Craftsman tool warranty worthless

=================================== As thought experiment, imagine what kind of environment you would create if your objective was to discourage the acquisition of

*ANY* useful academic knowledge, occupational abilities, and social skills, and if possible impart a life-long distaste for any learning.

Now compare this to the so-called learning environments now existing in many of our public and private "schools."

The amazing thing is not that so few of our young people are now obtaining useful life skills, but that so many continue to do so. [Knowing how to pee in a bottle does not count.]

The academic community has provided what the politicians demanded. They cannot be held responsible when this is not what the people wanted/needed. If you don't like the results, don't beat up the teachers, change the politicians. Unfortunately, there is as much chance of this happening, as the stockholders replacing the directors to correct corporate problems.

FWIW -- more money will solve nothing, and may make things worse.

Unka' George (George McDuffee) .............................. Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be "too clever by half." The probability is that too many people are too stupid by three-quarters.

John Major (b. 1943), British Conservative politician, prime minister. Quoted in: Observer (London, 7 July 1991).

I seem to remember a Craftsman commercial from the early 90's where they show someone using a small wrench as a pin through the holes of a receiver hitch to pull a truck out of the mud. I remember thinking how stunned I was to see such a brash stance on both their quality and warranty. I guess that attitude is out the window now.

Matthew

"Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message news:BZU0h.1005$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe12.lga...

I keep forgetting to suggest to you something I stumbled upon a few years ago: Get yerself a cute, petite, female doctor. Among other things, they generally have thin fingers. My doctor is cute as a button and as smart as they come. Very nice fingers, too.

About Sears and their warranty: my dad was a store manager for Sears for many years, and he used to tell some great tales about how people took advantage of the lifetime replacement deal.

Here's one: For a while (early '60s), they sold hot Power Products go-cart motors under the Craftsman name. Guys would buy one on Friday, take off the air cleaner and run them on methanol on Saturday, and bring back the smoking hulk on Monday for a replacement. This went on for about two years -- my dad said some guys came in every Monday and Friday -- and the only solution was to stop selling the motors.

The hardware department at the Sears store in Hagerstown, MD, which was one of my dad's stores, kept a collection of the more interesting tools that had been returned. I remember seeing a 3/4" wrench that had been bent in half. I wonder how they did that. Then there was the wrench that some guy used to remove frozen bolts by playing an O/A torch on the bolt with the wrench in place. The jaws looked like the mouth of a toothless rat.

My favorite was a hand crosscut saw somebody tried to use to cut iron pipe. The blade was stainless, so he thought it would cut through anything. He apparently was not a materials engineer.

-- Ed Huntress

There for a while, the replacement tools were of lower value than that of= the returns. I hated to see a 1950 age tool being turned in for a new one that was mad= e by a bad vendor. The steel was not comparable. Sears cleaned up the vendors - it was simp= ly a case of cost and margin. Margin dropped so the metal dropped.

For me, I'll re-grind the screw driver or turn a Philips into an awl or p= unch.....

Some tools in my boxes have histories with them. Some go back more than =

50 years. I use some of them from time to time with a smile.

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net=

NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member

Ed Huntress wrote:

wrote in=20

For me, I'll re-grind the screw driver or turn a Philips into an awl or punch.....

Some tools in my boxes have histories with them. Some go back more than 50 years. I use some of them from time to time with a smile.

=====================================================

One of the planes I use regularly dates to 1888. Of my ten or twelve planes, four are wood-bodied and only two are newer than 1952. So there.

My SB 10L lathe is 1945, says "War Board" on it; my mill, which I don't use anymore, is 1917, Taylor & Fenn. Most of my Craftsman tools were my dad's, postwar but not by much. WWII, that is.

I have an extensive set of Williams wrenches -- 3/8, 1/2, and 3/4 inch drives, from 1950. And those are my new stuff. d8-)

-- Ed Huntress

Well, I bought Craftsman tools when I started my apprenticeship in

1969, and I still have about 80% of them. I used them every day for 25 years, and lost more than I broke or wore out. I bought some Snappys, some Herbrand, some SK and some Gray ( and a few others) over the years, and I broke as many of them as I did Craftsman.

The only difference I found was the more expensive tools LOOKED better, and FELT better.

A classmate bought Snappies at the same time I bought my Craftsman tools, and by the time we finished our apprenticeships (about 2 years), he had broken and replaced almost 1/4 of his sockets, and half a dozen wrenches. His ratchets had both (1/2 and 3/8) been rebuilt - and they cost almost THREE TIMES what I paid for my Craftsman tools (got mine on sale).

I think we hit an excellent example of a YMMV

I've only seen Craftsman tools and noticed them seriously in the last

10- 15 ish years. Before that a wrench was a wrench was a wrench and i usually just reached for the first crescent wrench i could find or if i had the right size handy whatever right sized wrench i could find in the shop or in my toolbox.

by the age of 8 i had my own tookbox with a hammer and wrenches and one crescent wrench

Your batch of Craftsman tools are 10 years older than i am =)

And i see a heck of a difference between a new Craftsman and a snap > Well, I bought Craftsman tools when I started my apprenticeship in

Gunner, I have an old Army buddy who was living in the Taft / Bakersfield area. The last time I head from him, he was working at KBAK-TV. He took some metalworking classes at BCC, and shipped me an aluminum casting he made for a belt sander. Someone swiped my address book a few years ago, so I've lost contact with him.

Email me info and Ill hunt contact info up for you if you like.

Gunner

Rule #35 "That which does not kill you, has made a huge tactical error"

"Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message news:OxP1h.31$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe09.lga...

What would happen if instead of "No Child Left Behind" we had ...

"No Child KEPT Behind"?

-- Mark

Or, you could find a better sourcing for tools, such as Harbor Freight. Craftsman tools are probably built in China, anyway. Chinese ratchets (similar to those early Crapsman China ratchets which took my blood and flesh) are the only thing I won't risk. The rest hold up just fine. I learned early on to buy 6pt sockets, usually impact-rated, so I never have to buy one again.

RIP (again) Searz.