they are about 20% cheaper and have no guarentee... spring for the quality, trust me... i got some for xmas and bent a screw driver head on an aluminum screw!
Some of those compaion tools are a great deal though if you don't put too much stress on them. I got a 10 piece set of box wrenches for 10 bucks + tax a while ago. I don't put much load on them, but they're holding up great in terms of wear & tear. They certainly don't look or feel like the best, but they aren't a bad choice if you just want to do quick repairs and around-the-house work every so often.
I love Craftsman tools in general, but I hate, HATE their socket wrenches. I've got a set of Channel Lock socket wrenches, that I cannot tell the difference between them and Snap On. Really nice ratcheting mechanism, really fine and really strong. The Channel Lock sockets seem to be just fine too, and I've put a stupid amount of torque on them.
For cheap tools to keep in the car, I use Kobalt. They're certainly not as nice-feeling as my Craftsman or Channel Lock tools, but they're half the price, and for a set of tools that's just going to get stolen, that's fine by me.
Personally, although I love Snap-On's socket wrenches and sockets, many of their other tools are simply overpriced. I have actually had some trouble with a set of Phillips tips I used to have for my screw gun. They didn't fit the screws well and really liked to strip the heads out. I promptly returned them and got a set of Hitachi ones that I like a lot.
For power tools, I love my Makita. I've got a 9.2V cordless drill of theirs, and it's TOUGH. Like, way tougher than it should be. My parents have an equivalent Craftsman drill, and it's much weaker and doesn't cool well, leading to the temp sensor tripping, and then you get to wait for it to cool back down again. However, my dad has a Craftsman drill from about 1960 that's tough as nails. That thing is unstoppable, but it also runs off 110V, which helps. His old Craftsman circular saw and jig saws are pretty decent too. Definately cold-war technology .
Here is a few things I found out from a Snap On tool guy. The Kobalt stuff is made by the same company that makes Snap On, and it is better than Craftsman quality at Craftsman pricing. Not a bad deal. Only problem is they don't have the sales that Sears has, or the selection.
The Mac or Matco is owned by Stanley, and supposedly comes off the same line as the Craftsman tools. So you get Craftsman quality for more than Craftsman pricing. Not a good deal.
You do get what you paid for. Every Snap On tool I have played with feels better than the comparable Craftsman. If I used them day to day for work, no question I would get Craftsman. But I sit in a cube, like a caged animal all day so I only use my tools sparingly, so I can't justify spending that kind of money.
The one area I couldn't afford not to have the Snap on is the ratcheting screwdrivers. Nobody comes close, so I have 4 of them that probably cost me close to $40 each, but worth it.
Here is a few things I found out from a Snap On tool guy. The Kobalt stuff is made by the same company that makes Snap On, and it is better than Craftsman quality at Craftsman pricing. Not a bad deal. Only problem is they don't have the sales that Sears has, or the selection.
The Mac or Matco is owned by Stanley, and supposedly comes off the same line as the Craftsman tools. So you get Craftsman quality for more than Craftsman pricing. Not a good deal.
You do get what you paid for. Every Snap On tool I have played with feels better than the comparable Craftsman. If I used them day to day for work, no question I would get Craftsman. But I sit in a cube, like a caged animal all day so I only use my tools sparingly, so I can't justify spending that kind of money.
The one area I couldn't afford not to have the Snap on is the ratcheting screwdrivers. Nobody comes close, so I have 4 of them that probably cost me close to $40 each, but worth it.
Juan
craftsman also makes companion...its a subdivsion. the good thing about craftsman is that whenver something does go bad with a hand tool, no worries....u can keep exchanging it whenever u want as many times as u want/need. no questions asked. besides the husky, i dont know of any other company that replaces your tools on site.
Well, I had a tool fail on me at the worst time (I'm covered in gunk, cars half apart and a socket splits in half). What then? Craftman and Kobalt replace them as well, lifetime warranty.
One thing the Snap on guy told me the craftsman tools were good at was removing rounded bolts. They have enough give so you take the next small size socket, pound it onto the rounded bolt, pull out your impact driver and pull it out. You then take the socket (with the bolt inside) back for a new one.
Juan
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Originally Posted by cHoPs
craftsman also makes companion...its a subdivsion. the good thing about craftsman is that whenver something does go bad with a hand tool, no worries....u can keep exchanging it whenever u want as many times as u want/need. no questions asked. besides the husky, i dont know of any other company that replaces your tools on site.
Snap-On also does lifetime warranty on most of their stuff. When I was working for a machine shop in Tulsa, I snapped a few ratchets and pryba--- err screwdrivers.. we just call our salesman and he brings by new ones when he's in the area again.
of course my boss also had 6 track-size toolboxes full of Snap-On. probably has $150,000 in just hand tools. the Snap-On dude would probably give him a BJ if he called and said he wanted one.
The quality of Craftsman tools has declined over the years if my experience is typical
I hear that... I used to be a Craftsman fanatic until I started running into a whole slew of busted ratchet mechanisms, chrome flaking off of sockets, power drill internals grinding & skipping after only a few years.
I thought it was just Me at first but I started to notice lower quality in general; subpar finish, exposed tooling and forging marks, sloppy polishing... the kinda low-grade stuff you expect from cheap Chinese-made "Harbor Freight Tools"!
About a decade ago I started switching over to Husky/Home Depot tools. This started when some B!oTch at Sears actually Interrogated me on How I had destroyed a box-end wrench! (I dropped it across my battery terminals and half of it melted) But Screw that! All this B!oTch needed to know was that it was BUSTED and I wanna NEW one!
Also at the time... Craftsman didn't make a ratchet handle that had Both quick-release AND knurled spinner... which is Very useful when everything's covered in transmission fluid!
Now a decade later, almost all my tools are Husky. I also dig the Stanley multi-bit magnetic screwdrivers; shaft is steel and all the bits fit in the handle.
One things for sure though; NO one makes a tool that I Can't break.
Hey! I heard something Disturbing the other day... someone told me K-Mart was buying out Sears?! Or they're Merging or something??
That's kinda scary...
Just a few years ago K-Mart went through Bankruptcy! What's UP??
yeah, it's true.. basically sears wants more stores, and K-Mart wants the reputation.. the good news is you'll be able to buy craftsman tools at K-mart.. the bad news is they're all going to be built in China by an 8 yr old making $0.30 a week.
as it stands, most of craftsman's newer electronic shit is built in china....only the handtools are built in america. the bad part about snap on is that if u do bust a tool, u have to wait for them to come to you, which u never know how long that could take, and some people need their tools then and there, and thats the good part about craftsman, if u bust a tool halfway through the job, just go get a new one......really cant beat that.
i got mostly mastercraft sockets and ratchets at home with the everlasting garanty from Canadian tire ... i go there to change the rachets insert about twice a year without any problem ... and had 24in breaker bar broke on me after 4 years of total abuse (getting my whole 185lbs smashing on it each day!!... and i mean it ... im putting inj. molding molds from 300kg to 5.5tons into machines each day) ... and had no problem replacing those ...
Snap on is pretty good but without anyshop close to me it gets pretty hard to have those "broken" tool changed ... old story , one of my friend had a 1/2in breaker bar he broke twice in the same day trying to loose a half shaft nut... he actually ended up buying a 3/4 breaker bar... this one never failed
As for my favorite and best tool awards goes to PROTO/Challenger those ive never broke anything yet i even torned a ratchet once and it still works very good ... (would have never done that with the mastercraft)
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14.850@97.454mph
H&R Spring, 15psi, TMIC, 370cc, Nismo mount and pulley, Almasi tuned ecu...
i have all craftsmen tools, simply because of cost. i could get snap-on or mac, but i cant justify spending thousands on tools when most of the stuff i do is maintenance (recently did shocks / leaf springs / brakes on an S10 Sonoma, some engine work on a boat, but that stuffs farther in between)
i wish i had snap on, but its kinda useless for me.
only time i've ever broken a craftsmen socket was doing brakes on my moms old saturn (it was a lemon, needed brakes every 6 months) we used a 3ft pipe as a breaker bar, and snapped hte socket into 2 pieces. we brought it back to sears, and instead of just replacing it, they gave us an identical one to what we had (to keep the set together)...AND they gave us one of those super heavy duty black sockets, that's meant to be used on impact guns and torqueing things to like 2000lb/ft....they won me over right there.
Most Snap On guys have a route, and if someone in your shop owes him money, he will be by like clockwork.
Juan
Quote:
Originally Posted by cHoPs
as it stands, most of craftsman's newer electronic shit is built in china....only the handtools are built in america. the bad part about snap on is that if u do bust a tool, u have to wait for them to come to you, which u never know how long that could take, and some people need their tools then and there, and thats the good part about craftsman, if u bust a tool halfway through the job, just go get a new one......really cant beat that.
I have found that the stanley pro stuff is ok it is lifetime guaranteed but not like sears i think its more of a pain. stanley is made by mac tools so the quality is similar
btw craftsman ratchets suck they will about kill you when they slip
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