I started a maintenance job a while back and had no tools. I had a box of good stuff for my day job, and a rollaround full in the garage, but really needed a set at the new night job. Decided I'd cheap it to start with, so I hit Wal-mart, harbor freight, and picked up a few things at Sears and Home Depot. Wal-Mart of course carries Stanley, so I got the Std/Metric 3/8 drive set there. Can't complain about the sockets, they've been good. The ratchet that came with the set wouldn't work right out of the box. It would reverse itself everytime you tried to ratchet it. Used a different one I already had for a while. Finally got around to exchanging it. Put the new one in my box, used for a couple of months and pulled on it pretty hard the other night. It made the scary "ping" sound and now slips whenever any real load is put on it. This sucks. I've got cheap, no-name stuff that holds up better than that. I know they're not that high priced either, but I expect better from a so-called reputable brand. I've got Craftsman, Snap-On etc older than my nearly grown kids that i've put 3ft cheaters on that never gave up. Even a Benchtop swivel head that I recently snapped a 1/2"-13 bolt with. What gives with Stanley?

 

China Gives

 

Yeah, I kinda figured that. What kills me is that it's been my impression that nearly all of our American branded tools are actually made in China these days.
I've even bought some of the Harbor Freight stuff that is dirt cheap and been pleasantly surprised at how decent some of it is. I've had ratchets that came in those Taiwan "300 piece socket set for $6" sets that have held up better. Why put a decent chrome job and respected name on it only to shame yourself? I know I'm old-fashioned, and I know the thing has a warranty, but I'd rather know I can depend on something actually not breaking than depending on getting another one when it does. That used to be the case with tools. Sure, anything can break, but the warranty on tools used to be because they were confident in the quality of what they built. Now it's just because all you are buying is the warranty and the bean-counters have figured their price high enough to cover the failure rate. I haven't bought any new Craftsman stuff other than some wrenches lately. I hope their quality hasn't gone to hell too. If you break a tool at work the company will replace it, but they usually replace it with Craftsman. I'm waiting to see how that will be.

 

Awhile ago I read about stanley pulling off shores to escape some sort of tax. We promptly discontinued selling bostich at our store

 

That's weird, I have almost the same ratchet (husky brand), it's worked fine for the last five years. I've put 2' cheater pipes on it, I even used it to take off a set of lug nuts when I couldn't find my breaker bar- by putting it on there and stomping on it.
On the other hand, I also have a Husky 2' ratcheting breaker bar with a swivel head it works great too, even though I ran it over with a John Deere 490 excavator (about 16,000lbs). It bent the handle a little.

 

Stanley is just another of those brands that use to mean something and mean nothing now. If I want a cheap tool that might actually stand up to some serious work, I buy Husky at Home Depot where I can return it if it breaks.

After I broke my 1/2" Craftsman breaker bar, I went and bought a Husky from Home Depot. Way beefier.

 

you know it's really sad how the qualiy of tools has gone down expecially in the last few years. i use to respect stanely because i have a few of my dads hand tools and they are some of the best i have but now i see there stuff in the stores and it's no more than junkdrawer quality. heck, i have a set of tools in my portable toolbox made by benchtop (k-mart brand i bought atleast 9 years ago) that are very good for a cheaper brand i have yet to break any of them and i have been rough with them. the only problem i have with the set is the 3/8 ratchet is about worn out mostly because i'v used it as a hammer occasionally.

FORDS_FORLIFE

 

I have an SK 3/8 drive rachet that I bought back in the early 70's and it's still going strong. I used the rachet along with a 3 foot cheater pipe to break loose the headbolts on a 71 SS 396 back in 1975.

As for Stanley, I haven't used any of their hand tools so I can't say anything good or bad about them but I do use Craftsman tools and have no problems with them.

 

Yeah, always had pretty good luck with Craftsman. My company gave me my new ratchet, which is one of their professional series, fully polished jobs. Not bad I guess, to turn in my $14 Stanley and get a $30 C-man as a replacement. Makes it tempting to dig up and bust a couple of Taiwans...
Anyway, I'll be finding out how their stuff is doing these days. The quality seems okay on the other stuff I've gotten at Sears lately. I also just bought a set of Gearwrenches at Lowes the other day. I was sad to see that they were made in Taiwan as well, but learned that it's another division of Danaher tools. I seem to be seeing better stuff coming from them than from the Stanley Works companies. I even ended up buying a new Craftsman tool box this week. I needed an inexpensive one for work, and after much comparison, decided that they still had the best value. Got top and bottom both as close to what my other one is. Same size top and bottom as my old set, but a little different config. Regular drawer slides(not QuietGlide or ball bearing). Looks nice, but I think my 20year old bottom and 40-year old top box both slide better...

 

Do you want to stop watching tool companies move their production overseas? Put some pressure on your politicians to reduce some of these ridiculous taxes that companies fly to the coop to avoid. Anyway, I digress...

I have no experience with Husky or Kobalt wrenches (although their sockets seem to be of good quality) but my suggestion would be, that provided you use them enough, to pony up the extra money and buy your ratchets from Snap-On, Cornwell, Mac, Matco, etc.. Almost everything else is made in China or Taiwan these days and isn't hardly worth the metal its made out of. Another alternative would be to hit up eBay or look around the pawn shops in your area for older ratchets from Craftsman and Stanley when they still made quality stuff.

 

Amen, brother!

"Back in the day"... when I was single and had money and credit ,all my stuff was from the tool trucks with a handful of Craftsman thrown in. Even now, my "Day Job" tool box has all Snap-On sockets and wrenches. The maintenance night job is a lot less tool intensive, so I bought a lot of cheap stuff just to get going, and I've been buying better stuff to replace it. I've also been migrating a few things from home as I upgrade the stuff in my box here. I set a standard for my big box in the garage of "Craftsman or better." Being on a budget makes it hard to buy the good stuff (and no tool trucks coming to either place-used to love those truck charge accounts!) although in the long run when you make your living with it, you really are better off to cough up the bucks on the frontend. I haven't had much luck in the local pawn shops, as most of them have mostly crap tools, want to sell whole boxes of mostly crap tools, or price anything good they get high enough to justify getting it new. Gotten some good stuff off eBay. Mostly individual wrenches/sockets to replace missing items, but shipping sucks on a lot of it. The best deal I've run across was a local flea market where a guy had a big box of good sockets, 3 for a dollar. Got a BUNCH there. Probably go back this weekend.

 

What they wanted to do was incorporate off shore to avoid paying tax on stuff they sell everywhere but the U.S

 

You really do get what you pay for. A cheap ratchet will break easily along with cheap sockets and cheap wrenches. If you want to have quality tools, you will need to fork out the dough for it. I always buy the good stuff, as I will only need to buy a good tool once rather than several cheaper ones.

I usually get Craftsman for ratchets, sockets and screwdrivers. I like the Bosch drills and I always buy Klien pliers, cutters and strippers.

 

I lovemy snap on ratchets i use em daily (im a mechanic) ive only ever had to have my flex head 3/8 once and that was because it got a jack handle put on it. the are deffinatly worth their price