Is it just me or was the old USA made Craftsman kinda shitty?

Is it just me or was the old USA made Craftsman kinda shitty?

I've had Chinese ratchets better than these old pieces of junk.

250 Piece Survival Gear First Aid Kit

LifeStraw Water Filter for Hiking and Preparedness

250 Piece Survival Gear First Aid Kit

  1. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Depends on what you mean by "old". My 70s era Craftsman tools are still my best.

  2. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Decent quality chinese or taiwanese tools is a new phenomenon.
    Manufacturing gets better every single year, it’s a lot cheaper to make a lot better tools than 30 years ago.

    USA craftsman weren’t the polished up highest end hand tools.
    They were dependable, good quality tools that were domestic and had a lifetime warranty.

    You have to remember going back to the late 90s(and before), there was still lots of USA made tool brands that sold standard quality tools at the hardware store.
    The Chinese brands at the time were the undercutting, way more budget way shittier tools.

    • 1 year ago
      Bepis

      This pretty much.

      Craftsman was never really Snap On, they were DIYer tools. And their quality started to drop off a lot in the 90s and 00s before they started shipping stuff to Asia.

      Also the nu-Craftsman you see now is definitely manufacturing tech and Taiwan. All of those solid mid-range tools are coming from some good factories in Taiwan and I’m not sure that existed back in the 80s-90s.

      Another thing to remember is that there was never a Craftsman factory while it was a Sears company. Everything was outsourced to other tool makers and it changed over time based on whoever got the contract at the right price for those years.

      The few short years they did Craftsman Professional tools wasn’t bad, a lot of those were like tool truck factories making that shit for Craftsman, so if you picked up any of that on sale, those were good tools.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Craftsman professional was shit too.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          It wasn't anything special.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            They were usually rebadged truck brands like proto for half the price. Industrial line too.
            Really good value at the time.

          • 1 year ago
            Bepis

            It was like Matco or Mac stuff for less than the trucks.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              I am so sick of your dumb frick cumsoomer posts.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                fyi you can auto-hide people's posts by name or trip. just click the little triangle next to their name and select 'filter selected text' to bring up this dialog box. then just type in his name or trip and click 'hide' and you're all set. i haven't seen a single one of that gay little moron's posts in over a year since i figured that out. watch he'll reply to me with some b***hy homosexual comment and i won't even see it lmao.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                if you put !.* in the pattern field you can filter all tripgays

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                why isn't it default to hide all triposters

              • 1 year ago
                Bepis

                See

                https://i.imgur.com/kh3lUCc.png

                fyi you can auto-hide people's posts by name or trip. just click the little triangle next to their name and select 'filter selected text' to bring up this dialog box. then just type in his name or trip and click 'hide' and you're all set. i haven't seen a single one of that gay little moron's posts in over a year since i figured that out. watch he'll reply to me with some b***hy homosexual comment and i won't even see it lmao.

                i make it easier for you!

                Now go do some research on who was manufacturing Craftsman Professional for the years it was still around, then unhide me and apologize.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        I think they just ended up overbuilding everything to get over the “shitty chink pot metal” hump. Like my old crescent wrench is noticeably lighter than new husky/craftsman wrenches, and never locks up on fittings like the new ones do.

        And like
        their sockets weren’t built for construction/the trades. I have a set from my great grandfather and the socket walls are dramatically thinner. They weren’t designed to be beaten on by a pipefitter with an impact gun 8 hours a day, just Joe Schmoe in his garage with a ratchet on the weekend.

  3. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    They were good in terms if the tool break, you can walk to your local Sears store and they swap to a new tool. No questions asked.

  4. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Anon, craftsman was always minimum viable tool. It was the bottom end of what you'd consider decent tool.
    Meanwhile Taiwanese finally got gud at making tools.

  5. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    craftsman ratchets were good, but not great. they got their reputation on their sockets, wrenches, and screwdrivers imo.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Those ratchets turned to shit though newer ones may be better.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      God, I forgot how BAD that lobster claw was on those early chink craftsman wrenches.
      Truly disgusting.

      Craftsmans basic b***h "raised panel" ratchets were usable but not great.
      They always had some higher end ratchets for sale right on the shelf which were substantially better.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Remember one of the first date codes they used after the chinese outsourcing was "S-AD"?
        It was obviously intentional

  6. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I have craftsman tools going back to the 70's all of them are very good quality. it's just you being an idiot.

  7. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I got an old 1/2 craftsman at a pawnshop for like $10, and I love that fricking thing.

    It looks kind of shitty, but it's light, and smooth like butter.

  8. 1 year ago
    sieg heil

    they kept rebuilding ratchets over the years rather than giving new ones for warranty the guts have gotten shittier and shitter as sears was hemoraging money

    near the endthey were putting some really shit guts in there

    • 1 year ago
      Bepis

      You can easily tell when they started going downhill by the forward/reverse switch on those ratchets. They switched to a plastic switch while they were still being made in the US.

      You can do some research on the letters and see who was making the ratchets at what time.

      I always hated those Craftsman ratchets though. The handles were way too short and the 3/8” was useless for most stuff you wanted a 3/8” ratchet for. Always had to grab the 1/2” for anything larger than like 14mm

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        ^Truth

        • 1 year ago
          Bepis

          Of course it is the truth. Look who posted it!

      • 1 year ago
        sieg heil

        yeah i fricked up, i had a vintage made in USA one, did the honda lower control arm craftsmand wrench hack and fricked the guts up.

        they rebuilt it and i got the plastic switch, chinese guts and a made in usa handle.....

        now i don't warranty shit, unless it's a 1 for 1 trade and i get to see what im getting

  9. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    what makes a tool shit?
    ive never had a tool break on me so as far as i know all of my tools are perfect.

    • 1 year ago
      sieg heil

      infererior materials, inferior ergos

      take the free harbor freight screw driver set you get with any purchase.

      now....would you take that screw driver and try to remove a 200 year old singer sewing machine screw with it or would you go for a hollow ground precision screwdriver? that has more engagment and the proper seating angle for the fastener?

  10. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Regardless of the older stuff, I'm fond of the new box I bought. I run an automotive outfit and I was using the cheap Pittsburgh stuff from harbor freight, but the craftsman I'm just a bit more fond of. Pittsburgh is actually decent for the price. I've only had 3 impacts crack and they been in service for a decent amount of time. Even so cracks were usually due to sizing issues. With good fitment they may have lasted longer. I've noticed the newer Pittsburgh socket walls are actually thicker. They may be the better brand but I just bought a craftsman set and will continue to use it. The ratchet heads are engineered better at least with circlip vs mini torx Head bolts that fall out and they don't seem to be as soft. I could be wrong though. Craftsman is my go to now. It's just a thing.

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *