Lathe update/questions

I remember Sears selling versions of both Atlas and South Bend lathes (I believe under their house name) that weren't exactly Best of Breed.

Bruce-in-Bangkok (correct email address for reply)

True if "expected lifetime" is a few hours. Example: Black & Decker consumer (read disposable) tools long before Asian imports were common. Homelite chainsaws starting more than a decade ago. Some hand tools from Stanley and General. Etc etc.

Well..on reflection..there was Ronco.....but I dont think even their stuff was US made.

Gunner

Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

Milltronics cnc mills. Had the horrible experience of using a couple of them for a little over a year. They are incapable of performing to specifications. An argument can be made that the specs were written by marketdroids and are unrealistic, but none the less, the machines were expected to work as advertised.

I just about quit buying Craftsman tools for that reason. It seems that just about everything that Sears sold was slightly modified so one had to go back to them for repairs / parts.

The clincher was an item that cost about $15. A Craftsman wire striper. Mine broke. I took it back and they said they had "discontinued" that item. However, they had the identical thing on the shelf - probably made by Ideal - with the following exceptions. The handles had been dipped in yellow plastic instead of blue - or visa versa. Also the wording on the little "hubcap" that covered the bolt holding the parts together had been changed from "Craftsman" to "Sears".

I told the man I'd swap him if we could also swap the "hubcap" but he wouldn't allow that. He told me this one was guaranteed also, but it carried the SEARS guarantee (whatever that is) instead of the "guaranteed forever" warranty of the Craftsman name.

I bought his tool because I needed one on the job. I refused to trade him and told him I'd hold on to that broken "Craftsman" tool as a "forever reminder" of what "guaranteed forever" meant!

I probably still have that broken reminder laying around some place! That was roughly 25 years ago - early to mid 80s.

I may spend $25 per year with them now instead of the $500 plus that I spent with them before. *Thanks Sears!*

Al

On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:13:37 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Don Foreman quickly quoth:

Ditto early Skil, Wen, and a few others.

-- As a curmudgeon, I grok that in its entirety. --LJ

for repairs

allow that.

roughly 25

I don't spend that unless I'm broke down on the side of the road next to a Sears store.

Pete Keillor

On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:35:13 -0400, with neither quill nor qualm, Pete Keillor quickly quoth:

I did quit and have never bought another single Crapsman tool. The only reason I darken Searz' doorway any more is to replace yet another broken tool. Half the ones which break nowadays are no longer made so they can't even give me an exact replacement any more. The last one to go was my 1/4" drive screwdriver handle with the 1/4" socket in the back end. The new ones didn't have that and it was my most used feature. I ended up on the Searz Customer Service lines for over an hour, talking with some guy in India. He ended up giving me a $15 check to go spend at the local Searz, and then I couldn't find anything I needed from them. I ended up with a long sleeved shirt. Then I went to NAPA and got the replacement handle for $8.

I'll walk a mile to any other store, thanks.

I won't spend a cent at a Searz store nowadays, and haven't for nearly

-- As a curmudgeon, I grok that in its entirety. --LJ

snip

this is where I could recapitulate my story of a sears allen wrench that they refused to replace - to make a long and amusing story short, a letter to corporate headquarters, addressed to the president, with the damaged wrench and a request for replacement, a copy of the warranty (lifetime) and a suggestion that they would lose a long term customer and be guilty of fraud got me a lightning fast response from the local sears store ("I sure wish you hadn't written that letter"), and a replacement