which brand are good? and cheap?

 

Craftsman...when you break them they exchange them for free.

 

Yea, craftsmen tools rock. you dont have to wait for a stinkin' truck to show up to get new tools, just drive to the nearest SEARS. plus, now in the holiday season they have purdy lil' girls working there, thats a bonus!

 

I wouldn't buy craftsman sockets they are junk I don't know how many of them I broke. My dad bought a set we used them in our shop repairing our equipment pretty much every socket broke we ended up turfing them trying to get sears to replace them was a big pain in the azz.

My own socket set I bought Westward they have been through h*ll and back used on repairing dump trucks etc. I never broke a Westward socket yet in the close to 10 years I have had a 1/2 and 3/8s drive set.

The only Craftsman tools I own is the older style combination wrenches with the raised panel. The new thin style wrenches bend they are cheap POS.

Like I said Craftsman sockets a PURE JUNK the ratchets are junk too pulled the guts out of 1/2 drives. The Westwards I have had cheater pipes on the 1/2 drive never broke one.

 

Unless the quality of Craftsman has changed drastically over the last 10 years I feel comfortable recommending them for average use. I've owned a Craftsman 6-point set for about ten years and have never broken a socket. The only problem I've had is that the little direction selector switch fell off my 1/2 inch ratchet. I had it replaced with a new one, no questions asked. I've used cheater bars numerous times on the tools and have never broken one. There is a little rust on a few of the sockets, but they've been worked hard and led a tough life. All in all I've been very happy with that $150 purchase I made when I was 17.

 

The quality of craftsman tools isn't that good I'am not the only one that has broken many of their sockets. Like I said when my dad got his set it think it was around 300 dollars for a 1/2 drive 12 point. The first day I used it pulled too hard and cracked a bunch of sockets. My dad did the same before you know it all the common used sockets were cracked send them away takes 2 weeks to get a new one. The contractor I worked for had a few craftsman sockets I end broke some of them the rest of them were cracked.

The one heavy duty mechanics I worked with has broke Craftsman sockets he bought a set of the new style wrenches they he bent them just pulling on them.

Sorry I wouldn't recomend Craftsman tools to anybody way too cheaply made break way too easy maybe Craftsman was good back in the early 70s. I know where Bob Vila can stick his tool up.

 

I never had a problem with my Craftsman tools, but then again I bought most of my Craftsman tools 25-30 years ago.

I guess the quality may have gone down, like alot of other companies products.

 

you guys must be morons to be breaking "every craftsman socket" and other tools....the problem is you, not the tool.

 

I'm still using a Craftsman socket set that I got for Christmas when I was 12 yrs. old and I'm 66 now. Never broke a socket or anything. About ten years ago the 1/2" socket had worn down to the point it would slip so I got it replaced free at my local Sears store.

 

I've never broke a Craftsman socket...I'm 66 now, had then since I was in 20's. I did break a few rachets...using a pipe on 'em. I never had to wait more than a few minutes to have it replaced in the Sears store...and no questions asked! I few kind words when you ask for a free replacement gets much faster results than cursing out the poor salesman too!

 

Can't say I've ever had any trouble with my Craftsman wrenches either. I've used them pretty hard, even interlocking them using one as a cheater on another. None have bent, broken or stripped anything. They aren't perfect but for the price they've been more than adequate.

 

The old style wrenches are good I never bent or broke one they don't make the raise panel wrenches anymore. They only have the thin profile wrenches now. As for the sockets craftsman is the only brand that I and other mechanics here had problems with. The other brands like Westward,GEL and JET stand up to what ever we are wrenching on. There is a difference when your working on big trucks like I was doing you have to pull hard or your using a flex bar.

I think allot of you guys have some of the old old craftsman sockets you should go get a new set from Sears and see how well they stand up.

 

The set i just bought from craftsmen had the raised panels, it was one of thoise big 100 piece sets in the black case. guess im special like that.

 

I just got a couple of 'raised panel' wrenches replaced, with (wait for it....) RAISED PANEL wrenches. The store had an entire rack of them.

BTW, the wrenches didn't break or round off. They had been 'job specifically modified'.

 

When we started offshoring our steel, I think the quality of the base metal went down (Craftsman, and my new Snap~ons, compared to my old). Now they (Craftsman) are still more then fine for your average home garage. And if you keep your eye out, sometimes you'll find some gems at pawn shops, garage sales, and the like. I have several brands of tools, that were lifetime warranty, and are still very good tools, but the companies are out of business or no longer under the old names (Indestro, Durochrome, Challenger, Easco). Couple of tricks, Buy a set and buy a set of breaker bars (especially if you only use the standard Craftsman ratchets), and when you feel resistance, switch to either the breaker bar, or the next drive size up ratchet. I've broken a few Craftsman sockets, most were from using on impact toolss (a No-No) but at the time, I didn't have 12pt impact sockets. Two were broke with hand tools, both were flawed from Sears (one cracked on a bubble in the metal). For the Ratchets, I would go with either the Sealed head style (available in store as the thin pro line) or go with the Craftsman catalog only kind with the black knurled speeder integrated in it, or check out local garage sales, and pawn shops, for ones like Snap~on. My $.02.