Remember when CRAFTSMAN tools were built in AMERICA ?

I'm no tool snob by any stretch, but most all of my hand tools anyways have been Craftsman; I just like the way they fit my mitts (at 250+, you might imagine my hands are sorta large).
That said, the Craftsman stuff I have I've had for a couple decades now, too, so I have no idea what they're like now.
Sort of sad to see what's happened to Sears in general and Craftsman being bought and sold left and right.

We learn a lot of our mechanical habits from our dads oftentimes and I was no exception - except maybe not like you think in my case.
Pop (God rest his soul) always bought the tee-totally cheapest crap tools he could find, a result of growing up dirt poor.
He'd take great joy out of finding one of those $2.99 socket sets at a sale or some such.
Me, I'd wind up the one using one of his cheap assed tools on something, have it slip and skin hell out of a knuckle.
His logic was that if he lost a cheap tool, so what? Got nothing in it anyways...
When I started collecting my own stuff later on, I specifically went in the other direction as a result of those lessons.
Not that Craftsman was ever elite stuff, but I've never had one slip on me and the odd broken ratchet over the years was, quite honestly, broken because I used it "in a manner not inherent to the design".

Last time I walked into a Sears store, about a decade ago, with a broken 1/2 drive ratchet, the fella behind the counter said "man, that thing is OLD! They haven't made that one in years."
I looked at him like "hey, lifetime means lifetime, hoss" and he waves over towards the ratchet display and says "grab whatever one you want."
Damn straight I grabbed the $90 one.

mopar 3 B said:

What you mean crude?

Click to expand...

Crudely shaped, not finely finished. Cheap tools are made by leaving out steps and processes. Compare a old Craftsman to a Mac or Snap on.

[QUOTE

Last time I walked into a Sears store, about a decade ago, with a broken 1/2 drive ratchet, the fella behind the counter said "man, that thing is OLD! They haven't made that one in years."
I looked at him like "hey, lifetime means lifetime, hoss" and he waves over towards the ratchet display and says "grab whatever one you want."
Damn straight I grabbed the $90 one. [/QUOTE]

One of the biggest reasons that top of the line tools cost so much. In my almost 3 decades of being in the tool business I have seen the wording of the warranty change. Lifetime doesn't mean your lifetime or "forever". It means the life of the tool. When it no longer works as designed it's life is over and you need to buy a new tool. You can't make $2 profit on a ratchet 25+ years ago and replace it with a $90 ratchet today. I always said to MAC, if you would drop the lifetime warranty you could sell the tools for half the price. They never listened.

toolmanmike said:

Crudely shaped, not finely finished. Cheap tools are made by leaving out steps and processes. Compare a old Craftsman to a Mac or Snap on.

Click to expand...

That maybe but they have a handle that's not the size of a pencil and dammed uncomfortable to use. They have also held up well over the years.

BeeKool said:

Thats because the Craftsman tools of 50 years ago were a quality tool made with quality components.

I have both S-K & Newer craftsman and theres no comparison the ten year old craftsman ratchets just plain suck. The ratcheting mechanism goes out of the Craftsman resulting in busted knuckles.
I wont even use the craftsman ratchet anymore for mechanical use. It found a permanent residence in the tool box of the manure tractor where it gets used 3 times per year changing shear bolts on a pto shaft.
The sockets seem to be ok still though, but I wont buy Craftsman tools unless its an older one from an estate auction or yard sale.

Click to expand...

Absolutely ! I can't count how many 15mm sockets I've cracked, since I had to go metric. They're not made as well as my original sae tools.

toolmanmike said:

One of the biggest reasons that top of the line tools cost so much. In my almost 3 decades of being in the tool business I have seen the wording of the warranty change. Lifetime doesn't mean your lifetime or "forever". It means the life of the tool. When it no longer works as designed it's life is over and you need to buy a new tool. You can't make $2 profit on a ratchet 25+ years ago and replace it with a $90 ratchet today.

Click to expand...

They did in my case though - and have, every time I've brought a broken one in, never paid a dime for its' replacement.
No idea how it works now, though, since the great sell-off.
Craftsman at Ace Hardware. Craftsman at whatever KMarts are left. Craftsman wherever?
I'm not averse to MAC or Snap-On or whoever, but I've never bought a new one of any of them - it's always been a pickup from someone else (estate sales, flea markets, etc.) at a low price used.
No warranty but hey, I don't have a fortune in them, either.