Craftsman tools are cheap

.... If you have a scratch and dent Sears Home and Garden store in your area.

Saturday i bought:

Craftsman Jack
A pair of Craftsman Jackstands
A 22 piece set of Craftsman screwdrivers
A Craftsman spark plug gapper
A Craftsman extendable magnet picker upper dealy 4 mini plyers/cutters of various types.

All for $87.88 out the door including tax.

Man i love that place. I would have saved all of $5 if i had bought that all at Harbor Freight instead.

I can't wait til i get a garage so i can cram it full of tools and boxes.

I've got less than $300 total now in all my tools, and that includes the initial 250piece Craftsman Mechanic set. And this is all stuff with the lifetime no questions asked replacement warranty. WOOT!!!

and the quality these days is about the same as HF. Not saying that you did not get a good deal, but their quality has gone down in the last few years.

Opus wrote: and the quality these days is about the same as HF. Not saying that you did not get a good deal, but their quality has gone down in the last few years.

Agreed, but as long as they keep that warranty going, perfectly fine by me.

Honestly, my biggest beef about HF is how their store is laid out. It's infuriating.

Oh, and the fact that they have the Eastwood Fender Roller copy on their website, but that it's been discontinued. ARG.

Lifetime on the hand tools but read the fine print on the jack. I am not sure if it is lifetime or not. I do know they have been removing items from the lifetime designation.

I still hit the pawn shops and garage sales looking for quality tools. $15 got me 7 Snap-on mm deep wall impact sockets as I broke my craftsman sockets on some head bolts. My name is Bruce and I am a toolaholic....

90 day on the jack iirc

93celicaGT2 wrote:

Opus wrote: and the quality these days is about the same as HF. Not saying that you did not get a good deal, but their quality has gone down in the last few years.

Agreed, but as long as they keep that warranty going, perfectly fine by me. Honestly, my biggest beef about HF is how their store is laid out. It's infuriating. Oh, and the fact that they have the Eastwood Fender Roller copy on their website, but that it's been discontinued. ARG.

HF's hand tools have an identical warranty to Craftsman.

Scratch and dent FTW! I've saved so much over the years and anything from books to furniture.

Read the warranty on those "Pittsburgh" HF tools. I think you have to mail them in to the manufacturer. More of a hassle than simply walking in to Sears and saying "I need another one of these".

Keith wrote: Read the warranty on those "Pittsburgh" HF tools. I think you have to mail them in to the manufacturer. More of a hassle than simply walking in to Sears and saying "I need another one of these".

Nope. I walked into HF and they handed me a brand new 17mm wrench when i snapped one.

m4ff3w wrote:

Keith wrote: Read the warranty on those "Pittsburgh" HF tools. I think you have to mail them in to the manufacturer. More of a hassle than simply walking in to Sears and saying "I need another one of these".

Nope. I walked into HF and they handed me a brand new 17mm wrench when i snapped one.

Yep

Yeah... for the record, i have nothing against HF tools, and realize that the quality is probably similar to Craftsman these days, but the appeal isn't there anymore when i'm no longer saving any significant dollars by shopping there instead. I'd much rather browse the well laid out Sears store with nice clean cases everywhere in it's spacious domain than root around shelves with crap thrown on them everywhere at HF.

And the name-whore in me likes the shiny Craftsman name staring at me.

That said... i'll be making a trip to HF this weekend for their parking lot sale and picking up a Fender repair set for $20.

I've had several instances where craftsman has been a hassle. Don't walk into the store with company issued covies on. They denied it as not being a professional grade tool. Sockets that are in sets but not individually sold will normally not be replaced of the shelf. 8 mm deep 1/4" socket took 3 months to get replaced. The store said to order it online and online would not do any warranty replacements. Same thing with a 1/2" impact 3" extension.

Johnboyjjb wrote: I've had several instances where craftsman has been a hassle. Don't walk into the store with company issued covies on. They denied it as not being a professional grade tool. Sockets that are in sets but not individually sold will normally not be replaced of the shelf. 8 mm deep 1/4" socket took 3 months to get replaced. The store said to order it online and online would not do any warranty replacements. Same thing with a 1/2" impact 3" extension.

Good to know, but i'm certainly not in any danger of the first situation. I work a girly-girl desk job.

yesss! Girly-girly deskjobs pushing pansy little keyboards FTW!

I've been trying to buy better quality for hand tools atleast, going with mac tools or matco. They aren't as expensive as snappy is on everything, and sometimes you get extras for free. For instance, I bought a 19 piece matco deep mm impact socket set, it was $50 cheaper the snappy, and snappy's set was only 15 pieces. Cheaper and more...

Andrew

I don't buy HF hand tools, and try to stay away from Craftsman. But that's because the hard ridges on the craftsman tools can get very uncomfortable after a long day in the shop. And, I've never had a snap-on wrench break on me, and my craftsman stuff only lasts 9 months or so. Just made two trips in the last 3 weeks for a new ratchet (1/4" and 1/2"). I swear I can use my snap on 1/4 like it's a 3/8 and have no problem. But for the average at home wrench, I think craftsman is great.

My basic hand tools are Craftsman. I bought a small ratchet set from HF and actually had a socket fail on me, it flowered out. I got some basics at HF; jack stands, the racing jack, some impact sockets and wrenches I haven't used yet, an air compressor, and so on. Now that I'm filling in smaller, less expensive blanks I'm shopping better. HF is OK, though.

The best thing I bought at HF was the soldering gun for like $7.99. I've used it several times since then and its great.

Also, I picked up one of those magnetic thing grabbers. You got to have one of those. Tools just make like easier.

Good to know, m4ff3w. I just read the paperwork, serves me right

I've got a lot of Craftsman tools. I don't break them very often, but they were good at replacing my 13-year-old ratchet last year when it came apart on me. No complains. Haven't broken an HF one yet, but I also don't have many of their hand tools.

DrBoost wrote: I swear I can use my snap on 1/4 like it's a 3/8 and have no problem. But for the average at home wrench, I think craftsman is great.

Werd. I broke 3 craftsman 1/4" drive ratchets before I got wise and bought the Snap-On (which got stolen with the rest of my tools not six months later). That thing could torque lug nuts if you had the right adapters (this is exageration for dramatic intent, not something I tried).

Interestingly enough, I have yet to break an HF ratchet. I will say that not all HF tools are made equal - the "Pittsburgh Pro" line I like as much as my Craftsman tools (better, considering the price), the cheap nameless crap is... well, cheap nameless crap.

On a tangent, are there any tools made here in the US anymore? I know that's a HUGE part of why HF tools are so cheap. I thought Craftsman used to be, are they still?

I've actually broken two Pittsburgh Pro ratchets. Both were 3/8s. Possible i got a bad run? I was inclined to think so, because i don't think i'm quite strong enough to strip one out using my arms and no cheater bar or anything.

Won't stop me from buying them again in the future, though.

93celicaGT2 wrote: I've actually broken two Pittsburgh Pro ratchets. Both were 3/8s. Possible i got a bad run? I was inclined to think so, because i don't think i'm quite strong enough to strip one out using my arms and no cheater bar or anything. Won't stop me from buying them again in the future, though.

What kind do you have? The only 3/8" ratched I have right now is a PP one with the "comfort grip" angled handle (black rubber/plastic with the dogleg in it). It's been good to me so far, but a sample size of 1 is pretty piss-poor for statistics.

ReverendDexter wrote:

93celicaGT2 wrote: I've actually broken two Pittsburgh Pro ratchets. Both were 3/8s. Possible i got a bad run? I was inclined to think so, because i don't think i'm quite strong enough to strip one out using my arms and no cheater bar or anything. Won't stop me from buying them again in the future, though.

What kind do you have? The only 3/8" ratched I have right now is a PP one with the "comfort grip" angled handle (black rubber/plastic with the dogleg in it). It's been good to me so far, but a sample size of 1 is pretty piss-poor for statistics.

That's exactly the ones that i broke. I also agree that a sample size of 2 is pretty bad as well.

I LOVED them while they worked. Smooth and comfy, but they didn't put up with junkyard escapades too well, and at the time i was a strapping 120lbs, so even with freak status strength for my size, i doubt that i should have been able to strip them.

I was at the mall on Friday night with the 7 year old daughter and I walked her through Sears and stopped in the aisle and told her: "this is as close to heaven (on earth) as you will get".

She thought it was kinda funny. Then she got on a riding lawnmower.

ReverendDexter wrote:

DrBoost wrote: I swear I can use my snap on 1/4 like it's a 3/8 and have no problem. But for the average at home wrench, I think craftsman is great.

Werd. I broke 3 craftsman 1/4" drive ratchets before I got wise and bought the Snap-On (which got stolen with the rest of my tools not six months later). That thing could torque lug nuts if you had the right adapters (this is exageration for dramatic intent, not something I tried).

Yeah, that's what I was saying....