Craftsman Wrenches
- Thread starter IPerkWVU
- Start date
I sure have. Bought all kinds of virtually new Craftsman tools for pennies on the dollar. Sadly, though, the store closed up when the old man retired.
Ted
TJ Enthusiast
When I was young we bought just about everything from Sears. Raised on a farm and we got all of our baby chicks (500) every spring. Chicks came to the Post Office. Fencing, saddles, tools, everything. I still have the tools my Dad bought in the 60's. Even built a 500 hive colony of honey bees with money I earned by the time I was 18. Bees came from Sears too. First ones I purchased were $15.95 and they came to the P.O. in small screen boxes. Everything was quality. But then things changed.
Man I miss the good old days.
Man I miss the good old days.
Once upon a time, sears sold houses (Sears Modern Homes) in kit form, as well as complete cars (Sears Allstate, which was a rebadged Henry J) and Sears Allstate motorcycles. Talk about one-stop shopping!!!
Back to craftsman wrenches... anyone have any experience with the kit on the first link?
https://www.sears.com/craftsman-85p...lerId=Sears&prdNo=15&blockNo=15&blockType=G15
I have $40 worth of credits now so now I have the itch to get a set of tools to bring on the trail / leave in the jeep.
Or spend the extra $15 and get this one. https://www.sears.com/craftsman-230...lerId=Sears&prdNo=21&blockNo=21&blockType=G21
https://www.sears.com/craftsman-85p...lerId=Sears&prdNo=15&blockNo=15&blockType=G15
I have $40 worth of credits now so now I have the itch to get a set of tools to bring on the trail / leave in the jeep.
Or spend the extra $15 and get this one. https://www.sears.com/craftsman-230...lerId=Sears&prdNo=21&blockNo=21&blockType=G21
I've got a similar set from Mastercraft (canadian tire store brand) to the first one except it uses 6 sided flats instead of the splines like that one. I keep it in my dd as it's ok for light duty stuff, the down side is you can't use it with any other drivers so if you need a breaker bar it's if no use and you need someone else's socket set. I'd say spend the extra on real sockets and the toss some wrenches in the jeep just in case you need that pass through option for something too long for a deep socket.
I honestly thought it would be a great idea, unfortunately it's only been useful on a project where I needed to use threaded rod, but a wrench would have been just as good.
—
There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
Thanks for the feedback I appreciate it. I went with the larger normal socket set since it does seem more practical. Now with any luck I can toss them in the back of the jeep and wont need to use them. (on my jeep at least)
I have both the Standard and Metric versions of the second set, and I would say go for it over the first set. I take both cases with me in my truck when I do the Wrecking Yard Crawl on the weekends. They're my "go-to" sets whenever I need to do something outside of the garage. I honestly feel you can't go wrong with them.
I haven't been to a Sears in forever, but it sounds like their customer service really went downhill after their Kmart merger:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...omer-service-speed-sears-demise-idUSKCN1MM0E5
So many companies try to skimp on customer service by either treating their customer-facing employees like crap or just by not investing enough in training them or by simply not employing enough of them. In an age where the online-only retailers will beat you in efficiency every time, you gotta have something else to your brick-and-mortar store to keep customers interested in shopping there.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...omer-service-speed-sears-demise-idUSKCN1MM0E5
So many companies try to skimp on customer service by either treating their customer-facing employees like crap or just by not investing enough in training them or by simply not employing enough of them. In an age where the online-only retailers will beat you in efficiency every time, you gotta have something else to your brick-and-mortar store to keep customers interested in shopping there.
Well that and not investing in the actual stores is seemingly going to be there downfall. It is predicted that sears will enter chapter 11 bankrupt before Monday. So chances are that sears as we know it will shortly disappear and either a new layout of smaller stores / larger online footprint will arise after or it will go the way of toysrus and shut down for good.
It is no shock that Sears and K-mart doesn't have the best employees though. Sears has been a dying business for many years and someone looking for a retail job is likely going to apply to other brands before settling on a company that can't provide a reasonable sense of job security. Eddie Lampert has done a good job of driving the business into the ground while cutting the flesh off the bones for his own hedge funds advantage. It's crazy to think that the CEO of a business actually has something to gain from the demise of the business they are in charge of running.
It is no shock that Sears and K-mart doesn't have the best employees though. Sears has been a dying business for many years and someone looking for a retail job is likely going to apply to other brands before settling on a company that can't provide a reasonable sense of job security. Eddie Lampert has done a good job of driving the business into the ground while cutting the flesh off the bones for his own hedge funds advantage. It's crazy to think that the CEO of a business actually has something to gain from the demise of the business they are in charge of running.
I have noticed a lot of other places starting to carry craftsman tools so even when Sears goes down, you will be able to get them replaced
Yep. a great way to keep in contact with the community. You'd see everyone picking up a video. Now we are scared to have a beer on the way home. We only see our neighbours if we bump into them while we are texting and walking.
Not the same. Just a Brand Name now. Sears used to imply a level of quality.
That is gone. Just a marketing opportunity.
Sad, but true. It almost seems more and more these days that our day-to-day lives are more geared toward staying indoors, and not having to interact with other people.
I would buy a good set of used Craftsman tools from a pawn shop/thrift store before I'd buy a new set. Sometimes you can find bins of loose wrenches, and build a pretty nice set by sorting through them and picking out the ones with minimal (if any) wear on them. In the past, I have done just that.
yea, but that quality was when they were American made
I have broken Many craftsman sockets, only one snap-on.. and I was abusing it!
I once had occasion to bend a large Craftsman combo wrench (27mm or something) with the aid of a vice, a torch, and a prybar in order to get to some place very specific. I later took said wrench to the Sears in town to swap it out. They guy behind the counter asked what happened to it, and all I said was "it bent". Good to go, no further questions.
I have a bunch of Snap-On and Mac stuff from my professional days when I turned wrenches for a living... You just can't beat Snap-On hand tools... I could put an open end on a large bolt and do pull-ups without stripping it. But now that I don't do it every day Craftsman is the way to go.
And Harbor Freight is amazing if you can get past the stench of cheap Chinese rubber that seems to permeate every single store
I just broke two Proto impact rated 1/2" to 3/8" drive adapters using the 1/2" Milwaukee with Craftsman chrome 6 point sockets trying to get some fresh from the tire store lug nuts off. Stinking clown wheel companies make the holes around the lug nut so small you can't get a normal chrome 1/2" drive socket on them much less an impact socket. The only socket that would go in the hole was 3/8" drive chrome 6 point.
Yeah those things suck. I have a rack of thinwall 1/2" impact sockets I bought years ago for that specific purpose, and they still break..