Quality Tools?

[GYPSY]

for the homeowner/weekend warrior, harborfreight/tsc and such are the tools for you. to spend the money for a premium tool si not worth it. the cost of still trying to support and buy US or NA made tools are pretty much over anyways. mojority of tool companies nowadays contract out or have stopped manufacturing all together. korea builds majority of tools on the open market and will build and stamp whatever name you want on them. there tools(korean) are excellent tools and are built to whatever quality/performance the customer asks for. a good quality tool can be made there and stamped with a name that may have you thinks its US or NA made when in fact its made off shore. you'd never know by looking either, if your dead set on domestic, ask the seller for verification but in most cases, its offshore. if you use tools for a living and require one off/specialized that are still made here, buy them, spend the money but for the average joe, buy what works, heck, there lifetime warranties either way!

 

[MHarryE]

Sick idea but look in the obituaries. My 3/4" drive S-K set was $50, ratchet plus 10 sockets, at an estate sale. I was chauffeuring my wife because she has difficulty finding addresses and actually went inside one where it looked like it had stuff that might interest me. Sometimes you can come up a winner at auctions but you need to know and inspect. I once saw a set of 6 large Pittsburg open/box combination wrenches go for S-K prices meaning 6 times what the wrenches cost at HF. They are darn good wrenches - I gave a set of the Pittsburg wrenches because I don't often use them and can't see paying S-K prices. I've used a 6 foot cheater pipe extension on them with no problem. Auction and estate sales - I live in mining country and there are lots of mechanics around who work on the heaviest equipment and buy the best tools. Unfortunately they don't live long due to health problems like mesothelioma associated with our mining so their tools go at auction and estate sales.

 

[crazyal]

I think Sears is just competing with Home Depot and Lowes. I'm not sure you can find any tool made in the US at HD or Lowes. It would be nice if they offered two lines, a budget line from China and a higher level US made line but I'm sure the bean counters said jump, so they did.

 

[farmall 55a case]

I think Sears is just competing with Home Depot and Lowes. I'm not sure you can find any tool made in the US at HD or Lowes. It would be nice if they offered two lines, a budget line from China and a higher level US made line but I'm sure the bean counters said jump, so they did.

Didn't sears use to do that when they had a professional line? I was a kid then but it thought they did?

 

[mikehaugen]

They had a cheaper "companion" line.

 

[DFB]

Didn't sears use to do that when they had a professional line? I was a kid then but it thought they did?

Sears Craftsman still offers "PROFESSIONAL" full polish wrenches as an option to their regular raised pattern.

And they had their professional ratings on certain other tools too. Industrial quality ratings. I have a pancake air compressor with that label still. I haven't shopped Sears/Craftsman in ages except for a couple of weeks ago I needed a new portable 2 gal shop vac to replace the $29.99 one I had since at least the early 90's I would guess, maybe even older. And they still had one for 29.99 actually $26.99 on sale that day lucky me!

The only other option I could find in that price range was from Home Depot just a powerhead that snaps on a 5 gal bucket that you supply.

At one time Sears/Craftsman was what America shopped for tools. I remember you could easily pick from a half dozen store branded choices for corded drills, belt sanders, circular saws, jigsaws, and routers all in $10.00 increments starting from 1/4 hp and up. Sears was even were I got my 18v Makita combo set way back when the expanded their offerings and started calling themselves brand central. At the time there weren't any Home Depot's...at least not around here.

One of my best hammers is Craftsman 20 oz rip claw I've had since I was a twenty something apprentice and carry that to my jobs still along with my Estwings. Worst hammer I ever had was some Chinese 28 waffle faced framer with a blue rubber grip handle and looked like an Estwing. Gave you blisters everytime you used it

One thing I always disliked with Craftsman are their screwdrivers. Seems you cant get a good screwdriver there.

I have more of their wrenches than I'll ever be needing in couple of rollaways, at least 3 full sets and more, all USA stamped plus a full complement of drive sockets both 12 and 6 point. Got my starter tool set back in 1980. Never broke a Craftsman wrench and haven't broke a socket that I can remember..??? but of course I don't go putting 25" 1/2 inch drive breaker bars on 3/8 drive deep 12point thin wall sockets or use them with impact tools either. That's what those impact sockets are for. :shhh: Did snap off an SK 1/2 to 3/8 reducer one time and of course who hasn't stripped out a Craftsman ratchet head before. These days my favorite ratchets now are some MIT Chinese made ones with nice rubber grips.

Over the years I've gotten to use Proto, Williams, Blackhawk, and Snapon tools

SK is nice too I have a set of 3/8 drive metric mixed shallow and deep that I bought off my younger brother when he sold his dirt bike and joined the army...30+ years ago

To the OP...search on Amazon for impact tools