I've got a compliment about craftsman.

Just last weekend I went with the intent to pick up a 3/8" ratchet, just the standard non-polished type.

Well I picked handled a couple of the polished "professional" kind. There was one that felt nice to me, fit my hand pretty well. I grabbed a tool catalog to see if there was a package deal with this type of ratchet and there was. it was like 40% off, but they didn't have this specific package in stock. The package was a 1/2", 3/8" and 1/4" ratchet set. I brought up the catalog and the 3/8" and asked if they had any of the sets in stock. They checked and it said something like no longer produced or w/e. I asked if they would honor the price of the set if I bought all three. The manager took some persuasion, but they ended up selling me three pretty nice ratchets for the price of two.

I was psyched.

I need to get a stubby 3/8" ratchet next. Snap-on has the best looking one I've found.

I can't figure out how snap-on, MAC, matco, etc justify their prices. Perhaps they need to make a deal with someone like macys haha.

 

I haven't gotten any Craftsman tools in a few years now. I was at Sears with my buddy a while back and I noticed that the screwdrivers are no longer made of forged chrome vanadium steel. I asked the salesperson in the tool area and was told that since they are lifetime warranty anyway, they are selling cheaper quality tools. I could not believe what I was hearing. The way I see it, if I need to use my tools withing driving distance of the nearest Sears so that when they break I can replace them. I have had no issues with my old Popular Mechanics tools from Walmart or my Crewline tools from Schucks. This is nothing new though, and the guys at Pirate 4x4 have been talking about Crapsman tools as well: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=630247

 

I've broken a gear wrench and took it back to Sears. No questions asked, just a straight trade for a new one. Whenever I can, I wait for sales at Sears just to buy Craftsman tools.

 

Well to date its been about a year since I have been doing battery service for AAA regularly. So far the stanley ratchet from wallyworld has held up fine, the sockets made by stanely held up to and the 1/4 drive husky deeps too.

I amusing all 1/4 drive with an adapter and I would guesstimate I am hard on my tools and use them alot. So far no ratchets have gone south (including the new 2 month old stanley 1/4 drive) besides the crapsmen. I traded the old one I had (someone left it in a car along time ago) for the one with the plastic gears. The ratchet detent didnt work anymore but it had to be 25 years old at least and was not the notch kinda selector but round with a dial kinda like an older SK.

My 3/8 stuff almost never gets used due to the tight spaces I am in but they have held up fine. Stanely wrenches cheapies I picked up at walmart are doing ok other than the battery acid has eaten my 10, 12 and 13mm wrenches away in parts but they are still nice tools.

Craftsman prybar seems to be doing ok, no real issues. And so has the stanley branded visegrip.

I conclude that my dads tools by crapsman from about 25 years ago are much better built thant he junk today. Was in sears the other day looking for a new set of 1/2 drive deeps in 16-22mm or so. All the sockets were laser etched junk and the insides had burrs in them.. The stinking pepboys tools are better quality! Heck the walmart stanely tools make the crapsmen look like pure well doodie for lack of better words.

I really think craftsman has gone down the tubes since kmart bought them.. Oh and the power tools suck, cheap casings, plastic parts. i rather spend the bucks on dewalt, rigid, etc. Hell even ryobi is nicer!

 

I have a wera T10 torx screw driver, it says svandik or w/e.

I stole it from my dad, I think a svandik rep gave him it when he bought some inserts or something. It is nice.

 

That sounds just nuts! Mastercraft tools have the same warrenty but they are still CV steel... though I have noticed the quality on some of their stuff has gone down lately... guess thats what happens when you go with the lowest cost supplier...

 

i'm used to be a bitch of makita's, but since my garage was raided by some lowlives couple years ago, i had to pick my stuff accrodingling(with my wallet). i bought this Croftsman 18V drill and worklight set last year during the thanksgiving sale, for cheap. after about 6 months of little useage, i found the batteries don't hold much of juice, little by little. i went to Sears to check what's going on. of curse, i was told the battery is "consumables", not under any warranty. so, i paid $40 for another one only it's Diehard upgraded. went home, charged it up, seems work fine. about the same time, i got a Milwaukee from my work, so the craftsman didn't get much of use. about a month ago, i found the craftsman's battery was died, again, only this time the charger didn't light up with battery plugged in. so i asked friend of mine came over with a multimeter to see if any circuit is broken, it turned out nothing is broken but there's only 0.2V coming out out the posts. that means the faulty charger can be the cause of the died batteries. i took everything back to Sear's, the guy at the counter told me there's nothing they could do, but giving me an adress of the Parts and Service dept. at a different location. when i got there, they want me to pay $40 for a new battery, and another $30 for a new charger. you know what i did? i throw everything on the counter and told the lady:

i'm through with Craftsman!! you ain't getting an penny out of my pocket.

 

Check out this link. It is about restoring dead NiCd type batteries with a high power electrical shock. (welder, car battery, etc.)

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cord...tery/?ALLSTEPS

 

I bought a 156 pc set about 5 yrs ago. So far they have all held up well, I only have half my set left because of b@stards stealing my chit!

After Thanksgiving, I bought a dbl set of their deep sockets in a 3/8" for $19.99, 50% off. They look ok, only thing I don't like is they are 12 point.

 

all my beef is against the cordless power tools, Craftsman hand tools are actually my favorite. they hold up well, i've couple broken sockets and 1 rachet, got them replaced, the customer service is better than Snap-On and others.

i use Ridgid power tools at work, compare the same 18Volt drills side-by-side with Craftsman, the build quality is such obvious. also we have a 5-year old 14.4v Ridgid drill, it has more power now than the Craftsman 18V when it's new.