Snapon (brand) question -vs- others...

[Richard]

That was a good test, but I’d like to see him do a follow up test after a couple years worth of use. Would the results be the same?

That's almost exactly what I was thinking.... Summer before last, we sanded our house (log home). This means the sander got a workout of its life. My brother in law is evidently sold on inexpensive tools.... (maybe I'm hung up on brand names or paying more??)

None the less...went to HF to buy a sander, used it for a day or three before.....it died. They swapped it out no problems. I was busy working while he was sanding so I wasn't present for all this but, I think it along the way, died again.... and they swapped it out.

Again, it was getting some serious use, more than your normal sander so the poor thing was under some duress.

But the bottom line for me is as you say, can you walk up to the tool in "X" years, pick it up and have it work for you?

I'm nervous on some of the lessor priced tools (read china / HF as I suppose many are cautious about)

Everything is man-made so everything can break I suppose.

 

[atsah]

Sanded you're log house, I have done this to mine, what a pain and my Craftsman Professional stood up to the test and still works good today. I should have had them corn cob blast it, it wasn't fun..

 

[PILOON]

Sanded you're log house, I have done this to mine, what a pain and my Craftsman Professional stood up to the test and still works good today. I should have had them corn cob blast it, it wasn't fun..

Had a client that had a rather large log house that he wanted done. (about 30 X 40)
I rented a 200 CFM industriel compressor and some30 or so bags of sand blasting media.
It only took me about 10 mins to learn the tricks of sand blasting.
In one 8 hour day we completely cleaned all his 4 walls to a 'like new' finish.
Later we applied Seiken's oil finish.
OK, any rotted logs posed problems but we spliced in sections to cure that.
As long as the wood was solid blasting was a breeze.
I also blasted away multiple coats of paint on furniture that clients wanted restored.
I had experimented with strippers only to find sand blasting a far superior way to go.
My snow blower was totally blasted and primed and painted some 8 years ago and it still has all the paint that I applied back then.
Problem is with blasting you need lots of CFM's (like 150 or so) and need to wear suitable hoods and supplied fresh air.
Baring that it is a fantastic restoration process.

 

[SoDark]

I had experimented with strippers only to find sand blasting a far superior way to go...

My experimentation with strippers only led to a lifelong abhorrence to glitter. Sounds like you got more out of the curiosity than I did...

 

[MESSMAKER]

Best pair of pliers on the planet

Knipex

They should be $$$$$$$$$$$.

 

[crazyal]

What i have found with Snap-On is that it's great quality but you pay for it. Years ago one of the chopper building shows (OCC I think) built a bike for Snap-On. While I didn't care much for the bike or even the show it was interesting to see the difference that they do when making tools. Everything from the metal they use to things like making sure the broaches are replaced sooner and the inspection of each tool.

I recently bought a set of GearWrench metric ratcheting wrenches. They are made in China but that doesn't translate to poor quality. I recently was trying to remove a bolt with the 17mm open end side of the wrench and it failed. The metal was too soft. I suspect that if I could of gotten the box end on it I wouldn't of had an issue but never the less the inside of the wrench is now slightly deformed and it damaged the head of the bolt. I seriously doubt that I would of had an issue if it was a Snap-On wrench. Granted I was putting a lot of force on the bolt but when they are tight and need to be removed that's what you do. It could be that the wrench just wasn't as hard as it should have been and QC missed it or maybe Gearwrench figures you will not use it that hard.

 

[ray66v]

I recently bought a set of GearWrench metric ratcheting wrenches. They are made in China but that doesn't translate to poor quality. I recently was trying to remove a bolt with the 17mm open end side of the wrench and it failed. The metal was too soft. I suspect that if I could of gotten the box end on it I wouldn't of had an issue but never the less the inside of the wrench is now slightly deformed and it damaged the head of the bolt. I seriously doubt that I would of had an issue if it was a Snap-On wrench. Granted I was putting a lot of force on the bolt but when they are tight and need to be removed that's what you do. It could be that the wrench just wasn't as hard as it should have been and QC missed it or maybe Gearwrench figures you will not use it that hard.

If you put "a lot of force" on racheting box wrenches, regardless of what brand, there is a potential for them to break.

They are designed to be compact, not powerful. They are not meant to be your first choice when breaking loose extremely tight fasteners.

Even a good ratchet will fail, if you apply too much torque on it.

Use standard box wrenches, or a breaker bar to break things loose, and you usually won't have a problem.

However, I've seen them break too.

 

[Bird]

If you put "a lot of force" on racheting box wrenches, regardless of what brand, there is a potential for them to break.

Very true. I repaired a number of them, including Snap-On ratchets. In fact, one body shop hired youngsters to remove damaged parts of vehicles in for repair, and I replaced all the moving parts in his big old Snap-On ratchet twice when those kids put a cheater pipe on it to use it for breaker bar.:laughing:

 

[Rock Crawler]

I got my new non USA 15mm Craftsman combination wrench today. I hate to say it, but the box end is thicker, the handle is thicker and feel is heavier than my old forged in the USA 15mm.

 

[Richard]

Side comment, we sand blasted our house and used a belt sander for parts of it and the hand held for other parts (the least used was the belt sander).

We rented a tow-behind compressor (for using on a jack hammer). My brother in law happend to own some scaffolding so he made a couple trips back/forth from Knoxville to New Orleans (yes, you read that right) and brought it up over several visits.

We had the whole house surrounded by scaffold and it made the job WORLDS easier.

(2-story house with walk out basement so the front is "three" stories tall)