I recently bought an old Proto roller toolbox at an auction and the quality seems to be very good. Does anyone have any opinions about the hand tools they make? I did a quick search and they still claim to be made in the USA.
I'd put the older ones above a Craftsman in quality. Haven't seen any new. Used to be a bunch around here before the mills closed up. Devin
Proto is good. At least all the ones I have used I have always been impressed by the quality. Very durable
We still puchase vast amounts of Proto for our Maintenance and Operations teams. Excellent quality, still made in the USA. I can't remember actually having to replace any Proto tools due to damage, and we're pretty rough on 'em!
when i worked municipal and had a grainger account, proto was the go-to brand. quality tools, lifetime warranty, inexpensive.
I bought myself a big set of Craftsman's about a year or so thinking that they would be the same quality as my Dad's Craftsman set. Now that a year's gone by I'm not impressed to say the least. Wish I had bought Proto's judging by the the comments here.
If you look around at swap meets, you can find a fair amount of Proto tools. Most average Joes don't know they are really good tools, so you get them cheap. Same goes for Williams tools. I buy all I can find. Buying new would be pretty pricey, I would guess. The Craftsman will do well in the interim, but its nice to have tools that don't break.
I have some that I've had for over 35 years. Seems the biggest hazard is losing the damn things. Very nice.
I have found exactly two brands of wrenches that do not flex on the open ends. Snap on is one, and Proto is the other.
Proto is good stuff, sometine called Challenger as well . Seems it is found more in warehouse and industrial places than automotive . I have some that has held up well and would buy it if it was readily availible to me and I dind't already have 3 of everything, I've destroyed plenty of snap on stuff so I never understood why people get their panties in a wad about how great they are plus the vendors REALLy do not want to warrenty it .
back when we had mom and pop parts stores around we use to be able to buy proto tools from them and they were damm good tools. i still have a few that i use. they are hard to find where i'm located.
isn't blackhawk a proto brand? i have a fender protector somewhere that says blackhawk/proto. I know blackhawk went to crap, I think there is a regular line and a pro line , I believe the pro line is made by them. MSC industrial supply carried proto last time I checked, pricey, but you get what you pay for.
i have proto wrenches at work. i like them. i also have williams on my truck, they are good too.i have my big set of craftsman that i made money with for years. also so throw in some s-k. the only problem i have with craftsman are the ratchets. the ball that holds the socket on keeps breaking.
i still have 2 proto rachets I bought in 1966 and a bunch of wrenches they were skinny and didn't feel as nice in your hand as Snap-on and the only sockets that broke were the ones we use to adjust Chrysler torsion bars but that is because we used a breaker bar and a 6' pipe to free them I lost a lot of the over the years. Good tools but haven't seen any in years better than Mac
hahahahahaha, have you priced proto tools ? proto is top notch and very reliable strong tools, china made crap has nothing on proto. I also, like an earlier post said, I also would place proto above snap-on and craftsman.
Ignorant. If you cared to actually learn anything, you'd know that Plomb tools developed the combination open/ box end wrench that we all know today. They changed their name to Proto because of a copyright lawsuit in 1948. Superb quality still used in massive numbers to this day. Go to an oil patch and that's what you'll find the guys using, and they use them hard.
Minor correction guys, Plumb is still in business, the make hammers etc. Plomb is the company that became Proto after they lost a lawsuit brought against them by Plumb. There is a website called Alloy Artifacts that has a lot of great American tool history.
as well as Facom, Virax, and HD's Husky (rumors of MAC as well). I think Facom owns S-K which would then pretty much mean that Stanley owns them to some extent. They used to make Craftsman too up into the mid 90s.. Snap-On makes Kobalt (Lowes) but they are not made on the same line as Snap-On or even Blue Point (their other line). There are only 3 or so big players in professional tools and they make the bulk of the good stuff that goes and gets re-labled to your favorite chrome friends. These tool companies change hands constantly, its better to look at the too than the brand. Alloy steel versus vanadium, machine finishes, tolerances, etc. My tools aren't brand specific but certain things are. My sockets and ratchets are Snap-On, wrenches are Proto and all the other misc are combinations of everybody else.
MSC carries Proto tools and they have a decent sale going on them once in a while. I'm on their mailing list, otherwise never see a sale on them online or even in their showroom, go figure. Bob
I don't know where Proto tools are made now, or who owns the name. All I know is this: My tools say "Proto-Los Angeles".
Plomb, name changed to Proto, are very well made, the older the better, like most things made today....
Here's some Plomb info: http://positiveapeindex.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/greatest-hits-plomb-crazy/ Plomb and Proto hand tools are excellent quality, and the Plomb stuff, made in L.A. and contracted to make tools for the military during WWII, has excellent traditional hot rod credentials.
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