They are far from junk. Their warranty is excellent. No questions asked if you have a part from them and its bad, they'll replace it. I have yet to find a problem. As akk these guys have said, why dont you bring them in on warranty and see if they will (most likely) replace them. If they do, you get brand new tools for nothing, if not, your in the same spot your in now. Lifetime warranty means LIFETIME warranty. Why spend money on another brand?

 

Yeah, they still hate that!Especially when the vice president of the entire Automotive group comes to visit and sees that. I am usually off that day, my manager doesn't want me to talk to him, just in case he asks why!

 

i use craftsman tools and i think they are great, havn't really had any problems with them. I have broken a few ratchets but i took them back to sears and they just handed me new ones no questions asked. I also have lots of snap on tools and they are great but the price of snap on is even higher than craftsman, not to mention that i have to order the snap on parts online.

 

...I look at Craftsman wrench and ask; does this provide a good value for the price? The fit and finish seem average at best....

OK so they warranty everything - so what if it doesn't fit in tight spaces, it is not polished and the chrome sucks...

Just my opinion...

 

what he said but i use Matco and Snap-On.

 

i work at sears in hardware and we ask NO questions when returning a tool. you get a brand new one no matter what

mike

 

Why are Craftsmutt hand wrenches so primitive?

They are not polished, they are really thick around the twelve points so they are hard to get into tight places, and the chrome is poor quality.

OK so their sockets are nice but the ratchets are big and clunky too.

I just don;t see the value here???

 

I think a big thing with their size is they are a consumer level product, that really does do the job. And if something happens, you return it. They are cheaper than snapon or matco. If they made a nice sleak ratchet or wrench that could get everywhere you wanted to put it, it would brake easier, and then you'de go replace it right? The more tools they replace, the less money they make, the more they have to charge. Snap-on if you need the perfect tool for the job, and can afford it, craftsman if time isn't your #1 issue. You can always find a way to make the wrench fit, especially when you can buy 2 new ones for the price of the "good" one.

 

With the impact socket thing, its not as much about breaking them as it is about the non-hardened sockets flexing and not doing the job of breaking the bolt loose as well.

 

Really - a non-hardened socket will flex so the bolt does not break loose? ...that is interesting....

 

Just have to revive this one a bit! ( I love this topic!) My first tool set was a Craftmsman set. Dad and I went and got it the day before I started working for him. I have not one singel one of them left and not due to breakage, but due to them being pilfered into my fathers tool box!!!! He's got that great big Mac box that a family of 5 could live in. BUt it is FILLED with Craftsman tools. I MEAN FILLED! Now the cost alone to have what he has from Snap-on, Matco or Mac would have bought a few houses a few times over. (WHat that box alone was over $20,000.00????)

Price alone is enough but, the quality is there too. I have had my Snap-on tools and loved them for "status" reasons. Lost two ratcets a few screw drivers and pliers and I was out what my whole Craftsman set cost me! I just used my Craftmans tools to break down that LS1. I broke two breaker bars on the crank bolt. One was a cheak auto parts store emergency one I bought a few years ago, the other was a Mac. If it's going to break, it's going to break. I rolled into Sears with a rusty tool and broken screwdirver and 30 seconds later was back to work. I had a rusty Snap-on socket and broken wrench, waited a week for him to show, he was sick that day so he came in early the following week, On my day off.... And since he was there once that week, he skipped our usual day... WTF was I supposed to do!?!?! Then when he shows up. No replacement on the socket, it was so bad I couldn't even use it, and the wrench.... "WHat the heck did you do to that?" "I have a new one but nothing in the used box so let me see what I can do." "Used box?!?!" Sears gives me a brand new on each time. I can break the same on today, tomorrow and the next day and take it back over and over again!

I wish I had the money for "some" of the Snap-on tools though. They a re jsut a little better design. Then Sears is getting better. I love the bolters on the new screw drivers. I was using Snap-on only because they had that feature.

Gosh I love my Craftmsn tools!

 

I worked for Caterpillar building diesels for several years. I've got snap along, mac, matco, proto, and crapsmans. In my experience, the craftsmans broke much more often and wore out pretty quickly. Just too much hassle for professional work so I stopped using them at work. For home use they are good enough, and I keep a basic set in the car/truck.

My personal favorite is the Proto professional tools by Stanley/Proto. They are by far the strongest tools I've used. Mac's are my second choice for the pretty stuff and they are pretty stout too. Snap alongs are realy nice but quite a bit more expensive than the others. Their ratchets are the **** though, so I own a set of them.

If I could do it all over again I'd buy mostly Proto's with a few specific snap-on and Mac items, and keep a basic Craftsman set to carry in the car and truck.

 

Really! I have some Sears tools and I avoid them and use Popular Mechanics, Stanley, Span-On and Mac tools every time I get a chance....

What I don't like, beside the fact they are WAY overpriced, is that they are bulky and can't reach into tight places, most are not polished and the finish is poor.

 

Then stop buying the ones on sale. You get what you pay for.

 

Snap On sockets...Bonney hand wrenches, klein pliers/cutters/screwdrivers, Kennedy box, some craftsman stuff smattered in. (Mainly inspection mirrors, extensions, stuff like that.)

 

I have two craftsmutt tork wrenches, and some 30 year-old sockets and wrenches, a new 30 gallon air compressor and a new bottom 5 drawer chest... EVERTHING else is popular mechanics, Stanley, Snap-in-Half, and Mac, JCW, Harbor Freight...

Some of the HF and JCW stuff is real Chinese junk - use once and toss, but all the other stuff is better quality than Sears....

Some of the nicest hand wrenches I have ever seen came from JCW - all polished chrome without thick walls - so far they are holding up well too. Real cheap prices too...I was very surprised...

After seening the quality of this stuff I have concluded that Sears, Snap-N-Half, Mac, and all the other super high-priced tool makers are in for REAL trouble.... they need to move their manufacturing plants to Asia IMEDIATELY or go out of business in a few years time...

 

All I own is Craftmsman, they may not look as nice as Snap-on or Mac but do the job just as well. Only thing I have any complaints about are the screw drivers... The tips don't seem to hold up to well

 

I wonder if the bulky/oversized designs are a result of the fact that these (Craftsman) tools are planned for the non-professional market. You know, the folks who use a 1/2 inch ratchet as a hammer because it is nearby, or the person who would put a piece of pipe over a box wrench to increase the torque. I know none of us would do that, but someone might! They (Sears)have to protect themselves from lawsuits from the Darwin Award runners up. Interesting comment regarding moving to Asia. I wonder what the U.S. will do when all of our manufacturers move out of the country to save money and get better quality( speaking from experience, that is certainly not always the case) and a large portion of the U.S. consumer base is out of work? Good prices, but no customers. Can you use food stamps to buy tools? Seriously though, the design tends to reflect the requirements and I think that Craftsman tools are trying to be everything for everbody and we know how that works.

 

Well, I thought someone might bring that point up.

Actually, the US workforce is primarily a service based workforce - this is not new. Manufacturing has moved offsore for the last 40 years. Our workers retrain and enter into non-manufacturing jobs.... the unemployment rate is low here - about 4%.

The economic theory is that capital will flow to its most effecient use. If Asains are willing to work for the US equivalent of $1 per day in manufacturing jobs and they meet their needs than a US-based manufacturor cannot stay in business if it pays US workers $20 per hour.

The world economies have all benefited from globalization.

In the mean time, I'll keep on buying Asain tools for cheap and hope the Asians buy US services... both economies will prosper and my tool boxes will be full...

 

I love my Craftsman tools. Which I don't have the regular old off the shelf craftsmans I have the polished wrenches and ratches. As far as sockets go............. all sockets are about the same. Other stuff like torque wrenchs and stuff I leave to MAC(I get the low low prices on them) or Snap On.