Had an Uncle that worked for Sears and Roebuck for over 30 years. Was an appliance repair man. 99% of my tools are Craftsman... have had most of them since I was a teenager. I've lost count to the number of warranty screwdrivers and 1/4 ratchets. (Side note: When I was a kid... I thought all boots were suppose to say DieHard on the soles! LOL)
Mine are stamped "K Mart Auto" and underneath it says "Japan". I'm sure they were before the Benchtop line. My short 3/8" sockets are "Fleet" brand that came in a set from a farm store for my 15th or 16th birthday. These are on the rack above my bench that are used the most. I have others in my toolbox that are Craftsman and Proto sets.
When I was young, I wanted to be a mechanic like Dad. I asked for “tools” for Christmas. I got a set of no-name imperial wrenches, drop-forged, likely made in Taiwan. Those wrenches pulled apart and refitted pushbikes, my first cars, my house, my kids cars and anything else that has been threaded in the last 40 years. They are not ergonomic. I’ve hit the end of a few of them with hammers. I’ve lost the 1/2”AF one, and re-found it, multiple times. I’ve jammed knuckles, smacked my forehead and dropped them into places that only a magnet can reach many times. Sometimez el-cheapo tools let you down. This set is like a close friend. I bought my kids quality tools, but sometimes wonder. cheers, Harv
When I bought my bike shop in 1976, I also bought the shop tools, a motley assortment of no-name, Craftsman, German and Indian ( Gedore) hand tools, plus a lot of bicycle specific tools. At home, I have no metric, at the bike shop, I only have a couple of 1/2 and 9/16, and only use them occasionally, even though we do some vintage stuff, too. We have beat the living shit out of these tools for over 48 years so far, with one failure. Wonder if modern HF stuff would hold up as well as old, probably cheap stuff? Wonder who made the no-name German stuff?
no good reason, but damn a Snap On tool looks and feels so nice! Of course the modern chinese stuff also has got a decent finish, so that reason is gone. But it's still a nice feeling to be using old name brand tools. I have some old Snap On stuff that just is a pleasure to use. Finding them is also a fun adventure.
My dad gave me a set of duro chrome end wrenches and a 1/2 socket set, didnt have a ratchet but had a short breaker bar and 6" extension. sockets and wrenches were sized from 7/16 to 1 inch. I was 14 I and still have them. I bought a Craftsman 300 piece set for my tools at work because they were reasonably priced, they had a life time warranty and I had a sears charge card, over time I added mac and snapon because of the specialty tools I needed, also craftsman at the time didnt have much in the way of large size wrenches and sockets . I still have all the craftsman from the first set, only had a couple of warranty returns. Found out early if you dont use your screwdrivers for pry bars and 3' cheaters on end wrenches and 1/2 inch ratchets they usually dont break.
My first combo wrench set from when I was a young boy is an old (made in India) Gedore set. I still have it although I no longer really use them. I'm just sort of attached to them in a way that only guys like you would understand. Which leads me to this. My tools, like yours, have meaning to me. I'm getting older. I have no sons, my daughters are unattached, my nephews don't know a screwdriver from a head of lettuce. I have a fairly massive set of tools accumulated over the years. What the heck do I do with them when I'm gone? Who do I leave them to? Silly as this sounds, this eats at me.
I used to buy Craftsmen tools and etched my name in them to make sure I got them back if lent out. I got lazy and changed my name to Stanley.
1962 date on dad's Wards torque wrench. Remember Sears Best? Still using the Digitork he bought me when I was a teen. Also my Craftsboy 3/8 twist style.
that's the one that sucks...the nut gets loose, losing calibration. And the plastic lock ring likes to crack.
I also have sons who would poke their eye out with a screwdriver if you let them use one. I also wonder who I'm going to give my tools too. At this stage I think I'll go to my local mechanic and if he has an apprentice give him my tools. Tell him to come around and take it all, or none, not negotiable. He can replace what he want or use them. A mixed variety and strangely for an Australian, quite a collecting of Craftsman tools that are around 35 years old.
A guy I went to HS with has a scrap metal business. One year he wound up with a barrel of broken Craftsmen screw drivers. He handed them out as Christmas presents. Another buddy that worked construction found a rusty Snapon 3/8 ratchet buried in a ditch, it was seized up. He stuck it in another buddy's 6 inch Wilton vise and pulled on it with a length of pipe to strip it and get it replaced. He wound up breaking the vise.
I learned long time ago that Craftsman tools were the best affordable tools available. I was always using my dad’s tools as a kid to fix my bikes, lawn mowers and anything else. He mainly had Craftsman tools and a variety of Proto, S-K and other old brands. He also had some metric wrenches that were stamped Mercedes Benz which came in handy to work on my first Honda motorcycle that I got in the early 70’s. I was gifted a set of SAE and metric sockets not long after from a well intentioned family member. They were some cheap generic crap that was made in Taiwan. Most of them broke after a single use. I would swear in some made up Taiwanese sounding words as I would throw those broken tools down our street. That was my first exposure to substandard Asian tools and swore to avoid buying any in the future. At the time I had never broken a Craftsman tool and I committed to only buying that brand. Over the next nearly 50 years I did buy other brands but always made sure they were US made. I did end up with some cheap tools in my toolboxes but they were left behind by friends or by inadvertently borrowing them and forgetting to return them.
This will be my next 1/2 drive torque wrench https://www.menards.com/main/tools/...nch/67283/p-1524810580749-c-1538157527058.htm $89.97 and lifetime warranty Dan
I was looking at the Masterforce tools at Menards several years back and bought a set of U.S. made combination wrenches. I think everything is imported now. Gary
I’m sure the Masterforce is foreign made, Tekton is another lower cost option an American company with some stuff made here. Proto, Snap On, Mac , S-K, Matco are American made but of course much more expensive. I have an older Snap On 1/4 drive dial torque wrench and love it but I can’t afford a Snap 1/2 drive now that I’m retired. Dan
The issue with this is that a lot has changed in terms of quality in the last 50 years. I don't doubt for a second that there were, and even still are, a lot of poor quality tools that came from overseas. But to lump all of them together as poor quality merely because of their country of origin is patently incorrect. Interestingly, pertaining to your statement, the Taiwanese tools have historically been very nice quality while Chinese tools remained a lower class. Kobalt, Tekton and others, are largely Taiwanese, as are many of the tools from Harbor Freight's Quinn and Icon lines. Craftsman, is a combination of Chinese and Taiwanese now (with very few tools being made in the USA), as well as Husky and many others. The other factor to consider is that USA quality has, sadly, diminished significantly over the years, and buying "USA Made" equipment does not necessarily equate to a higher quality item, though it always seems to come with a higher price tag.
Those Taiwan made tools I had were made in the 70’s. The socket’s rounded themselves on any nut or bolt that was tight. They were very poor grade. The ratchet snapped something internally when I tried to break loose a stubborn bolt with a good socket. I’ve broken too many Chinese and Taiwanese tools to trust them for any automotive work.
If the American Auto Industry is a measure of quality manufacturing, the tools made in America must be made of used banana skins, Sorry your Auto industry sucks. Yes your tools were good once but that was a long time ago. Japan and Taiwan, plus some Chinese tools will outperform US made tools.
I wore out and broke 2 of this style 1/2" drive Digitork wrenches between 1980 and 2000. At that time Craftsman torque wrenches were EXCLUDED from the lifetime warranty program and were limited to a 1 year. The majority of my hand tools are Craftsman but I bought a used Snap-On 1/2" drive torque wrench and it works great. I believe the similarity between today's Craftsman tools and the ones purchased from Sears back in the day ends with the name printed on them.
Bought a full set of Craftsman as a teenager. One of my after school jobs was at Sears, so I got a discount. When I started turning wrenches for a living I went all in on SnapOn. Because that’s what the cool guys used. Went from wrench turner to management to leadership and that loaded up SnapOn roll-a-way sat in my garage. Kinda overkill for my personal Hot-Rod and daily driver maintenance work. Sold the SnapOn stuff to a young who wanted keep up with cool guys. Used the proceeds to replace everything with Kobalt, and put wood floors in my house.
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