>> From: kent@wsl.dec.com
>> There's no doubt that I'm a beginning mechanic, so I be embarrassing
>> myself by asking this: why do people get dissatisfied with Craftsman
>> tools? Why are Snap-On better?
Snap-On are awesome. Sears aren't. There are some inbetween.
Sears used to be a good buy, however, tools that don't break are
better than tools that can be replaced. Sitting about with a job half-done
and a broken tools isn't cool. Especially, if you don't have another car
to go get a replacement with. Or if you don't have anywhere to get replacements.
Certain sears tools are decent buys, and most will be competitive with
your local hardware store who carries Diamond, Channel Lock, Stanley, etc.
The quality of certain Sears tools is quite bad. The 'Craftsman'
series is now only of moderate quality. Sears versions of 'Vice-Grips'
(a registered trademark of peterson mfg.), are a really bad buy, you end up
going to Sears for replacements every few times you ask them to do the job of a
real Vice-Grips. I killed one of their Craftsman #2 Philips screwdrivers
the first time I used it.
> a cultural change is occuring in the way sears handles tools.
> it used to be, maybe 10 years ago, that if you went into the
> sears tool department, that the sales people were all middle
> aged `tool guys' who knew what they were selling and were
> probably hobbyists (auto, wood working, etc.) on their own
> time, if not ex-professionals. you'd walk in and know that
> you were talking to people who `knew' tools. the tools were
> well made; perhaps not as good as Snap-On, but they were
> definitely quality tools.
On my last trip to Sears (Leominster, Mass.) The people weren't H.S.
types, but they were sales-people, more than hardware people. The first
one I dealt with was about to send me off with another tool (its not on our
tool board, we don't have it), not the 6" end-cut nippers I'd gone in for.
The second one, who was somewhat more interested in selling, actually tried
to reach the Sears in Auburn and Natick, Ma. to see if they had it, and
failing that, could have Catalog ordered it. He really tried, but nobody
had one in stock.
Sears Catalog prices are sometimes near the store prices, and sometimes
much less (pliers were $10.+ in the Catalog and $15.+ in the store), Though,
the shipping from the catalog tends to equalize these prices, in the above
example shipping would have been $2.
> these days, the physical quality of the tools is declining;
> open-end wrenches flex because of low quality steel; the
> pieces in the small pliers don't fit together very well;
> the ratcheting fixtures tend to jam up or stop working all
ratchets, can be rebuilt, the questions is how often do you
end up rebuilding them.
> together, and so forth. the `tool guys' aren't there anymore;
> i went into the big albany area sears last night, and it was
> all high-school kids, just like any other mall store, and
> they all prefered to socialize with each other rather than
> help out the customer.
Another well-respected name in hand/mechanics tools is SK. SK more
closely competes with Snap-on in the market place (indeed their latest
combination wrenches feel very much like Snap-On, though I've got some that
have the raised shoulder). After shopping about, I've found that SK tools
can be had for prices that compete more with Sears than Snap-On.
If you save you pennies and read your local want-ad weekly, you may
stumble across a mechanic who is selling their Snap-On tools, and that is
not a bad way to buy them. (Or enroll in your local community college for
the mechanic program, buy a Snap-On set at a fantastic price, then drop out...)
Does anyone have any experience with EASCO (?eastco?) tools, they're the
other part of EASCO/KD tools. KD tools are the people who make all those won-
derful tools that NAPA sells, you know, oil filter wrenches, battery-terminal-
clamp expanders, battery-clamp removers, interior clip-pulling tools,
window-crank clip pliers, etc., etc.
--bill
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