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Is Craftsman comming back?


Flatie46

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22 hours ago, TodFitch said:

Back in my youth I worked for a while on the factory floor of an aerospace firm. I remember there was an assembly where the design engineer had not left enough room for a socket to get on a bolt head in a recess of a casting. And being in a recess, only a socket could be used. The manufacturing "fix" was to take a normal socket and grind the outside down enough to fit into the recess. It turned out that the only brand socket they could do that with was Snap On. It was the only one with good enough steel that you could grind away most of the material and still be strong enough to get the nut properly torqued. All the other brand sockets would break on first use after being abused like that. Fortunately there was a Snap On warehouse not too far away too.

Not sure what the relative quality is of the high end tools are today, but back then Snap On was definitely top of the heap.

The only SnapOn tool I ever purchased new was an air hammer bit to cut sheet metal, the type with a tooth in the center that would peel a narrow strip out as you cut.  It was handy because you could do pretty tight curves, too.  The first one I had was a Craftsman, and after I hit a floor cross member by accident a couple of times, it was a goner.  Then I bought the SnapOn one, and I also went through a few of those, until the SnapOn guy wouldn't honor the warranty anymore, and gave me a used one from someone else that was worn so much that it wouldn't cut decent.

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I've always thought Craftsman sockets were of reasonable quality.  I have busted a couple but they were being asked to do more than they were designed for I'm sure. I liked the older fine toothed ratchets, ( mid 80's and older ) didn't care for the coarse toothed ratchets with the big head.  The screwdrivers were ok for electrical work the very fine point and long shaft but there were many times I wished the blades to be a bit thicker. I've got some Easco wrenches that I really like, I think they made wrenches for craftsman in the 80's.

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On 11/15/2017 at 3:26 PM, Plymouthy Adams said:

I am living the life, lucky if a UPS trucks finds me.  Matter of fact hopin g for parts deliverly this evening.  As for broken tooks, hand wrenching busted a MAC wrench on a bicycle pedal, broke a Snap-On right behind it...used them so not to break one of my Craftmans set, used the Craftsman and off it came.....you gonna have a broken tool sooner or later regardless of the system you buy into.  The Snap on showed a fault in forging on the broken piece.  My son knows the Snap-On jobber but it has not been replaced yet by him.  It is not how close or how far away, it is a GEORGIA thang...!!!

I'm having a hard time thinking you live farther out in BFE than I do but maybe you do. There's nothing bigger than 30k within a couple of hours of here and there's only one of those. I'm not complaining.... 

I've never broken a socket or end wrench of any kind but wore some out when I was wrenching professionally.. Never had any MAC wrenches but I do have a MAC impact and a few sets of their impact sockets. Never used them much, though.

In the early '80's I co-signed on a tool loan for a guy who was working for me. He eventually went to work at a Freightliner shop and his health gave out in the late '90s. He sold me 2 chests full of tools for a little bit of nothing shortly before he passed away. He had a real variety of stuff, mostly Snap-On but some Blue Point, MAC, Williams, and a bunch of 3/4 and 1 inch drive stuff. Since I'm just hobby wrenching nowadays I'll never run out of tools. I still buy from the Snap-On guy once in a while, though. Guess it makes me feel like I'm still a real mechanic... :)

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2 hours ago, MackTheFinger said:

I'm having a hard time thinking you live farther out in BFE than I do but maybe you do. 

In this neck of the woods it is not so much out of the metro area as it is the metro area is also somewhat repressed and the competition is very lacking  in most business arenas.  Add on top of that if you will, many of the business adventures that are in the area are hand me down family type where the mindset is that by Tuesday 2PM they have met their financial goal to pay the bills for the week, they close the doors and go hunting fishing or whatever happens to be redneck thing for the month till Monday next business week...and in the smaller communities, this spills over the local government offices  (county/city) where if it is a bit slow and the fish are biting, they will close early also...especially on a Friday.  Got to start that weekend early....

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On 11/18/2017 at 12:58 PM, Plymouthy Adams said:

In this neck of the woods it is not so much out of the metro area as it is the metro area is also somewhat repressed and the competition is very lacking  in most business arenas.  Add on top of that if you will, many of the business adventures that are in the area are hand me down family type where the mindset is that by Tuesday 2PM they have met their financial goal to pay the bills for the week, they close the doors and go hunting fishing or whatever happens to be redneck thing for the month till Monday next business week...and in the smaller communities, this spills over the local government offices  (county/city) where if it is a bit slow and the fish are biting, they will close early also...especially on a Friday.  Got to start that weekend early....

I'm familiar with that. I had a guy working for me once who thought we should quit at noon on Friday unless we were working Saturday. And deer season, like right now?? Don't even think about getting anything done, nobody's help will show up.. On the plus side, at least when I had employees; you could actually find people who would work. It was getting to the point that if it couldn't be done in a climate controlled environment nobody wanted a job..

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  • 2 years later...

I inherited Some craftsman tools and recently broke a 3/4” breaker bar. The warranty is still good but Lowe’s does not stock 3/4” tools (nor would they order it for me) I had to contact the craftsman warranty dept. whom insisted I sign up on “shop you way.com”. Who in return, gives you “points “ to pLace a new order  and then charge you shipping.....
after communicating with 3 operators via phone and 4 via email over a 30 day period. I finally received my replacement last night! 
14879BB8-CF1A-4878-BD7F-7F7FBB0115F2.jpeg.8a1c6b05b908baef21593868fb2b6e06.jpeg

 

In my opinion this experience was a hassle and crappy customer service but, I am glad it is over (this time)


Weird thing, they didn’t want the defective tool back ?

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They didn't even ask for a picture of the 4 foot cheater bar you used on the old one?  ?

Very poor customer service for sure!

 

DJ

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17 minutes ago, Brent B3B said:

Weird thing, they didn’t want the defective tool back ?

 

 

Odd, but with the cost of doing business with them responsible for shipping of the old item under warranty...they probably think it best to eat that cost...PROBLEM.....what happens when you give it to the next person....this could get costly for the maker......lol

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On 3/12/2020 at 2:29 PM, Brent B3B said:

I inherited Some craftsman tools and recently broke a 3/4” breaker bar

How does the new one look compared to the broken unit? I listened to a podcast recently where a Craftsman brand rep was interviewed. He talked about how they are bringing manufacturing back to the US for a lot of the products. I've for a couple broken pieces myself that I need to warranty eventually

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Looks good Ed, on this particular tool, the old one had a spring tension ball bearing that acted as a position stop for the “socket holder” (like the one, on the socket holder). The new tool doesn’t offer that but, the socket holder on the new tool looks removable (Allen wrench set screw) not sure the advantage of the removable holder.... never twisted or broke that part before

image.jpg.f56d784928e4a631ec9f7ef0d908ca21.jpg

on your tools, if Lowe’s has them on the shelf I was told they will swap you for new. So get them swapped out ?

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I have some sockets and ratchets I bought at age 14 so back in 62 63 from Montgomery Wards.  I bought a Power Craft mechanics set from J C Penny in 71 or so and inherited quite a bit of Craftsman from My father.  There was also a set of Proto box end wrenches in with his stuff.  One of the Craftsman had inch drive ratchets requires to swap the square drive from one side to the other to change tighten to loosen.

Looking on line it seems that penncraft were made by either new British or SK.

Edited by greg g
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1 hour ago, greg g said:

I have some sockets and ratchets I bought at age 14 so back in 62 63 from Montgomery Wards.  I bought a Power Craft mechanics set from J C Penny in 71 or so and inherited quite a bit of Craftsman from My father.  There was also a set of Proto box end wrenches in with his stuff.  One of the Craftsman had inch drive ratchets requires to swap the square drive from one side to the other to change tighten to loosen.

Looking on line it seems that penncraft were made by either new British or SK.

 

A bunch of my sockets and open end wrenches are still the PennCraft set I was given when I acquired my old car back in 1973. Still working just fine and are usually the tools I grab first though they've been supplemented by tools from other vendors.

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13 hours ago, Brent B3B said:

 

 

on your tools, if Lowe’s has them on the shelf I was told they will swap you for new. So get them swapped out ?

 

IME, that is only true if the broken tool has the same part number as the one on the shelf. 

 

Must be exact, no replacing a ratchet for example with another unless it has the same PN.  I had a defective 1/4" ratchet, from Sears local store, best version available at the time.  Lowes had 1/4" in a couple of versions, different PN.  Emailed Craftsman, got a reply from the DeWalt customer service desk, (another Stanley-Blank and decker company), they sent me a new ratchet, top of the current product line.

 

On the other hand, I had a Craftsman torque wrench ratchet head fail.  Precision tools are only warranted for one year.  Tried sears anyway since my contention is that the ratchet head is not part of the 'precision', just another ratchet.  Turned me away.  This was a couple of years ago when we still had a nearby store.  When Ace started handling them, I took it in to check.  Got a new one, no questions asked.

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2 hours ago, greg g said:

I have some sockets and ratchets I bought at age 14 so back in 62 63 from Montgomery Wards.  I bought a Power Craft mechanics set from J C Penny in 71 or so and inherited quite a bit of Craftsman from My father.  There was also a set of Proto box end wrenches in with his stuff.  One of the Craftsman had inch drive ratchets requires to swap the square drive from one side to the other to change tighten to loosen.

Looking on line it seems that penncraft were made by either new British or SK.

 

I also have some MW and Penncraft stuff.  Both were lifetime warranty.  Of course Penny's stopped selling tools long ago.  About 3 years ago, my old 1/2" drive ratchet finely broke a tooth.  I emailed Penny's customer service expecting nothing.  Reply told me to purchase a comparable replacement, take the receipt, old tool and the email to my local Penny's store.  Did so and got a cash refund with no issues. 

 

My old MW combination open/box wrenches are still my favorites.

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1 hour ago, kencombs said:

 

I also have some MW and Penncraft stuff.  Both were lifetime warranty.  Of course Penny's stopped selling tools long ago.  About 3 years ago, my old 1/2" drive ratchet finely broke a tooth.  I emailed Penny's customer service expecting nothing.  Reply told me to purchase a comparable replacement, take the receipt, old tool and the email to my local Penny's store.  Did so and got a cash refund with no issues. 

 

My old MW combination open/box wrenches are still my favorites.

12 minutes ago, greg g said:

That is an unexpected positive response in this day and age.

 

 

Definitely unexpected and positive. Makes me want to see what Penny's is selling nowadays and shop there if they have stuff I need or want. Seems like that would be a way to reward good behavior.

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I had to exchange a few tools here before the local Sears all disappeared. I have to say that the exchange was painless but I am disappointed in both some of the quality and several design changes that make the tool harder to use.  My ones from 1969 are still my favorites though.

I was using one of the replacement 1/4 drive ratchets yesterday and was reminded of the poor quality.  Ratchet wobbled and skipped several times while doing a simple job.  A lot like the tools the local tool merchant used to sell out of his garage. Except those were cheap to buy and long term use was not expected unlike Craftsman which of course were supposed to last for lift.

Edited by plymouthcranbrook
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Stanley Black & Decker acquired Craftsman Tools from Sears/Kmart in 2017. Now they can sell them anywhere. I see them at Ace, but it's a limited selection.

Stanley Black and Decker owns Dewalt, Irwin, Craftsman, Mac Tools, Porter Cable, Bostitch, Proto, and several others.

Edited by Merle Coggins
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Craftsmen used to be my favorite brand. Quality, lifetime guarantee and at a decent price. I didn't have any problems with them for years, never had to return a tool. Then I bought a pair of lineman's pliers, half the jaw broke off first use. Got a set of 3 vise grips, all 3 would pop open if I just bumped them, worst vise grips I've ever owned. Got a 25' tape measure. Took it back 3 times to get another. That was at an Ace Hardware store, 3rd time he had a box of them by the cash register. Just took mine and gave me one from the box.  Still not sure what that was about. When the third one failed I fixed it myself.

I still use Craftsmen tools but in my opinion they have gone down in quality.

 

I bought a 1/4" Stanley Professional ratchet set from a pawn shop, came in a little red metal box and stated Made in USA. I have used that set religiously for the last 20 years or so. I have no complaints. Now I see the Stanley Professional series is Made in China, you can see them in Wally world. Haven't tried it yet and don't intend to.

 

I once found an SK breaker bar lying on the highway. Driving along and saw it off to the side so I stopped and picked it up. I used that breaker bar for years and even with the occasional cheater bar it never even wiggled. Turned out to be the best breaker bar I ever owned. I used it on my 39 P8. So I bought a 3/8" SK ratchet set. That was about 15 years ago I guess and I still have the complete set today. Not one piece has broken.

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