Best Brand Of Mechanics' Tools

I understand that the Craftsman stuff sold here in Canada is Chinese stuff, while in the US it's American-made. I can't find any decent Craftsman stuff in any Sears store here, but friends visiting the States have brought back Craftsman that's obviously much better quality.

Dan

I have a very good craftsman 1/2" ratchet with a LONG handle. I've busted loose countless head bolts and loads of track bolts without any failure. I used it with one of those oil filter strap wrenches and applied enough torque to rip the strap on one occasion, and twist apart an extension (not mine!) on another occasion. I took it apart a while back to look at the ratchet teeth--doing just fine. Even if it was used as a hammer a couple of times. It is only a couple of years old, though. The only craftsman tool I've been disappointed with so far was a screwdriver that really didn't appreciate being used as a pry bar, but I was able to exchange it for one that was quite happy in that role!

I remember in the late 80's when Craftsman in Canada was quality made with pride in Japan, while Crapsman in the US was US made. I sure wish I had bought some, but I was a poor college student.

Don't get me wrong. I love this country but consider US made quality to be a sad joke.

FWIW, in the late '80s early '90s we had a large framing crew which built apartment houses. The guys liked the 23 oz Craftsman "California Framers" with the milled faces. When the faces became dull they would break the handle off and go to Sears and get a new hammer. It was interesting to see how the hammers were re-engineered several times to increase handle strength. After several years the boys had to use a 4' pipe to break the handles. I wonder if anybody ever figured out why the milled face hammer handles were breaking and the smooth face hammer handles weren't. Paul

On Thu, 16 Sep 2004 05:49:34 GMT, "AL" calmly ranted:

Around the time of the quality problems, I saw lots of sockets in the Searz stores with INDIA cast into them. I thought the Craftsman stuff was all US-made and the crap Chi/Tai/Indian imports. Some were Japanese? Japanese tools imported here were real crap in the 60's but back to high quality in the 80's.

This past winter I drove through rain, sleet, snow and ice for 1900 miles to trade a Shoptask 3 in 1 for a Clausing lathe. Worth every bit of the aggravation, as comparing the quality of the Shoptask and the Clausing is like comparing chickenshit and chickenfeed. I know they're not made anymore, but that old Clausing lathe is sure enough a quality machine. I work on Boeing and airbus every day. 36 yrs. now. An airbus is a cheap imitation of an aircraft compared to a Boeing, in my opinion. We still make some good stuff in this country.

Garrett Fulton

Gee, I really like the way the airbuses flop and wiggle through the air. It's kind of fun to look back and watch the aisle wave left to right about 6 inches.

Not.

Pete

It was so bad on the 747-400's that Boeing installed the MSAS system. Modal Stability Augmentation System. There is a little aerodynamic vane on the nose below the radome and on the centerline of the aircraft. It and some rate gyros sense when the fuselage is about to flex excessively in the longitudinal axis. MSAS sends a signal to the rudder servo to kick to tail back over just a tad and counteract the flexing. Works good and lasts a long time. You never know it's working. God, I love Boeings. They're so clever, those people.

Garrett Fulton

I don't know about the sockets, but back in the late 80's Sears Canada had beautiful red handled pliers with "Craftsman", and "Made in Japan" on them. Beautiful finish, close tolerances, no slop in the pivot, jaws that lined up. I sure wish I had bought some, but I couldn't afford them. Compare that to the US-made black handled crap that you get at Sears now.

I've had one of those for over 40 years now, and you're right, that 1/4" female socket at the top end is very handy when I have to give something a little more torque than my aging wrists can take.

My Craftman tools date back to the early 60s, and that's pretty much the only brand I bought back then because I was living a few blocks from the multistory "Sears Building" near Fenway Park in Boston which housed their regional offices. At the time they had a "bargain basement" store there. (Yep, it was really the basement.)

I haunted that place with the same fervor that my then SWMBO frequented Filene's basement (Another Beantown landmark.) and I got most of my Craftsman mechanic's tools there little by little. With the exception of of a few which "grew legs" and left 'cause my teen aged sons took them to friends' houses and couldn't remember where they left them, those good old US made Craftsman tools are all still with me. Also with me is the US made Craftsman floor style drill press I remember buying there for (IIRC) around $30.

I find concluding letters of that sort to Corporate goodfaddles with the line "There is no right way to do the wrong thing." produces positive results more often than not.

Nothing is forever...

While on the subject of sockets, is the "international standard" for drive sizes still the english 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", 3/4" etc., or have they started manufacturing metric sockets with metric sized drives and (G-d forbid) maybe even inch size sockets with metric sized drives?

Just wondering...

Jeff

On Thu, 16 Sep 2004 17:02:39 -0400, Jeff Wisnia calmly ranted:

My hands are still strong, but -my- wrists are losing ground, too.

They had good tools up until the mid-70's, when some brilliant idiot in Corporate apparently decided to "save them some money." Then came the automotive department boondoggle and Searz now looks nothing like the entity it started out. Absolutely nothing.

Excellent idea. I'll remember to add that to my next letter. Wouldn't it be nice to never again need to write those letters?

I don't foresee the need to go back to them again. They lost my trust and, as I said, took a gallon of blood and pound of flesh from me, and then gave me shit about replacements. I surely won't soon forget that.

- - Let Exxon send their own troops -

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I hear ya, same reason I can't throw my money away on a domestic vehicle either.

In the '70s I sold heavy truck wheels and brakes. There were two major US manufacturers of big brake drums, one really expensive (iron centrifugally cast into a steel shell) and the other reasonable (straight cast iron). The reasonable outfit had a strike that lasted a long time, and the other outfit couldn't keep up, so somebody had a foundry in India make some cast-iron drums. They came packaged two to a crate, the crate made of teak, and wrapped in plastic inside and protected with dessicant bags (the American drums came complete with rust, from being stored outside the factory, in the rain). The truckers kept coming back for more of those Indian drums, since they were really hard and lasted a long time, about twice as long as the American drums. I read once somewhere that the Indians and Chinese were masters of iron casting long before the Europeans, and they had a white cast (as opposed to our gray cast)that was super hard. Another American outfit started making drums during that strike, and by the time I left the business thay had a huge chunk of the market. Plain gray cast iron, and the truckers were disappointed. Just like us tool buyers, lamenting the lost quality of yesterday's manufacturing. Dan

Hmmm... I've taken back piles of busted/bent/worn out Craftsman stuff almost every month since the late 70's... and rarely have gotten guff from them.

They have different warranties for different things, but usually the unlimited hand tool warranty (the only one I'm ever personally involved with by the way) is a non issue.

I usually deal with the Santa Monica CA store, but have dealt with many other stores in the greater LA area as well.

Can't speak for other areas around the country though... just curious, what sort of things have you had trouble exchanging... and where?

Erik

On Fri, 17 Sep 2004 08:01:41 GMT, Erik calmly ranted:

My main return center was the Carlsbad, CA store at the El Camino Real Mall. I had to go as high as the store manager too often, but once I had, the mention of his name usually smoothed things out.

--- Is it time for your medication or mine?

According to their website, Danaher makes the following brands:

Armstrong®, Matco®, Sears Craftsman®, AllenTM, KD-Tools®, Holo-Krome®, NAPA®, and SATA.

I have a "Craftsman" 1" micrometer that is clearly made by Mitutoyo. It's the type that reads in inches on the thimble and metric on a drum counter, and is identical to the Mitutoyo-label model down to the orange plastic case. The only difference is the markings on the plastic finger grips and on the box. I got it on ebay from someone in the US, but don't otherwise know its history.

This suggests that at one time Sears sold Mitutoyo tools under their house brand.

Dave