Technical Whats the best handtools for the money?

Craftsmen still any good? or What about kobalt?
I looked at kobalt at lowes and I saw some very good reviews on here, in a old post from 2007, but I read somewhere else that in around 2011 snap on quite making kobalt, are they still any good or???
What is the best brand of tool thats affordable?

 

At times I've found good deals on craigslist.Pawn shops got too pricy.

 

Craftsman used to be the cat;'s pajamas but they are now largely outsourced to "the dark side".
S-K was a great mid priced tool but not sure where they come from today.
You can buy mint, used tools at swap meet and take pride in their quality.
Asian tools today have great fit & finish but it's the materials that can be very suspect.

 

Craftsman is mostly made overseas today but they still have their lifetime warranty. S-K has recently started making tools again in the states and are a good solid tool brand. I buy a lot of my stuff used at garage sales and swap meets however.

 

My son has Kobalt tools and they seem to be of good quality.

 

I'm still using the old Husky tools I bought when I was 15 years old and I've bought a lot of Craftsman tools in my lifetime,my feelings about the Craftsman tools is the free replacement warranty.

When I was growing up Snap-On was the tools were the mechanics choice.

Any tools that do the job at hand are the right tools for the job. HRP

 

Craftsman is your best bet. While some of those tools are now "Made in the Orients" they still have the lifetime warranty and they have a large selection of tools to choose from. Husky, Kobalt, SK , tool selection is limited (Sears sells SK tools) And on the low end of the Totem Pole, there's Harbor Fright (pun intended). I have a few hand tools from there and they are pretty good. Plus they have a warranty like Craftsman tools.

 

Lately I've been more into used tools, than new ones. Kind of like with cars, you know.

 

I have tools that I bought when I was a teenager and they still work great, mostly Craftsman or Proto. Quality on all brands have changed over the years and some brands have better specialty tools than others. I have never been a fan of Snapon because of the finish. They are smooth and shiny but hard to hold when oily. Always buy quality and you will not be disappointed. Try not to use tools for things they were not made for and when you do and ruin it, keep the remains and someday you will need it to make a special tool for another application. I have a whole collection.

 

Used American tools from garage sales, antique stores, swap meets, estate sales, tool truck trade-ins, hock shops, etc. Currently using a Deseret Industries thrift store $3.00 C-P 734 air wrench that'll twist 1/2'' bolts off.

 

If you're buying current new from most common outlets on a budget, then your choices are limited. As much as I dislike Craftsman, they're probably still the best bang-for-the-buck. If you're willing to shop CL or eBay for good used, discontinued or overstock, then there's a wider range. Williams, Proto, Challenger, Industro, P&C to name a few of the lesser-known high-quality brands that can be found. Now with some of these, they're no longer in production so any warranty is moot, but my experience is that good tools rarely break. Most of these are 'industrial' rather than mechanic or 'consumer' tools. I went to all-Proto (except for some 'specialty' tools) about 15 years ago, and can count the number of broken Proto tools on the fingers of one hand (and all but one was broken from abuse). Careful shopping on eBay got me these for the same or less than what new Craftsman was going for. While free replacement is fine, that doesn't take into consideration the lost time or possible injury when a tool fails.

And I'm with Aaggie; Snapon (or any fully-polished tool) is beautiful to look at, but have oily hands and they'll hurt you....

 

Craftsman is still my choice, possibly out of habit. I have been buying used/older ones and even off eBay. The last couple rachets I traded in at Sears had plastic directional levers.. Not probably gonna last a "lifetime".

I used to like the rebuild kit so I could keep my old familiar handles. All my tools get a quick spritz with Chevy orange engine paint so I can spot them and know which are mine (also a different color for metrics).

Reminds me I need to shop for some more tools.


Posted using the uh, er, whatever. Who cares app

 

I always wanted to own a set of Snap On tools, but with me it was a Champagne taste with a beer budget. My choice was Craftsman. I've bought two complete sets, and added to the second with some other brand name stuff, mostly Cobalt (when they were making a transition I bought a whole gob of deep well sockets for a song), and Snap-On. My first set of Craftsman tools was stolen when I lived in Echo Park back in the seventies/eighties by Mexicans who also stole my 3ton floor jack. I moved to Pasadena and that stopped. I moved back South, later, and restored a few Snap-On boxes and ended up with a Road Box for which I built a roll-around lower box out of a large commercial electrical box I sliced and diced and added rollers. I have a reverence for tools because they make things possible you otherwise have to shell out cash for and stand there with your hat in your hand. I did buy a set of Snap-On screwdrivers that I use for assembling stuff, and have another drawer full of odds and sods that come from pawn shops and other places. Craftsman screwdrivers for daily use are hard to beat. One thing I have always avoided is anything made in the Orient, simply because. Power stuff is one at a time. An air wrench from Sears. I like Chicago Pneumatic and Ingersol Rand for other stuff which can be had at Tractor Supply and other places. Brands with weird names like those from Harbor Fright are pretty much shit and I have been suckered once with a butterfly ratchet but decided sucker once shame on them. I wipe my stuff and store it. I have a place for everything and if one socket is missing I do search and rescue, lose sleep and worry myself crazy because of my 'lost sheep'. And, like all I troll the pawn shops; there is not much there, but it's like panning for gold, every once in a while a 'nugget' turns up, like a large cutting torch I found for forty bucks that cuts like a surgical knife. Plus, it's really not the tools so much as the user that gets the job done. I once changed out an engine in a Forty Eight Ford Coupe with a pair of wire pliers, some bailing wire and a screwdriver --- because I wanted to ride.

 

IMHO, the lifetime warranty is all that's keeping Sears in the tool business , and I've still had them try to refuse to replace a few broken things --they must think we just hang the tools on the wall for decoration! Many of their tool designs are bulky and unusable in many applications, compared to the major tool brands designs. I've been a auto tech for many years and most of my tools are MAC, Sears , Matco and Brand X . I rarely buy from Snap-on any more, unless it a design no one else makes. I've broken just as many Snap-on tools as the others and because their prices are just too high. I don't buy tools to look beautiful--I just want them to work! The best buys you'll ever get are at swap meets and yard sales , and in recent years I've bought more from the FLAPS because they are close, the quality is decent, and they haven't refused to replace a broken tool yet. I have a 40 year old Marflow brand air hammer that everybody in the shop borrows because it has more power than their new ones.

 

Craftsman come in more then one grade, you want the professional grade.

 

That's true, on the low end is the "Evolv" brand that Sears offer.

 

Craftsman tool warranty and trade in is a good deal although when I've had to exchange a tool the quality is a little poorer (thinner, some plastic for small parts) compared to the tools I bought in 1980. I have bought some Ace Professional tools on sale cause they are close by and exchanged tools with their lifetime warranty with no problem and they have held up well.

 

I have a lot of old Snap-On stuff but the new stuff is too much $$$$ (and hype)-with the advent of the Ratchet Wrench I am becoming a BIG GearWrench lover (have 6 sets)-as crazy as it sounds I also have some Pittsburgh (Horrible Freight) ones that are really pretty good (fine tooth count and don't "feel" bad)-I've yet to break one-
I also have a bunch of old S-K stuff that I like, but I believe the Kobalt stuff isn't bad either-

 

I bought one of those multi-piece tool kits (Metric and SAE with carry case) by Channel-Lock at a Sam's Club for about $60 about 15 years ago. 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" drives, shallow and deep sockets, open/box wrenches, torx bits, allen keys, etc, etc. I bought it mainly for the metrics and to keep it in the trunk of the car for road trips. The quality is great and that box gets more use than all my grandpa's good old tools combined.

 

I still own my first sockets and socket ratchet wrench set, THORSON. My dad gave the set to me for my 14th birthday in the very early 60's.
The 1/2" and 9/16th 12pt. Shallow sockets are fairly worn down on their insides but still usable. The other sockets, extensions and ratchet perform as new
My other tools, 3 boxes and 3 roller cabinets are S-K, Craftsmen and lately some HF stuff.
I don't own any SnapOn tools. Beyond my budget.
I'm a hobbyist, not a full time wrench.
I love all my tools.

 

Joey
I still have a 3/8 drive craftsman ratchet that I bought in the '60s. It has been rebuilt several times, I quit rebuilding it with parts from sears in the 90s when they decided that I had to trade it in on a new one. I did go to a few old close outs and bought up metal mandrels etc for it. I have a couple of newer ones but they are just not the same

 

Yuppers, it used to be that you could go into pawn shops and buy single wrenches and sockets out of bins for pocket change after they had dumped them out of too boxes they took in and emptied out. Now days they want new price for any wrench worth buying.
I've had great luck buying older quality tools at yard sales and If you hit a gal's divorce sale early you can sometimes hit the jackpot on tools. I hit one sale like that where they had small wrenches for .50 each and bigger ones for 1.00 and 2.00 each and another guy who got there the same time as I did says " lets go one for you and one for me until we get what we both want and we each got a good handful of nice name brand wrenches.
If you find Snap0On, Mac, Cornwell or Matco tools at yard sales for a friendly price buy them on the spot as they are pro tools. Older Craftsman, Proto and some of the other name brands are ok but a lot of the older tools are real bulky and clumsy.

Remember that most professional tools off a tool truck and Most Craftsman tools have a lifetime warranty and if you find a broken one at a yard sale or the flea market you can clean it up and take it in to the store or catch the tool truck at one of it's stops and get a replacement.

Best bang for the buck on new tools is Sears Craftsman on sale in kits without any toolbox. Those XX piece kits come on sale about this time of year every year and you are just paying for a cardbox full of tools and not paying for a tool box you probably will never use.

I've got a Kobalt 1/4 drive kit that I picked up on a half price sale one day that tends to go everywhere with me lately. I took it on my sailboat last summer and I've packed it to the wrecking yard in the bucket I carry tools to the wrecking yard in. Good feel to the ratchet and the sockets work good. I have a few of their other tools that I bought on a close out when they closed the old store here and opened the new store and decided it cost less to give steep discounts on stuff in the old store than ship it all back to the warehouse, restock it and ship it out again.

Still, buy the hand tools that while having decent quality feel good in your hands. I've got some really nice wrenches in my box that are good and previously namedby others in the thread brands that never get taken out of the box because I don't like the feel of them or the heads on the wrenches are just too big and bulky to use the way I want to use them.

 

I have some proto wrenchs that I really like. but I also have a set of stanley sockets that I have used for over 20 years. I found organization is the key to keeping your sockets. pay the extra money for the socket rails. It will make them easier to find, and easier to see when something is missing.

 

Keep in mind that not every tool vendor has equal quality across all tools, so buying all-inclusive 'sets' is rarely the best choice. For 'specialty' tools, buying name-brand can be the best choice. Slip-joint pipe pliers, only Channelock makes the really good ones. Locking clamps AKA Vice-grips, same thing. Best screwdrivers I've found for tip longevity are the ones made by Klein (found at some 'Depot' stores or electrical supply houses), with the out-of-production yellow-handled Protos running a close second. A lot of these tools have proprietary designs or are patented, the 'imitations' just don't work as well.

 

As long as it says "Lifetime Warranty" and comes from a reputable source that will stand behind their product it's ok in my book. I have lots of craftsman stuff I started buying as a teenager, some Kobalt, some stanley, some random whatever brand the big box auto parts store sells. I'm not afraid to take things back and I'm anal about keeping recepts and the part of the packaging that says "lifetime warranty" in file at the shop. I also have an old mac ratchet I found in a car one time--I like it