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What brand of tool is more contentious than even whether there should be pineapple on pizza or chili in beans.
My toolbox is mostly full of Craftsman. Mostly from the early 90's.
I've had good luck with it.
Only had to do a couple of warranty returns.
It appears that Lowe's is honoring the Sears warranty, if it comes to it.
I have had so many people look down their noses at my tools it's not even funny.
They're working for me, so I don't care.
I'm getting the same static about the Ryobi power tools I got too.
I have killed a couple of those. Exceed the design duty cycle at your peril.
But for most things, what I've been buying has been working.
(By the way, Milwaukee is made by the same company as Ryobi, just a different spec.)
The funny thing is, I learned the schedule of the Snap-On truck because a buddy insisted on them. And we needed to track that fucker down to get the warranty honored. Over and over.
He didn't treat his tools any worse than I do either.
Bad run of 3/8 ratchets is what I think, and kept getting replacements from the same flawed production run.
But eventually he got a good one and stopped needed to track that fucker down.
This would be true of any maker and a life-time warranty.
Yea, this is puzzling to me.
ReplyDeleteIf it's not some dollar store disposable tool-shaped thing, what is the big deal who's name is on it.
Over the last, almost, twenty years I've fixed more things with an impulse bought Sears bargain branded SAE/metric socket set with composite ratchet because it was the tool that was available when we were traveling.
Iz tool, iz works. What iz difference?
You are in good company. Almost all my basic hand tools are Craftsman and have been adding to it since the early 80's. Same for Ryobi, still have old blue series that work just fine, plus 60% of green 18V tools they make. Zero returns and that with heavy use. Own one single Snapon, a torque wrench bought used then ordered rebuild kit for it for about 35 bucks. Has extra long handle for higher range needed for a few bolts on most cars.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried Lowes. I got turned away at the Sears store a few years ago (before they all closed) because they said they didn't honor the lifetime warranty on any pre-bankruptcy Craftsman products. I have a lot of Craftsman stuff from the 1980s-early 2000s. My first wife worked for Sears for a long time. The US made Craftsman stuff was always pretty good and in those days they did stand behind it. The stuff that Lowes sells with the Craftsman name is all Chinese and frankly about the same as any of that stuff. I bought some Craftsman power tools when I was up in Iowa working on my parent's house before my Dad passed. But most of the tools I have bought recently have been from Harbor Freight. I bought the Craftsman up there because there is no Harbor Freight in Ames and I didn't want to drive all the way to Urbandale. Lowes is like 5 minutes from my parent's house. Tool snobs are interesting... I know a number of guys that are Snap-On or DeWalt only and poo-poo anything else.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to buy all US made tools but it isn't really possible anymore at all, and unfortunately out of my reach financially. A lot of people make fun of Harbor Freight... and admittedly nobody is going to claim their stuff is the best. And a lot of their stuff a few years ago was kinda questionable, especially their small electric power tools (Chicago Electric brand for example). However the past few years they've upped their game and their higher end brands like Bauer are actually pretty decent.
Buy Craftsman made before 2010 or after 2017 and not from Sears to avoid China. Buy from Ace to get the best chance at US made.
DeleteLowes is US and Czech, not China. Unless you mean Taiwan.
Now that's an important distinction. There's nothing wrong with the Chinese people (okay, nothing that isn't wrong with all the rest of us, too); the problem is the evil and/or psychotic mind control cult that is communism.
DeleteOh, yes, it is the Chinese government that is the problem. Taiwan is the same people but totally different to deal with. The Chinese government is "Communist" in name only though. Never has been Communist, if you mean actually following Marx. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro... They were all really dictators, usually worse and responsible for killing more people than even horrible people like Hitler or the Tsars or the monarchies which came before them. Their governments totalitarian military oligarchies. There's a reason for that -- true Communism doesn't even begin to work, at least not on the time frames that these people wanted. Never in the world has there been the level of productivity that would allow Marx's ideals to be achieved. So to try to speed things along of course, they have to force people to work against human nature and often forced austerity, forced by the iron fist of military might. Of course while the great party leadership live in comparable luxury, although often not as good as the relatively "poor" do in "oppressive" places like the US. They have to use oppression, mind control, etc., in order to keep the serfs in line. They use Marxist rhetoric to lie to the people and make promises that they could never live up to if they even tried, that's the culty part of it.
DeleteI worked in the hardware dept of a Sears store, when Craftsman was made by Western Forge in Colorado, their stuff was gold. I still have the tools I bought at the time. Would that I could have bought the mega-set when such was to be had. The current Lowe's products are simply chinesium. Might as well buy the Horror Freight version, and cut out the middleman.
ReplyDeleteMany moons ago my mechanic in the Chem research lab need a tool crib. He wanted Snap On tools not Craftsman. I asked him why. He said because all the other labs use Craftsman, so anyone who has a Snap On tool stole it from our lab. Brillant! I wrote him the PO.
ReplyDeleteI've worked as a mechanic for almost 40 years. My main issue with Craftsman was their combination wrenches. They have a raised label block on the handle that will tear up your hand with extended use. They're excellent for a weekend mechanic, and back when Sears handed out credit cards to anybody that was breathing, I would recommend them for somebody just getting into the business. Because of the Chinese aspect, doubt I would do that today.
ReplyDeleteKevin Kirk
A weekend mechanic is exactly what I am! I don't remember what brand it is, but the cross section of the handle was almost knife shaped and it would really bite into your hand when you put any torque on them.
DeleteI want to say it was Home Depot's Husky brand.
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ReplyDeleteHad pretty good luck with Craftsman hand tools, still have the socket set my folks gave me as a high school graduation present. Also have some Ryobi 18 volt tools which have given good service. Of note the clutch in my DeWalt drill driver smoketested about a year after purchase. It can be repaired but it only cost about 10% more to go out and buy a new one. Snap-On, they have a good reputation but my experience with the brand has been poor. Way back in the day (mid 90s) we used them in the bomb dump at the AF base I was stationed at. We used diagonal pliers to cut safety wire, kinda what they were for right, we went through four or five pairs where cutting the .0020 " safety wire would put a half moon nick in each of the blades on the pliers. Snap-On guy would not take them back stated that cutting safety wire was abusing the tool. And that was the last time we bought Snap-On while I was stationed there.
ReplyDelete