Craftsman Tools degrading?

[JRW7072009]

Matco and Craftsman hand tools are made by the same company in the USA- Danaher tools http://www.team.net/www/morgan/tech/whotools.html. They were made by Stanley until 1994, who owns and makes MAC. The truth is that these three brands are actually fundamentally identical. Really the only legitimate argument about hand tool superiority is Snap-On since they make their own and have always made them without compromise.

I thought so, I know that Craftsman are still made in USA. I am still not a fan of Matco. I know that Blue Point tools are made in china.

 

[Mbjeep91]

Ive got some Craftsman tools, but they are my back-ups! Most of my tools come straight off the Snap-On truck! I agree they are way over priced but i know that they are good quality and they are not guna break, and if they do, no questions asked i have a new one. The shop i work at supplies the tool, and most of them are S-K, now there is a joke of a tool company, i would much rather have a craftsman ratchet and sockets over s-k, but there wrenches are better quality. Enough rambling for me, this argument of what tools to buy will go on forever, personal preference and to each his own.

 

[95' heep]

I have BUNCH of craftsman tools in my tool box at home

I have nothing but good stuff to say about them. I dont even know a craftsman brand tool that have failed me

however most of them are from late 90's and some in early 00's

I used a china 3/8 rachet with my floor jack handle as cheater pipe, I am working on to get the bolt off the body mount on my BlaZeR-2 for body lift. Soon as I start to really grunting on the pipe, the gears inside the china ratchet completely stripped out, then of course that one find itself into the trash bin right away. I got craftsman ratchet then give it another shot, I got it loose without breaking at all.

Other time, I dropped about 200lb of pure steel onto the rachet on the garage floor, it didnt get any scratch.

On my dad's rear axle in blazer, I was doing a oil change and its fill plug is on the pumkin that uses 3/8" extension to open it. I used a china one (I just picked random stuff out of the tool box, and it happen to be a china cheapo one) that I used to get the plug out, but it broke with small piece stuck inside the plug which suck balls. once i got that out, I used the craftsman this time (I looked through the toolbox for the one that say "craftsman" on it lol) I got the plug loose with my leg pushing on the ratchet, it didnt break at all with over half more torque than the china one broke at.

my craftsman stuff still kickin, I still will buy them

 

[goodburbon]

I have BUNCH of craftsman tools in my tool box at home

I have nothing but good stuff to say about them. I dont even know a craftsman brand tool that have failed me

however most of them are from late 90's and some in early 00's

I used a china 3/8 rachet with my floor jack handle as cheater pipe, I am working on to get the bolt off the body mount on my BlaZeR-2 for body lift. Soon as I start to really grunting on the pipe, the gears inside the china ratchet completely stripped out, then of course that one find itself into the trash bin right away. I got craftsman ratchet then give it another shot, I got it loose without breaking at all.

Other time, I dropped about 200lb of pure steel onto the rachet on the garage floor, it didnt get any scratch.

On my dad's rear axle in blazer, I was doing a oil change and its fill plug is on the pumkin that uses 3/8" extension to open it. I used a china one (I just picked random stuff out of the tool box, and it happen to be a china cheapo one) that I used to get the plug out, but it broke with small piece stuck inside the plug which suck balls. once i got that out, I used the craftsman this time (I looked through the toolbox for the one that say "craftsman" on it lol) I got the plug loose with my leg pushing on the ratchet, it didnt break at all with over half more torque than the china one broke at.

my craftsman stuff still kickin, I still will buy them

Had pretty much the opposite happen to me one night. Jeep lug wrench wouldn't get a lug off, went to the toolbox, grabbed the craftsman 3/8" driver and socket, Cheater pipe and broke the wrench without budging the nut. Grabbed the backup chinese wrench and presto, after a few jumps on the cheater pipe by a 200# guy the nut comes off, wrench intact. That was a loooooong night. The toolbox was in the truck that was stuck in a ditch about a mile away and it was below freezing. Trip one back to truck was to get people to push out xj. Trip 2 was to get wrench
trip 3 was to get backup wrench and trip 4 was to get high lift because xj jack wouldn't fit under the jeep.

 

[blacksheep01]

I haven't read this whole thread, so if this has been said, please forgive me. I worked at Sears selling tools while in grad-school. Their policies changed a lot during this time. We started rebuilding ratchets instead of swapping them for one, and customer service went down the crapper for two. I had been around snap-on and matco tools so I was shocked when I learned that Crapsman ratchets were put together with plastic internals. Besides that, their metals are getting weaker and weaker. My professional grade craftsman screwdrivers bearly stand up to weekend wrencher abuse. The sad news is that after calling crapsman one time about a warranty for a customer they informed me that there were several tool names made in the same factory where the crapsman tools were made. Nobody, except snap-on makes their own tools nowadays. As has also probably been stated, all of the electric and pnuematic tools offered by crapsman are made by other companies, naimly, riobi and black and decker (electric tools) and camble hausfield and maybe some ingersal rand on the pnuematic tools. I guess it is like a lot of other things in this world, there are big companies who make almost everything and everybody else puts their name on it. If you don't believe me about the tools, compare them sometime. Often times the crapsman tools will be right next to their competitors tools and they are almost identical. At least they still warranty them, for now.
BS01

 

[95' heep]

thats just sad

 

[blacksheep01]

The person I spoke to on the phone also said that kobalt and husky were also made in the same factory as well as matco which was stated earlier. I have always like matco ratchets, but I think their internals are metal, not plastic.
Recently I bought a compressor. While every retailer sells a oil lubed around 30 gallon air compressor, I went with Kobalt. I figured all these compressors are probably made by cambell hausfeld but Lowe's has had better customer service than the others, at least from my experience. I won't buy maintanance free after my days at Sears. I don't think these are made to last and they are friggin' noisey.
BS01

 

[Hackmeister]

I spent about an hour today at Sears, trying to exchange 2 3/8" ratchets, the standard "teardrop" ones that come in the kits. One was mine, where the ratcheting mechanism stopped ratcheting, and the other was my friend's where the little lever to switch directions snapped clean off after only using it for about 3 days.

Turns out they didn't have a SINGLE replacement in stock in not just their case of rebuilt ratchets, but the display case and warehouse out back. The salesman originally offered to replace one with a rebuilt one they had, but it was a downgrade to the shitty $8 one (http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00943176000P). So supposedly the company policy now is in that case, they have you fill out some BS form then they'll maybe feel like mailing you one (probably the standard 6-8 weeks away).

After a lot of metaphorical kicking and screaming, I convinced the manager to give me a slight upgrade since they had those in stock since there was no way in hell I'd wait 6 weeks for another rebuilt ratchet. I came home with a slightly longer than average swiveling 3/8" they had in the rebuilt box, and a polished teardrop ratchet (http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_...e=Wrenches,+Ratchets+&+Sockets&sName=Ratchets), although both are rebuilt.

/ rant

moral of the story is, their customer service is really sucking balls,along with their tools!

 

[89XJPioneer]

I thought so, I know that Craftsman are still made in USA. I am still not a fan of Matco. I know that Blue Point tools are made in china.

Blue Point Is Snap On....... In regards to craftsman my entire tool box is filled with craftsman as well as the box is craftsman which are all great!... My floor jack is the 3 1/2 ton aluminum race jack from craftsman which SUCKS! has been replaced twice in one year and has trouble lifting my XJ!! big waste of $350....

 

[cracked-butt]

when i was workin in the garage (2000-2003) almost all of my tools were from either SNAP-ON or MATCO. IF i happen to break, bend or other words destroy anyof their tools be it a wrench, ratchet socket or airtool, it was replaced when they showed up (one came wed.'s the other came thur.'s).
now i did have a bunch of "oh-sh**" tools (cheap china made from the front of the business) in my SNAP-ON tool box (cost me a nice $2500... on sale/used) along with the usual "i had these for years" craftsman tools.
and yes the SNAP-ON & MATCO/MAC tools are made for the "professional" where as the craftsman is for the "week-end" worker/do-it-yourselfer.

 

[blacksheep01]

To me, the moral of the story here is "You get what you pay for." My box is craftsman, most of my hand tools are craftsman, I have a craftsman work bench, but none of my power tools are craftsman. This is coming from a guy who worked there for 21/2 years and changed out hundreds of craftsman power tools, but only if the customer bought the good warranty. My power tools are Dewalt, Porter Cable or anything besides craftsman. I bought a leaf blower there last year AND I bought their extra warranty, and they still wouldn't warranty it IN THE FIRST WEEK WHEN IT CRAPPED OUT! Personally, I would rather buy from Harbor Freight as at least up front cost is lower when you know you will have to replace it. Plus, I hear that HF's extra warranty is better than the toilet paper you get from SEARS.
BS01

 

[alex22]

Blue Point Is Snap On....... In regards to craftsman my entire tool box is filled with craftsman as well as the box is craftsman which are all great!... My floor jack is the 3 1/2 ton aluminum race jack from craftsman which SUCKS! has been replaced twice in one year and has trouble lifting my XJ!! big waste of $350....

Bluepoint is sold by snapon, but it is defiantly not snap on. Bluepoint tools are made in Tiawan and I would rate the quality of bluepoint tools above Craftsman.

I picked up a set of craftsman needle nose pliers last month and they broke within the first 5 mins of use; thankfully I have a set of snapon ones to finish the job.

 

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

Wow, this thread really has me questioning my "to buy" list of tools.. most of it was chraftsmen.. but now im wondering if i should stick with HF... if they are all the same "Junk" then why spend tripple the nickle?

 

[ChevelleSSLS6]

wtf dude, double post.

 

[ChevelleSSLS6]

Grandpa had some old sk tools, and craftsman tools (woodworking tools too) and the SK tools were better built than the vintage craftsman, and the vintage craftsman is better built than my ~2006 craftsman.

Their air tools are made by IR, which used to be pretty wicked good, but being made in China, why spend $150 on a IR or $139.99 for a Craftsman when $29.99 will get the HF equivilant? Personally though I'd look for an old school IR impact first.

Anyone have any opinions on Channellock? They seem to have maintained good quality.

What's the consensus opinion on Master Mechanic tools sold at Ace and True Value? They have some magnetic-tip screwdrivers that caught my eye. I've bought a couple of drill bits which have worked okay but I assume all this stuff is made by somebody else

at least through the late 1980s they were made in USA. I think they're pretty decent for home/weekend wrencher use.

 

[REVROK]

Grandpa had some old sk tools, and craftsman tools (woodworking tools too) and the SK tools were better built than the vintage craftsman, and the vintage craftsman is better built than my ~2006 craftsman.

Their air tools are made by IR, which used to be pretty wicked good, but being made in China, why spend $150 on a IR or $139.99 for a Craftsman when $29.99 will get the HF equivilant? Personally though I'd look for an old school IR impact first.

Anyone have any opinions on Channellock? They seem to have maintained good quality.



at least through the late 1980s they were made in USA. I think they're pretty decent for home/weekend wrencher use.

Not to get off topic on the Craftsman thing, but nothing compares to the Ingersoll Rand Ti series impacts... NOTHING! You can work on a major disassembly job under cars/trucks all day and they will always have enough torque and they are so light you will never get fatigued. Comparing a thing of beauty like that to air tools from Harbor Freight is bizarre. If I were wrenching full time again they would be my first purchase.

 

[AIbandit]

I spent 90$ on a crapsman torque wrench I used it on a high torque bolt it worked (as far as I know don't know if it was accurate) changed the setting to 40 ft lbs and snapped the caliper pin inside my caliper on my F250. Went back to a high torque bolt to make sure it works and it doesnt click anymore.

I need to reassemble an engine and I can't trust this crap even if I return it.

 

[lilredxj99]

I'll be honest. I started in a Auto Tech program in 1996, and I got a set of Craftsmen Tools... I finished the program and started wrenching for a living. The difference in feel and quality of snap-on/mac vs craftsmen is amazing. I tried other guys ratchets and the difference is amazing. Combination wrenches and sockets the same way. Needless to say, most of the craftsmen stuff eventually got replaced. There is still some craftsmen stuff in there. But when the guts break in a craftsmen ratchet, snap-on/mac prices are not so bad when you compare it to bloody, sore and scarred knuckles.

I now work as a repairman in a coal mines. I have a set of 3/4 drive china ratchet and sockets. I've only broken 1 ratchet, and that was w/ me and another guy bouncing on it using a 4' cheater pipe. I use 5450 long handled 1/2 proto ratchet and williams(snap-on) sockets. I also have a snap-on cordless impact, even though they cost almost 500, they run circles around Dewalt, Milwaukee, and the others ... I use it to r&i covers, and wheels. The tires/wheels on our coal haulers use 22 - 3/4" x 5 1/2" NC bolts on the front and 22 - 3/4" 2 1/4" NC bolts on the rear. Couple times around the bolts, and I don't have to tighten it w/ a breaker bar.