I'm almost positive that HF's Quinn brand (mid level) is rebranded Kobalt. As someone who has both, they are identical from the exterior dimensions, country of origin, red and blue markings for metric and standard, and font. If they were from different factories I'd be shocked. And none of them have ever broken on me.
So your thinking a lifetime warranty might be only one or two days, maybe a week. At my age you never know.
I think you’ll get a new contract you just can’t take your tools with ya. I have quite a few tools from my grandfather Blackhawk, Boney etc, he p***ed in 1974 and these tools were not new then, I still use them. Dan
you got a point there, I hope and pray I get there. I have tools that were p***ed down to me and will do the same with them and the ones Ive collected over time. I have 2 sons and started giving them tools for Christmas around 25 or 30 years ago. They both liked craftsman, was easy too, cause sears was always one of my shopping stops.
The new snap-on tools can't hold a candle to the old mostly made in there Chinese factory and my dealer hates to warranty his tools. The best for warranty is Matco and Mac Cornwell gets a bit testy time to time.
F#$%..... what industry do you need to buy $200k worth of tools to start in? NASA sent a man to the moon with less tooling than that. I started my son out in his mechanic's apprenticeship four years ago (he graduated last week... made me damn proud). I bought Sidchrome hand tools, the same as his grandfather started out with. A roller box and top box, perhaps 2/3 the size of that Matco one. A couple of Milwaukee ***ault-ratchets and batteries as apparently no-one uses a normal ratchet anymore. I probably have US$4,000 in it. Cheers, Harv
It doesn't matter what country tools are manufactured in, it boils down to what the company that sells the tools has for specifications that the tools are manufactured to. I'm old enough to remember the phrase "Japanese junk" for what was produced after WWII because that was what the companies wanted to sell things at LOW PRICES so that's what they made, cheap products! Now products made in Japan are high quality because they are competing with the best, not just trying to sell things at low prices. China is as capable of manufacturing high quality products as anyone else if people will pay for it!
Sears with the Craftsman line was the best bang for the buck. My 1st set was the gray box one for under $50 and came with a lot of stuff. I bailed on Craftsman when they stopped replacing busted ratchets. Any tools bought since we're mainly garage sale and from swap meets. We had a deal with Gear Wrench at work, IIRC we got a 20% discount on them. So these were my last big-ish tool buy. If I need an odd tool or so, I'll hit up HF. The Pittsburgh line is not bad. I needed a big combination wrench recently, picked up a used Proto on eBay.
Williams is owned by Snap-On. When Gearwrench first came out I bought two sets at a show for $10 a set. One metric and one Imperial. I am still using them nearly 40 years later. I have yet to break one. You can't buy one wrench for that price now. Back about 1980 I installed a snow plow on a Chevy pickup. I lost a brand new MAC 7/16" combination wrench, never did find it. In the rearly 90s I bought several Chevy from that truck owners brother, one of which was the one I put the plow on. I stripped them for parts, and when I pulled the engine from that pickup I found the 7/16" wrench stuck in the grease under the oil pan. I still have it.
In the mid 2000s I worked for a startup Sprint Cup NASCAR team. I was a part/QC guy so I didn't have a ton of tools but this story is about one of the mechanics. He was young and his tools mostly consisted of gear wrench alongside of other "mid-range" tools. The rest of the guys in the final ***embly shop had m***ive collections of snap-on, Mac, etc. They gave him unending **** for the 4 years I was there. It never bugged him and he never broke to peer pressure, at least I never saw him in line for the tool trucks.. He did the same job as everyone else, and was still happily trucking along when I left.
I used to get my craftsman 3/8 ratchet repaired/replaced every few years...I finally bought a new snap on a little over 20 years ago, it's been working fine ever since. But most of the snap ons I have now were found used real cheap. They're nice wrenches, compared to the cheap **** I usually use.
I have mostly Harbor Freight at work. A little Gear wrench, Tekton and S&K sprinkled in. Little bit of old Craftsman too. The main thing is that my tools are 100% paid for, and they make me lots of money. Harbor Freight kind of took over where Sears left off. New craftsmen is HF quality without the easy exchanges
The lack of warranty auditing of Craftsman dealers after craftsman finally left sears is why I finally made the switch to snap on. Worst case scenario with snap on where you get a ****head dealer all you have to do is contact snap on direct with the pn and they'll send an equivalent replacement. And usually not require the old one sent in. And no way id buy that overpriced icon trash. Every one of those junky tools I've seen or touched enforced there'll never be an icon brand anything in my possession.....if I happen to buy an ***ortment of tools and there's anything icon it'll go in the trash before I get in the car. And at icons price you can buy the real snap on equivalent used for usually under half the icon brand thats spend the majority of existence under m*** recalls
I bought an Icon ratchet on the 40% off deal. Don’t use it. Have a Pittsburgh composite that’s better, and I have Icon torx which are garbage. Where Icon shines is the wrenches which are identical to some Matco wrenches
I know matco actually makes very little of their products anymore. Likely same exact wrench. Yeah if you're going to use hf Pittsburgh and us general is the way to go
Yup. The Icon wrenches, Gear Wrench and Matco are manufactured by Kabo tools out of Taiwan. difference is price. Pittsburgh Pro and Quinn are also taiwanese. I really like Quinn sockets
thanks Matt next time Im at that store I'll check it out. I have snapon, mac, craftsman tools I paid lots of money for when I was gainfully employed. these days because Im retireded when I need tools I check HF spend less money cause dont know how long Im gonna be using tools, plus the thought what if I wake up some morning and dont have a clue what they are. if that happens I probably wont know what moneys for either.
Some of my tools were bought in 1965 (Craftsman to repair my first car), still in use. I never made my living doing mechanical repairs. Never made "big money", found myself patching up used cars and buying "handyman special" used homes. I bought lots of inexpensive tools over the years (many sourced from the swap meet tool tent) - still have and use most of them. Special use tools, such as a Stant radiator pressure tester eventually pay for themselves in saved time (and not sending repairs out). I only use my Harbor Freight transmission jack every few years. The first one developed a slow leak after 15 years - the total cost was less than one name brand - and I bought it on a Sunday morning - because I needed it now! I'm 80 years old - I expect my Harbor Freight tools to last me for a "lifetime". Russ
Danaher which made some Mac and Proto tools along with all of Stanley and Craftsmen. They were manufactured in M*** I think. The venture split in 2012 or so and I’m not sure where it’s all made now. New Craftsmen is Taiwanese I think
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