Craftsman tools used to be a great value. If you buy mechanic's tools piecemeal, you will go broke, but if you buy them on sale in prepackaged sets, they are a much better value. Over the last fifteen years or so I think that Craftsman tools have declined in quality. For example, I recently returned a 1/2" breaker bar in which the pin between the handle and the swivel socket mount kept falling out. The new one weighed slightly more than half as much as the old one and the finish and plating was real poor. Husky from Home Depot and Kobalt from Lowes are probably equals and you won't have to drive as far to exchange one if it breaks. As far as impact sockets, I would go with cheapos from Harbor Freight or somewhere like this instead of major brand names. My two cents for what it's worth.

 

Craftsman are fine for a tool box in the bed and will serve you well. Plus, the sockets don't fall off the ratchets. SK's quality has diminished over the years. Snap-On is for the ***** out mechanic. My dad is a mechanic and pretty much only has Snap-On tools. The guy comes around to the shop once a week to collect money and fix anything that may be broken. Your wallet will feel a whole lot lighter for quite a while if you want Snap-On, but you do get what you pay for.

 

look out on ebay there is usually some good used sets of the matco,snap off stuff you could wind up getting a good professional socket set for the price of craftsman stuff...

 

Kobalt and husky can be difficult to exchange. I had a socket I broke and went to exchange it for another. They wanted the whole set, as they didn't exchange just individual sockets. It was a load of crap. Never had that kind of trouble with craftsman, hand them the broken item and get another. No need to bring the whole set in.

Ditto on the rest of the stuff. I personally don't have a whole lot of snap on sockets, I have mostly sk. But snap on is far stronger, better fitting, and durable than the others. Lifetime warranty? Sure you get that with a lot, but when you need to count on it, warranty doesn't help out when it's broke and you need to use it and can't get to the sears to exchange it. I had sk because one of the tool trucks carried replacements and they came to us.

 

I'm another one that bought a large set of Craftsman more than 30 years ago (I remember they came loose in brown paper bags). And, I still have them and use them.

Today, I am cautious, and examine them well before I purchase any Craftsman tools. One of the terrible things about the outsourcing of our economy, is that manufacturers that stay in the USA are hard pressed to cut costs to be close to competitive with China.

I continue to buy some sockets, etc from Craftsman, but ... tools that need precision, or tools that if they failed would damage the work piece ... I go to SnapOn (often on ebay).

Good luck.

 

Been wrenching for many years now, started heavy wrenching at a factory, 3rd shift and lots of weekends. Tool warranties are only as good as that. I bought tools that did not break. Craftsman is a good American made tool and I really appreciate that they market their product to the home mechanic, but they are crap for a real mechanic. Unless they had a bad run of steel for several years, I broke, bent or streched what seemed like every craftsman tool I had. After breaking all my 18mm sockets one sunday and the nearest Sears being 45 minutes away, I decided to get real tools. For the last 15 or so years, I have run only Proto and SK tools. Dont get me wrong, I have broke the occasional Proto or SK tool, but that was only under extreme conditions (something about a 4 foot pipe on a 1/2" breaker bar).

My neighbor was a dealer wrench for years and only runs snap-on. Those are good too, I dont think they hold up as well as proto, but they do hold up much better than most.

It all depends on your budget, but any american made tool will fit in my toolbox, I just prefer (and had the budget) for the better stuff.

 

My first choice would be a company that is close by to you and that you feel will be solid, stay in business for awhile. Most companies have a lifetime warranty, though some you need to make sure you keep your receipts for any warranty issues. I have both Craftsman "Sears" and Husky "Home Depot" for most of my tools. I have found it harder to get warranty done at Home Depot as they always give me a hard time. I have looked at the Lowes tools and like the look of them, but don't have any. I hate to admit, I have a few of the Harbor Freight "cheap" tools. My 3/4 drive socket set is from them and I have been very happy with it. I also have a set of their impact sockets which I have never broken one, and the price was amazing cheap.

 

I will agree with the others who said Craftsman. Yeah, they are kind of cheapy feeling tools, especially the ratchets, and lately the finish on anything I buy from them is crap. My impact sockets are totally rusted already. The thing is though, if you have an issue, they take it back no questions asked and give you another. It's a pain to be sure if you're in the middle of something and a tool breaks. Snap on is too hard to deal with because you have to chase down a van if they don't come to your work. SK in my experience are excellent also. I really like their ratchets. They are pricier now than Snap On though, so if you're laying out the coin...

 

A mechanic friend of mine put it this way a few years back "For guys like you (DIYers), you can't beat Craftsman. They're resonably priced, well made and the warranty is great. With me, I can't afford the time to run down to Sears in the middle of the day if something breaks. The Snapon guy comes to me, saving me that time. If we have broken stuff, we save it up and he comes around and replaces it."

I have to say I agree with him, in my experience.

Also when it comes to impact sockets, the Craftsman ones may not have the warranty. That is typically only on hand tools with them - so I'd check first. We have Northern Tool stores around here and they carry IR (Ingersoll Rand) tools and sockets. Their impact sockets are great.

 

I personally just bought a 240 pc. mechanic's tool set from Craftsman. The MSRP was $280, but it was on sale for 200. The tool box itself I hate. It's cheap plastic, with a tray on top, plus three sliding trays for each size drive. The three trays are kept in by two vertical plastic latches. Twice now, in the two months or so of owning them, I've had to put all my tools back in their proper place because the plastic latches couldn't contain the weight and so the trays tumbled out. Thankfully, I lost nothing but time, (about 1 hr. each). A week ago, I had to take the tool box off my back seat and set them on the floor, so I could bring my dog with me. Later, I tried pulling the box out, but it got slightly wedged, so I had to use more force. The damned plastic handle snapped in half. I don't really see a way to fix that, so I might go b!tch.

As for the tools themselves, I haven't had any problems. In fact, they have been very good tools. It's just the damned box. A co-worker of mine told me that a couple years ago, people were having so many damn problems with Craftsman tools, that the warranty bills started stacking up for Sears, so Sears switched their manufacturer to a better quality company. However, it's only been a few months, so we will see.

 

I had my dad's old Craftsman set. It was OK, but all the sockets were 12 point, meaning easier to knock the corners off. Anyway, the 3/8th drive ratchet started slipping, so I went to my local hardware store and picked up a 3/8th drive SK set. It's awesome! It wasn't cheap, but it came with deep and shallow 6 point sockets in metric and standard, extensions, wobble extension and thumb wheel.

 

Welp... another vote for Craftsman. They're all I've used so far in the 17yrs I've been workin on stuff. You can't beat the price and warranty. As others have mentioned, there are Sears stores everywhere that will do the returns, no questions asked. I think K-Mart will even swap them out now if they happen to have what you need on the shelf.

I like using their torx sockets because those seem to break pretty easily and they'll replace those as well. I've broken Lisles and some other brands Torx sockets but wasn't able to get those replaced.

If you watch ebay, you can sometimes nab Craftsman tools at Harbor Freight prices. Also keep an eye out at yard sales and flea markets. Buy 'em cheap and return 'em if necessary.

One note of caution... they will not replace a torque wrench if you break it! My Dad had this happen and had to pony up for a new one. So you might look into another brand for that but, it probably won't be cheap!

 

Craftsman here. Keep a eye out for the 240 pice set, the box is "ok" but you can find it on sale for 169 during the club weeks.

 

An easy trick to polish your tools up. If you have a vibrating case polisher (for cleaning bullet cases), dump them in and let them bump around for an hour in corn cob media. You can pick up kits for around $50 that include the tumbler, media and a separator.

 

For my tool box i use craftman and mastercraft wrenches amd sockets but for air tools i have mac impacts and jet sockets. I have really beat on these tools and have only broke a few wrenches and wratchets, they were returned without a problem and i was given new ones right away. Just my take, but i am no professional.