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Yesterday I was in Sears wasting some time, and I found a set of tamper proof torx sockets on sale. I have been needing to pick up a set, and since its not something I use everyday I am fine with getting Craftsman and saving some serous money over a set off of the tool truck. When I got them home and opened up the package my initial reaction was wow, these sure aren’t as heavy as my Snap on torx, which is to be expected because they are about 1/8 the price. No biggie i thought but then in print so fine I almost had to squint to see it I read MADE IN CHINA! Really?? Now admittedly almost of my tools are Snap on, or Matco as I view craftsman to be more of a DIY tool than for professional use, SoI don’t know how long they have been doing this but if you are in the market for any craftsman tools you may want to keep this in mind as I am sure the Quality of the tools will suffer as it seems the company is riding on the name.
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Craftsman should always be inspected for country of origin get USA made only from them. Anything else is not worth the steel meltdown price.
Thats what I was afraid of, I had no idea. All of my old stuff was USA made. ohh well I guess you live and learn.
Get what you need off the tool truck. Don’t bother with ChinaCraftsman. If you are seeking something cheap, just go full bore cheap and go to Harbor Freight, at least that way you will get a good price.
I bought a US made Craftsman wrench a year ago last September. At Christmas that same year they were all China.
As a DIYer, I can’t justify buying the tool truck stuff. So, I have become pretty good at finding a balance between quality and price. Before they started being produced in China, Craftsman Professional tools were a good balance between cost and quality. I have a Craftsman Pro set of combo wrenches and they are great. Now the Craftsman Professional line is made in China and aren’t even close to the same quality as the old stuff.
Another brand that balances cost and quality is GearWrench. Yeah, they’re made in Taiwan, but they are much better than Chinese-made Craftsman stuff.
[quote=”matthewross1987″ post=125002]As a DIYer, I can’t justify buying the tool truck stuff. So, I have become pretty good at finding a balance between quality and price. Before they started being produced in China, Craftsman Professional tools were a good balance between cost and quality. I have a Craftsman Pro set of combo wrenches and they are great. Now the Craftsman Professional line is made in China and aren’t even close to the same quality as the old stuff.
Another brand that balances cost and quality is GearWrench. Yeah, they’re made in Taiwan, but they are much better than Chinese-made Craftsman stuff.[/quote] Even tool trucks sell Gearwrench stuff. I’ve got some Gearwrench stuff from the trucks.
[quote=”MDK22″ post=125005]Gearwrench ratcheting wrenches are stronger then Snap-Ons.[/quote] I can attrribute to this ^
I noticed the change in 2010 or 2011. Someone bought a Craftsman socket set for our lab to replace the drawer of random sockets. While trying to loosen something, neither the SAE or metric socket fit the nut correctly, so I measured the 2 socket openings with a caliper. Either the 2 sockets had the same forging with a different stamping, or the tolerances were low (not like the difference between 19 mm and 3/4 in).
Ironically, GW and Craftsman are made in different countries while both brands are owned by the same parent company.
I think Crapsman sockets and the Gatorgrip socket have the same tolerances. No, I do not own a Gatorgrip socket, but watched the videos. Why even bother with individual sizes, gatorgrip gets em all, so I am told.. LOL.
[quote=”MDK22″ post=125005]Gearwrench ratcheting wrenches are stronger then Snap-Ons.[/quote]
I own the metric set of 0 degree offset extra long double box end ratcheting wrenches from GearWrench and they are fantastic. One side is solid and the other is a ratcheting mechanism. They are my favorite wrenches by far.
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