Which tool brand is best for occasional use?

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Artimas

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Artimas
I'm not a pro and only occasionally will do some mechanical stuff on the plane, car and around the house.
Snap-on, Matco, etc. are just too expensive for a limited weekend warrior.
Of the major tool brands available, like Craftsman, Husky, Kobalt, Harbor Freight:eek:, etc., which do you think is the one to get (best value considering the quality)?
Thanks!
 
Dad and I have noticed a considerable decline in quality in Craftsman over the past few years. Their older stuff is top notch, but the newer stuff - not so much.

Honestly, depending on what specific tool you’re needing, I’d probably go with Harbor Freight.
 
It is remarkable just how much Hazard Fraught tools have improved. In ten years or so, their sockets and ratchets have progressed from utter junk to pretty solid. Good value.

I still don’t care for their combination wrenches, and see better dimensional quality in the Kobalt tools from Lowes.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Craftsman since the Stanley acquisition of the line. Stanley has announced that they are building a new plant to manufacture tools in the US. Watching...

For pliers and the like, I still gravitate to Klein tools - very well made.
 
Truth is pretty much everything from Harbor Freight will do. The only real exception in my experience is wrenches, sockets, and tools that cut like blades, bits, and abrasive wheels. I don't like Kobalt because their grip design hurts my hand. I stick to Craftsman for wrenches and sockets. I try to buy name brand drill bits, saw blades, and cutting wheels. Everything else comes from HF unless I need it in a hurry from the local auto parts store.

I have a couple full sets of wrenches from HB too. They are my sacrificial wrenches that get cut/bent/ground down to fit in tight places.
 
Are you in a rush? If not, hit a couple yard sales. I got a nice, calibrated Craftsman torque wrench for $5, a complete 1/2" drive SAE socket set with breaker bar and speed wrench for $7.50. A whole plastic baggie of various size screwdrivers for a couple bucks, some not even used, with nice bits. Even got a bandsaw...$35. Not name brand, but for the money...
 
I’ve found most Harbor Freight wrenches are not up to being ground for clearance in special uses - the extra “meat” is there to compensate for poor-quality metal.
 
I have old-school Craftsman tools at the house, but I buy Stanley for the hangar. I agree with everyone about Harbor Freight, though, not bad for the price and they'll get most jobs done.
 
Add me to the list of Harbor Freight users. My first tool set was Craftsman but these days HF covers most of my basic tools. Their gear wrench knockoffs were a fraction of the cost of the name brand stuff. They work great, I use them all the time. Also replaced all my ratchet wrenches with HF. Really decent for the price.

I wish they had a decent 3000-5000 rpm air drill for under $100 but they're still a little lacking in that department.
 
Artimas said:
occasionally will do some mechanical stuff on the plane, car and around the house.
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FWIW: In your case, buy a basic mechanic tool set with storage case from Craftsman, Kobalt, or Proto as a core which usually go on sale around xmas. Then accessorize other items you need from Harbor Freight. My work box was mainly Proto with Craftsman/Snap-On/Matco items as needed. Since I retired I consolidated my old work boxes into one portable doghouse box and buy HF when needed.
 
IK04 said:
The Kobalt tools at Lowe's don't suck.
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Agreed. I think the Kobalt brand are the best hand tools available for the price from the box stores right now. They're not Snap On or Mac type quality but pretty darn good.

But, there's nothing wrong with a lot of the Harbor Freight hand tools. I've been wrenching professionally for 20 years and I'd bet people would be surprised how many people make their living with tool boxes full of HF tools.
 
After the army I worked in a diesel truck shop while going to college. I bought lots of Snap On and some Mac, almost all of which I still have. The same tools off the Trucks today would cost as much as a decent GA trainer. There were some good alternatives in those days, that you just don’t find anymore. For the most part, unless you have lots of cash lying around that you want to spend on the tool truck, you’re down to Kobal, Husky and Harbor Freight and the quality is no where close, but it is the practical choice.
 
Biggest thing about HF stuff is the Chinese don't believe in assembly lube. If the HF tool has moving parts, disassemble and lube it before first use and it'll love you long time.
 
My buddy calls Harbor Freight the “Home of approximately sized wrenches”.

Always get their metric and SAE sets. When an SAE Wrench doesn’t quite fit a given SAE bolt, use the nearest metric instead, and vice versa.
 
GearWrench stuff is my current favorite in the bang-for-the-buck category. More expensive than HF and other true budget tools, but nowhere near SnapOn while pretty close in quality. I've got a tap and die set that is GREAT, and ridiculously cheap for the quality.
 
NordicDave said:
My buddy calls Harbor Freight the “Home of approximately sized wrenches”.

Always get their metric and SAE sets. When an SAE Wrench doesn’t quite fit a given SAE bolt, use the nearest metric instead, and vice versa.
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So true, their small wrenches under 3/8 are really bad sometimes.
 
If you're likely to lose it before you break it, might as well buy HF. The "Pittsburgh" stuff has indeed gotten a lot better.

I wish I could find more of it, but I have one set I got at Costco (I think it bears a "Channelock" branding on it) that has very high contrast printing on the sockets for us old guys.
\
 
Except for two makita mini drills I pretty much built my entire plane using HF tools.
 
Craftsman. HF wrenches /sockets are ok and easier to modify on a grinder wheel/torch. Snap On does have great ratcheting tools but not needed for the hobbyist.
 
Geosync said:
Craftsman. HF wrenches /sockets are ok and easier to modify on a grinder wheel/torch. Snap On does have great ratcheting tools but not needed for the hobbyist.
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Don't know. I was trying to fabricate an emergency lowering handle for my elevator. I got a harbor freight "crank" socket handle and a spark plug socket from them. Try as I might, I couldn't drill through the socket. Pretty dang hard (probably brittle as a result). I ended up jbwelding a piece of metal inside (I was going to drill it and put a roll-pin through it).
 
flyingron said:
I couldn't drill through the socket.
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FYI: you need to grind the chrome off first at the hole location then it can be drilled or welded. However, impact sockets can be drilled with no problem.
 
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Bell206 said:
FYI: you need to grind the chrome off first at the hole location then it can be drilled or welded. However, impact sockets can be drilled with no problem.
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I'm pretty sure I was through any surface treatment.
 
After over 25 years of buying tools from Mac, Matco, Snap-On, Sears, HF, WalMart, etc. I found that when you buy a tool, you generally get what you pay for. I hit pawnshops a lot. Good quality tools for a decent price.
 
flyingron said:
I wish I could find more of it, but I have one set I got at Costco (I think it bears a "Channelock" branding on it) that has very high contrast printing on the sockets for us old guys.
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I think the HF stuff is starting to do that now too. Although I don't remember it in the big-box-o-tools I got for the hangar, but it seems to be on the deep well sockets I have at home.

I need to go pick up a small metric set for the electronics side of my home workshop one of these days, walking the 25 feet to the real toolbox is just too far.
 
Still using the SK ratchet set my Dad bought me over 35 years ago.
 
flyingron said:
Don't know. I was trying to fabricate an emergency lowering handle for my elevator. I got a harbor freight "crank" socket handle and a spark plug socket from them. Try as I might, I couldn't drill through the socket. Pretty dang hard (probably brittle as a result). I ended up jbwelding a piece of metal inside (I was going to drill it and put a roll-pin through it).
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Probably an HF drill bit...
 
flyingron said:
I'm pretty sure I was through any surface treatment.
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Interesting. Made dozens of special tools with chromed sockets/wrenches once I learned the chrome trick from an old machinist. It was also the reason I bought mostly Proto or Craftsman as it hurts to cut up a $40 Snap-on wrench to fit in a tight place.
 
But it’s great for repeat sales. ;)

If you work on planes long enough you will have to modify tools. HF is great for that.
Chip Sylverne said:
The dumbest idea I ever saw was Tractor Supply trying to sell camouflage printed tools. I mean WTF? I have a hard enough time trying to find the wrench I just had in my hand a second ago.
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A reasonable plan is to buy Harbor Freight, and anything you use often enough to break or be irritated by the quality, replace that single piece with something expensive like SnapOn.
 
I have nearly all craftsman, but lately I've been switching over to Tekton. They make really nice stuff and I love their no skip socket sets.

While not made in america they are engineered here.
 
hamer said:
I have nearly all craftsman, but lately I've been switching over to Tekton. They make really nice stuff and I love their no skip socket sets.

While not made in america they are engineered here.
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Look good but I don't like the idea of the radiused corners in their hand sockets. How do you make a six point socket less likely to slip by removing metal?
Plus their impact sockets, likely made for heavier duty use, do NOT have radiused corners. Hmm...
 
Snap, Mac or old craftsman, cheap tool are too much of a pain to justify the savings.

You can often score some good tool deals on Craigslist.
 
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