Craftsman/China

Wrong

 

Kobalt is a marketing name owned by Lowe's... they don't do the manufacturing.

Well, if we wanna split hairs, you'd be both right and wrong.. the formal name for Taiwan is the Republic of China, as opposed to the Peoples Republic of China, and, as both governments adhere to a 'one China' policy, both claim to be the sole legitimate entity to what's known as 'China'.

As for me, brand is really dependent on the use... for a wrench that won't see the kind of heavy usage my Mac ones will, I have various brands... Tactix, Craftsman, Tekton, Sunex, Eagle, etc. How much I'm willing to spend on a tool really depends on how intensely it's going to be used.

 

You're telling me that Craftsman and Snap On are similarly priced? Craftsman is like 1/2 the price of Snap On. Well it is here anyways. In all honesty I've broken WAY more Snap On tools than I have Craftsman or Mastercraft. As far as I know, Snap On wrenches and Mastercraft wrenches are the same apart from the engraved name. Stanley does own Mac and I believe Mac and Matco were tied together in the early days (Mac Allied Tool Company = MATCO)



I bought 2 sets of cheap Chinese wrenches (1-3/8" to 2" and 32mm to 50mm) for $100 a set and I've beat the crap out of them (double wrenched, sniped, hanmered) and after 6 years they're still doing the job lol.

 

Im saying they are relatively close in price for a lot better quality. If i drive 30 minutes each way to sears, plus the time i waste getting into the store and back out cause it's at the freaking mall of all places, i can get a single normal wrench for 10 to 15 bucks. Or i can call the snap on guy and he drops it off on his way home that night for 15 to 20 dollars. So about a third more. 5 to ten bucks isn't worth blowing the 2 to 3 hours going to the mall will cost me. Plus, if my wife figures out that's where i need to go, it will turn into the better part of a day and several hundred dollars.

Now if i was building a tool set from scratch, id probably order one of the big tool sets from sears online, cause that 30 percent price difference would add up real quick. But I'm not. My set was built two decades ago. Today I'm just replacing a socket here and a wrench there that got misplaced or lost. And occasionally purchasing something more specialized that is only stocked by the tool trucks or found online. Detroit injector height tools for example, just not gonna find that at sears.

 

LMAO

 

I have 2 sets of Pittsburgh 1/2 inch, black anodized, deep well impact sockets from Harbor Freight that were dirt cheap but I haven't broke them yet.
I got them 15 to 20 years ago too, maybe they suck now.

 

Just thought of something in the value vs quality topic. Ratchets. The cheaper ones have bigger gears so it requires more room to swivel the handle to get to the next tooth. Most of the time this doesn't matter but in tight places it can make the ratchet useless. And while you would think bigger gears make them stronger, it's been my experience that the reverse is true. I've broken teeth in several craftsman and lesser quality ratchets, but not my higher end ones. Tho i have broken the handles off them. Amazingly enough the snap on guy exchanged my ratchet even after i told him i had a four foot pipe on it.

 

Again I seem to have the opposite experience. My fine tooth Snap On ratchet has been rebuilt 3 times in 2 years whereas my cheap Craftsman ones are still going after 8 years. Although I love how slim the Snap On ratchet is in comparison and the fine teeth are great in tight spots so I'll deal with it lol.

 

It's funny how we can have opposite experiences with the same product. Makes me wonder what we do differently to get different results. Example of what i mean: Any one that works on equipment abuses the heck out of them. Are we unconsciously grabbing a different brand of tool when going into a situation we know we will be using it beyond its intended purpose? I'm a cheapskate, so maybe I'm grabbing the cheaper tools when i figure I'll have to put a pipe on the ratchet or get out my torque multiplier.

 

You gotta remember, @NorthernMechanic makes his living with his tools, you don't.