Craftsman tools.

Well, Craftsman hand tools have been going down hill for several years anyway unfortunately. I got a nice set 30+ years ago: 1/2", 3/8" and 1/4" sockets and ratchets as well as combination wrenches and various screw drivers. I've replaced ratchets and some sockets and the new ones are not nearly as well built as the originals. I guess you have to go Matco or Snap-on to get decent quality now-if you can afford them.

John
 
Too bad, seems there other be a market for quality tools that don't quite cost as much as Mac or snap.

I got a decent amount of craftsman tools, the sockets and wrenches (even ratchet ones) and bits are fine, but the 1/4 3/8 1/2 ratchets and god forbid torque wrenches, are complete junk.
 
AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGH!

Craftsman has been going downhill, but they were still decent tools. They certainly weren't the garbage that is Stanley and Black & Decker. There's going to be nothing left in the middle now, is there?

What the hell is Sears thinking? Their name is already mud. No one shops there for much, except for Craftsman tools and the occasional Kenmore major appliance (which is already just a branding, without actual manufacturing). Their last "good" thing is now gone.
 
arnoha said:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGH!

Craftsman has been going downhill, but they were still decent tools. They certainly weren't the garbage that is Stanley and Black & Decker. There's going to be nothing left in the middle now, is there?

What the hell is Sears thinking? Their name is already mud. No one shops there for much, except for Craftsman tools and the occasional Kenmore major appliance (which is already just a branding, without actual manufacturing). Their last "good" thing is now gone.
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Sears-KMart is well into their death spiral. They are selling off assets to get cash to stay afloat. Kenmore is likely to go on the block as well although it's not nearly as well regarded as Craftsman. And Die-Hard, etc.

And yeah, Black and Decker is, and has been for many years, junk. And Stanley as well. I don't know what's in the middle for hand tools any more.

Power tools have a broad range of prices and quality. There are many competitor. Maybe there's something to this free market stuff?

John
 
Sears is finished. Just a slow, agonizing death.
The value today is in the real estate which they spun out into Seritage.
 
Shame as Craftsman was all I ever bought, including power tools. Won't buy Snap or Mac, maybe Lowe's brand, which isn't comparable to Craftsman at all IMO, but not bad. I have a few things of theirs, Kobalt is the name. Maybe Trump will tell Sears to keep Craftsman or he'll kick their arse?
 
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Agreed... the Lowe's brand tools are as good or better than the old Craftsman tools. I bought a set of metric and SAE deep sockets and a flex head ratchet from Lowe's and they are really nice.
 
Tom-D said:
Agreed... the Lowe's brand tools are as good or better than the old Craftsman tools. I bought a set of metric and SAE deep sockets and a flex head ratchet from Lowe's and they are really nice.
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Indeed!

Just bought a 3/8 ratchet from lowes for a quick job, its got a really good shape, feel solid and it's like a 75ish tooth, never used lowes tools before, but so far it's actually a nice little ratchet.
 
I don't think Sears has been playing the game well. Home Depot and Menards is a hellofalot easier to get to in my neck of the woods and I'm likely to buy a lot more stuff while I'm there. I'm not going going to Sear for home improvement stuff but sure can buy tools at the other stores.

I never shopped at Sears for much else.
 
My Craftsman ratchets and sockets are old enough they were still made "back in the day". My brother owns pretty much all MAC, but he's a mechanic and that's way over what I need for fixing my clothes dryer or washing machine every 10 years or so.

edit: A Menard's just opened up near me, haven't been there yet to check it out.
 
Could she worse but who knows, maybe they will find new life with their new owners and become a good brand again.
 
Maybe back in the day Sears was the place where men went to actually enjoy going to the mall. God knows there are very few places in the mall I'd ever go to.
 
bnt83 said:
Maybe back in the day Sears was the place where men went to actually enjoy going to the mall. God knows there are very few places in the mall I'd ever go to.
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This is my thought exactly. There is no place for a man to go at a mall anymore. I don't need skinny jeans or junk jewelry. I am tired of sitting on the bench holding my wife's purse so I just don't go to those places.
 
I still kinda like going to the mall, get a good soft pretzel and sit on a bench and sightsee.

I've seen some Kobalt and Husky tools that are pretty good.
 
I remember when Sears had boats and things in the store. Loved going there as a kid. Loved digging through the catalog. It was amazing how Sears (and Wards) missed the jump from Catalogs to the Internet. Had they strung out their catalog operation just a few more years, they may have become what Amazon became.
 
Sears shares, in Canada, were sold off to a couple of holding companies. They have been going downhill longer than the American arm of the company. Their tools have been junk for 20 years or so, and the tool department is a morgue. High prices and low quality. The store is mostly ladies' wear and jewelry and makeup and the men's clothing can be compared to the stuff at WalMart at a quarter of the price. The board of Sears was told some years ago to study WalMart and figure out how to compete with them. Haven't made any progress that way at all other than to degrade the quality.
 
For practical purposes Sears has ben run by K-mart for the last decade. K-Mart directors have a substantial majority on the holding company board that controls both brands. They also still own 51% of Sears Canada. They've been trying to spin out the profitable brands: Kenmore, Craftsman, and DieHard while bankrupting the rest of the B&M operation.
 
We hear anecdotes about the demise of all sorts of real-world physical activity, from golf to being outside, etc. I'm curious if there are similar declines in people buying and using tools?? What is happening to demand for new 'pro-sumer' tools like Craftsman used to be 30 years ago?
 
Sears is sometimes used when discussing marketing strategies.

I think the idea is to know your market. In the case of Sears - Men. Hardware. Tools. Work Clothes. Basic women's clothing. That sort of thing.

A decision was made to "soften" or "widen" the appeal. Think "The Softer Side Of Sears"...

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In trying to be all things to all people you can lose what made you great in the first place.

When I was involved with Gold's Gym I argued against a similar "softening", to no avail.
 
flyingron said:
I remember when Sears had boats and things in the store. Loved going there as a kid. Loved digging through the catalog. It was amazing how Sears (and Wards) missed the jump from Catalogs to the Internet. Had they strung out their catalog operation just a few more years, they may have become what Amazon became.
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well.....when there is a lack of vision....the people perish. :confused:
 
G-Man said:
What is happening to demand for new 'pro-sumer' tools like Craftsman used to be 30 years ago?
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There is much less "wrenching" on cars and toys today than there was 30 years ago and with Kobalt and Husky making a name for themselves as "good enough" in the marketplace...couple that with the disposable consumer goods model of late for both the products and tools, there is much less desire or demand for high quality tools today.

Then factor in places like Harbor Freight tools. Yeah, a lot is crap but how bad can you mess up a screwdriver or a box wrench vs paying a premium for SnapOn for the average consumer?

I'm still ticked that Dewalt sold out to Black and Decker years ago and ruined that brand!
 
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Wrenchability comes and go. For a while you couldn't do a lot of things on the cars absent having the computer stuff to talk to it. Now I can get third-party BlueTooth ODBC units and other software packages. GM is also notoriously bad at giving access to service information outside their internal subscriptions.

Of course, on my Volt, even though I have the service manual, there's a lot of it you just can't do. I did manage to install the cabin air filter. What I am amazed at is how much stuff is available on YouTube video. Perplexed as to how to get the tail lights open on my wife's Audi, there was a video. Wanting to pair a new remote entry to my Toyota truck, yep there's a video for that.
My major tool set is a Craftsman set my wife bought me back when we bought the Navion. It is not my favorite. I have a much nicer set that says "Channellock" on it though I have no idea what asian factory probably built the stuff. The nice thing is the tools are black with the prominent sizes in white on them. Handing trying to differentiate 10 from 11mm and the like.
 
My Craftsman stuff was all bought in the mid-80's to '92 or so. Almost of it is pretty good quality, and has held up perfectly after 30 years of use. The question now is where to go for new needed pieces?
 
Bill Jennings said:
My Craftsman stuff was all bought in the mid-80's to '92 or so. Almost of it is pretty good quality, and has held up perfectly after 30 years of use. The question now is where to go for new needed pieces?
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You can still get them at Sears and they still honor the lifetime warranty, sort of. They keep a stock of rebuilt ratchets in the back and they replace your broken one with a rebuilt rather than new. Sockets they replace with new.

That said, if you're going to buy new, it depends on your tolerance. I've got a few Kobalt tools but no sockets or ratchets. They seem fine. I've got some Pittsburgh stuff (Harbor Freight) that I bought on the assumption that they were 1 use. So far I'm ahead because I've still got them. ;)

Or, you could rob a bank and go Snap-On.

John
 
flyingron said:
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What I am amazed at is how much stuff is available on YouTube video. Perplexed as to how to get the tail lights open on my wife's Audi, there was a video. Wanting to pair a new remote entry to my Toyota truck, yep there's a video for that.
...
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back in the day when my kids learned to drive, then were on a mission to kill the Saturn they all learned on. Everything you ever needed to fix was on a youtube channel, up to and including an engine swap (which the youngest one helped on after the middle one said he was tired of the Saturn).
 
hey....if you're gonna be grinding on your tools....you surely wouldn't want Snap-On. :D
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
harbor freight makes pretty good tools.....:stirpot:
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But they certainly have their place. In my company we use diagonal side cutting pliers on a daily basis and keep them in all our tool bags and work boxes which is like 15 separate locations that they are on the pack list. I stooped buying "nice" ones and now go with the $3.00 Harbor Fright version for as often as as they get lost, stolen or broken...plus I can whale on them with a hammer for a heaver job when I don't have the "right" tool and not care. If I have to replace them 4 times I am still ahead of the game vs buying high end. Disposable tools...and they work.

Now, my PERSONAL tool kit where no one touches but me...I will plunk down the money for a good set of Klein and take care of them.
 
Bear in mind that Kmart purchased Sears immediately after exiting bankruptcy; Kmart had no viable post-bankruptcy plan (they weren't worth a hoot before they file bankruptcy either), and they emerged with a massive volume of tax loss carryforwards, which, of course, are useless unless you have taxes against which to apply them. A loss-making company like Kmart was not likely to realize much value from that.

By buying Sears, they were then able to sell off all of the real estate owned by Sears (Sears was a very asset-rich company, and they owned most of the dirt under their stores), paying no capital gains on the sales because the tax loss carryforwards were used to offset the gains.

Since that time, Kmart has been systematically destroying what remained of a very honorable company, Sears Roebuck and Company.

Tom-D said:
Agreed... the Lowe's brand tools are as good or better than the old Craftsman tools. I bought a set of metric and SAE deep sockets and a flex head ratchet from Lowe's and they are really nice.
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I have some very nice tools that I bought from Lowe's (Kobalt brand), but they were from when those tools were still made in the USA. The ones they sell now are, just like the tool you buy at Harbor Freight, made in China. They seem to be a pretty decent quality, but I cannot tolerate purchasing long-term-used tools which were made in China. Just can't do it.
 
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btw...selling the Craftsman tool brand to Stanley, Black & Decker is the death spiral for Sears Holdings.
 
One of the guys I worked with was sent to the hardware store (Westlake Ace) to get some kind of wire cutters. He came back and tried to cut whatever hardened wire he was trying to cut, and ended up with a notch in the cutters and not even a nick on the wire. His boss yelled at him, "How many times do I have to tell you not to get China-made tools?"
 
flyingron said:
...

I have a much nicer set that says "Channellock" on it though I have no idea what asian factory probably built the stuff. The nice thing is the tools are black with the prominent sizes in white on them. Handing trying to differentiate 10 from 11mm and the like.
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ChannelLock - Made in USA

https://www.channellock.com/factory-tour.aspx

Except that if you look closely:

https://www.channellock.com/product.aspx?zpid=1080

Says "made in Taiwan"

Edit:

It looks like they clearly label on their website what's made in USA and what isn't. A lot of their wrenches and pliers are made in USA, but it looks like none of their ratchet/socket sets are.
 
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Best pliers and small hand tools you can buy are Kleins, and most are still made in USA.
 
Yeah, they don't even list the tools I have. I bought them at Costco years ago and I don't have any illusion that they were made in the US or even by the same people who make the pliers.
 
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