Craftsman Tools

no experience with Craftsman lately, about 14 yrs ago Sears ticked me off and I have not been in one since. I own Snap On, Mac, Cornwell, Matco, and some of most other brands. I have found Kobalt, made by Lowes, to be a nice product at a reasonable price. Probably will do everything you need to as a homeowner.

I also have no experience with craftsman I'm a retired Auto Mech and have owned and used many different makes of tools
Mac,Snap On ,Gray and some off brands . There are not many parts to a ratchet and Snap On does not replace them
They are overhauled by the dealer in his Truck. I have an ratchet that belonged to my father in Law who was also a Heavy duty
Mech. It is Snap On and needed repairs The dealer repaired it free of charge and the new parts were the same as the ones
he removed from a 50 year old unit no difference at all. So a rebuilt unit from Craftsman should be the same as a new one
I do not see a problem

I had good results with Lowes honoring the Kobalt tool guarantee.

I would say normally not a problem, but I have not been impressed with the quality of Craftsman for a while now so that may weigh on your decision. I was always going into Sears because something was always breaking.

+1 for the Lowes Kobalt tool guarentee. The ones around here you have to return the tool and then re-purchase, but otherwise hassle free. Even returned a Kobalt pick-ax that the handle broke in half without any fuss.

I really like the SK branded wrenches/sockets/wratchets. I'm not too worried about the slightly more hassle required to replace a broken one because they don't break often.

Craftsman has been doing the used ratchet on exchange thing here since at least the mid-1990's. Didn't bother me much, since their ratchets were garbage, even new.

I've always been a big fan of 1960's vintage Proto gear, although I have no experience with the modern Stanley-owned Proto. Back in the day, Proto was to west-coast mechanics what Snap-On is to east-coast mechanics. Proto ratchets are a little bulky compared to the modern Craftsman junk, but you can use one as a mechanic's hammer and a ratchet, all at the same time.

I've also got grandpop's and great-grandpop's vintage Plumb brand and Gray Tools brand socket sets. Heavy stuff, and cool to look at, but I don't find much use for it.

What's interesting, Bart... is the few Craftsman tools I have were all bought back when they were advertising free replacement with a NEW tool, should you break the one you bought. It's a little surprising they haven't seen a class-action suit for changing their terms post-sale / breach of contract. We've all been solicited for many class action suits for much less offensive corporate decisions.

I've been surprised with Kobalt value. Snap On is amazing quality, but you pay for it. My dad left us several sets of Snap On when he passed that he started collecting in the 50's

I replaced a 1/4" drive Craftsmen ratchet last fall and from what I could tell it was a brand new but still crappy ratchet. Their only decent ratchet is the fine tooth polished one. Unless I find a killer deal at Sears, I've started buying all my tools at Lowe's. So far I haven't broken any of the Kobalt tools so I can't speak to ease of replacing them, but the initial quality is much higher than where Craftsman is at now.

I stopped going to Sears after a negative experience at a Sears Automotive, but I never held the Craftsman line in high regard anyway. I do have a 1/2" breaker bar from NAPA and I snapped the square connector end off of it. I brought it back with no receipt and asked if they had a lifetime warranty on all of their tools. They said yes and gave me a new one.

I also have a Harbor Freight chain wrench (because no one else carried one) which has held up surprisingly well.

I've got a mix of older Craftsman stuff, Kobalt and Husky. I'll agree the newer Craftsman stuff is crap, Kobalt is getting better, the warranty is great the socket set I have at work I've broken a few sockets and they've replaced them no questions and the new sockets are much heavier than the older ones. Husky I've been impressed with, never had to return anything to them and it gets abused as bad as the Kobalt sockets I've broken.

All the new tools I've bought for work have been Proto they're very well made, moderately priced and we purchase through Grainger so the warranty should be hassle free.

Sears and Craftsman just keep going down hill. I tried to exchange a 3/8" ratchet wrench at a Sears Hometown store. They refused. Told me I need to go to a regular Sears. He didn't want to break up a set. Customer service anyone? The next time I was near a Sears (30 miles away) they exchanged without any issue. The new wrench was so much thinner it won't stay it the original plastic holder I have mounted above my workbench. The old one snapped in firmly.

I agree about Sears going down hill. Back in 2001 when I graduated high school and my parents asked what I wanted for a gift, I responded that I wanted the largest Craftsman tool set I could get for the money they were giving me. At the time it seemed like a great decision because I figured Sears would always be around. Now I'm not too sure. There used to be a Sears Hardware 10 minutes from me that shut down a year ago. I used to go there all the time since they had such a great selection of odd hardware pieces. Now I'm stuck with Lowe's or HD, and it's much more of a crapshoot.

Hi, The last few Craftsman tool I've had to return, were replaced with noncraftsman tools. So there goes the warranty!

Richard

Has Craftsman tool quality gotten worse over the last 40 years, or has the competition raised the bar? I have scattered tool boxes of Craftsman tools. But a few years a ago I needed at the weekend place a new complete set of sockets, etc. I didn't shop the competition, but at Sears the bigger the set, the better the deal. $200 or so I got a few hundred piece set in a 3 drawer organized tool box. Now I can find any socket US/ metric 1/4 3/8 1/2 drives, standard and deep, 6pint 12 point. Very nice. Decent quality, I'm not breaking.

I still have my craftsman tool set I bought back in 1990. Probably a 350 pc set, lost one ratchet, never broke anything, still use it probably weekly.

I grew up mowing with my grandfather's craftsman mower, then our family bought a craftsman mower (1988), it's still working perfectly. I bought my own craftsman push mower in 2009, it's still running but parts fall off it, the metal is 1/2 as thick as the older ones, if it goes another couple years I'd be surprised. Definitely the last craftsman mower or anything power from then I'll buy.
I understand they have it made for them by anyone one of a few manufacturer's and just put their name on it but the level of quality just isn't there, especially for the price.

Craftsman quality has been suffering for sure. The newer ratchets are more bulky, but break more easily. I've seen some online comparisons to the same effect on their sockets.

I was just about to post about one of my favorite tool brands (I love their bright-polished long-arm combo wrenches), when a quick Google search told me they've closed their doors!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Britain_Machine_Company

On a very loosely related (okay, not really) note, their first product was a chainsaw mortising machine.

My Dad still has a lot of 60s and 70s vintage Crafstman hand tools that work good as new. The last Craftsman stuff I bought where some ratcheting box wrenches a few years ago that have been fine so far - but I obviously dont use them as heavily as a professional shop will.

I wont touch harbor freight hand tools unless its an odd specialy tool thats going to be a one off and toss. Ive had too many bad experiences with even mid grade tools stripping fasteners (especially small size hex drivers etc) or having screwdrivers bend that lately Im leaning toward the higher end brands. Too many crappy tools I bought in my 20s Im now buying again that I wished I had bought quality to start.

Actually, nut drivers is one thing where I've always bought Craftsman. Clear handles for imperial sizing, gray handles for metric, with the same color coding (black, red, yellow, green...) for sizing, excepting the insertion of a putrid peach color in the metric set (somewhere around 7mm).

I work on pickups skidders,dozers, log trucks, garbage trucks and everything in between. I are 6'5" , 308lbs and can honestly say in my 25 years wrenchin' and working on heavy duty stuff I have only broke a handful of craftsman tools. If you break Craftsman tools on a regular basis you ain't livin right !