Beware when buying Craftsman tools

Yep, most of their stuff sucks anymore. I have mostly Snap-on, and almost all of it has come from swap meets, flea markets, etc... Very little came fresh off the truck to me, I know the tool guys hate it, but you buy what you can afford and I have never had any trouble getting tools warrantied either.

 

Was at a Sears store last summmer and saw a guy with a big box of old rusty craftsman tools must have been over a hundred wrenchs and sockets . He was trading them for new tools under warranty. I said were did you have them in a flood, he said bought them at a yard sale for a few bucks. I told him some were better quality tools then the new one he was getting. They were cheap China Junk!

 

thanks for the FYI sucks that so much is made outside of America . and yes I know its cheaper to make but so is the product most don't last

 

Beware when buying anything.

 

Snap on ----feel the difference..... You can.

 

I recently bought a Lithium Ion mini/drill driver for guitar repair work.....it was only 49.95 and was the perfect size.
trouble is,it only lasted about a week,and locked up.
I had had it over a year,before using it a second time=so it was out of warranty to start with.
I went back and just bought another one like it thinking it was a fluke,plus I liked the size of this tool for the job.
Well.....
the second one lasted less than an hour when it would not be able to adjust the torque rate ring on the tool.....Man!
I took this one back and they replaced it but now I have very little confidence in their tools.
Another tool I had bought from sears was a D/A sander[air]...it would not develop more than half its normal RPM after a day or two of use so it was returned for a cashmoney refund.
needless to say I cannot give any sort of a positive review for Craftsman stuff.

 

Could you please tell us what "line" and where you saw this information?

 

here it goes.....I'm not a professional mechanic and do not work on cars for a living. I started out buying tools from HF so that I could build up some stuff and then had to replace some of that. This has all been over the period of the last 7 yrs. Received a "full set of craftsman" tools and luckily they were made in the USA. Now, I needed some impact sockets and didn't have a lot of change, so I went to lowes and looked at the Kobalt brand...they look nice. Somebody in line there told me about Husky brand tools and that our Home Depot had them on sale. Went over there and they were on sale. Bought a 1/2 drive torque wrench and some impacts. the torque wrench was not made in USA, and sad to say that after my best friend who is a mechanic abused the crap out of it and the dial wouldn't dial anymore,,,,i walked into HD and exchanged it in 10 mins for another one. this will last me because I'm not always wrenching hard like him. I have had a ton of husky brand tools and the only one i had problem with is torque wrench. they have a lifetime guarantee (and they honor it thus far)

 

I bougt a Torque Wrench from Sears back in the 70's it finally gave out, when I went to get a new one they told me it was not a hand tool and therefore NOT covered. WTF? I made a stink and I walked out with.....my old Torque wrench- oh well-

 

Try another Sears....

 

almost same thing with my sears here in West Nashville, TN. Received an impact gun and air ratchet set for Christmas a few years ago. After a few months, the impact gun blew a seal and I took it back to sears for replacement...they told me they couldn't replace it because the impact gun had been part of "a promotion and sears doesn't warranty promotions"....Had a few friends that day making sure I was getting to my truck alright....haha

 

I gave up on Craftsman many moons ago. I still use their sockets, as I got a master set as a Christmas present when I first got in to working on things, but, when I noticed that I could destroy ever their "professional" series 3/8" and 1/4" drive ratchets with just a twist of my wrist I moved on to better things. I still use the sockets, but, anything behind them is usually SK tools or other high quality garage sale finds. I still routinely blow through 3/8" drive 1/2" and 9/16" 6 point shallow sockets, but, they keep replacing them.

I also have one of their 1/2" drive long handled flex head ratchets. Great for lugnuts, but, they wear out fairly often, and it has bloodied a few noses of people who didn't listen to me when I told them not to trust it too much.

 

Blue Point, sold on Snap-on trucks and clearly marked as made in China.

 

There are MANY viable alternatives than paying for the Snap On guys flashy truck that magically disappears once a guy is finally finished paying off the debt that he owes, and the tools start wearing out. I like supporting local businesses, but, not at that mark up on a product that truthfully isn't THAT superior.

I have quite a few Snap On tools, but, they have all found me at garage sales. I won't complain about the quality, as they're damn good tools, just not as good as the price reflects.

 

I have a Craftsman 1/3 H.P. bench grinder, and 1/2" Drill that my Dad bought.... in the early Sixties. All steel, not a piece of plastic, anywhere. We are talking 50 years, and still going strong. Try buying any product, made any place, today, and expecting that kind of service. The old saying that, "They don't make them like they used too!", has been around a long time!

 

Good thing that he's not using one of those "New" Craftsman tools.
.
.

 

To expand on this. Blue point is a private label name used by snap-on. The tools could be from anywhere around the world.

 

well larry except for the smartass part you are dead on...lol i started going to flea markets. estate sales and hock shops or pawn stores. gettin really good deals on AMERICAN made tools.and i mean good deals. snap on 1/2 rachet at a estate sale for 3. bought a 3/8 rachet from a flea market.for 1.00. it was a old craftsman. little rust on it. took it apart cleaned it up and presto ...buckets of sockets and wrenches for 10.00. all or most snap on or craftsman found a few matco...cant beat that.i really wont need tools for the rest of my life but im still buying them.

 

Not to change the subject off of Craftsman but I bought a Japanese cutting saw at HF yesterday for a special task I had and it was clearly marked made in Japan. I pointed it out to the store manager and he said he would let the buyer know. Don't want any of that Japanese stuff in their store. The saw was fantastic.

 

I heard fro someone I trust that some non-Blue Point Snap-On tools are Chinese too.

 

bought a set of craftsman wratcheting metric end wrenches, never even thought to look at where they were made...silly me. Got home and realized they looked funny. Long story short, got on ebay and bought a set that were made in the USA.

 

They're just making shitty tools to match the shitty cars that are being made now.
Wouldn't you rather have a $5 POS chinese tool break before that $10 bolt breaks off? Then you need to buy a $20 bolt extractor that's only made in china and it breaks off needing another $500 of work at a machine shop that still has US made tools that can fix it.

 

ATLANTIC MONTHLY says so!

OK! For those of us who read things:
New issue of ATLANTIC MONTHLY has cover article on "Mr. China Comes to America"
by James Fallows.
He says: "For decades, every trend in manufacturing favored the developing world and worked against the United States. But new tools that greatly speed up development from idea to finished product encourage start-up companies to locate here, not in Asia. Could global trade winds finally be blowing toward America again?"

Good article....

 

I guess I'm not too surprised that vise grips are made in china but I haven't bought a new one in many years. Mine have never broken and haven't had the need to buy anymore. I ended up with a chinese knock off somehow and it broke the only time I used it. It promptly ended up in the garbage with a few choice swear words.

 

My Blue-Point tools are from Sweden...

 

My blue point impact wrench is made in Japan.

 

Thanks for the info, Glad to know.

 

I'll tell you now I have found that Kobalt at Lowes tools have surpassed the quality of craftsman. There are a few things( some ratchets and things) that I prefer even to my professional grade tools.

 

One thing about buying tools at pawn shops which has been mentioned. I had my place broke into one time and a large amount of tools stolen. About a year later i found some of my stuff in a pawn shop. A welder that even had the cart I built for it. The cops told me if I could show proof as in receipts that they could get my stuff back. Well I didnt keep reciepts very well back then so I was out of luck. I keep em now and I dont buy anything from pawn shops anymore. I dont want to buy some other poor guys stuff. I hate theives. Sorry for my OT rant.

 

thats when i saw it was changing i brought in 3 craftsman delux slim head ratchets i bought at a garage sale to trade for a 3pack set to give out as a door prize at one of our partys when i got the 3 pack home i noticed 1 said made in the usa 2 didnt say usa anywhere i talked to my friend who works there and he said slowly all the craftsman stuff will be changed out to the china stuff it wont say china anywhere on the tool just on the packaging,,, this really sucks