recently bought a set of Kobalt sockets from Lowes the price was beyond reasonable and a lifetime warranty , the quality seems as good as Craftsman or others sets at a 1/3 of the price and it's all made in china so :shrug: i've been collecting tools since i was 10 and broke very few over years. my main problem with socket are they the vehicle i am working on eats them - you know they fall off a extension in a tight spot and disappear into the depth of who no where and no matter how many times you shake the vehicle up and down back up go foward it's Gone. i'm even ok with Harbor Freight stuff as long as it's not electrical and when i spent $10. on a angle grinder i consider it a throw away tool when it dies.
My DeWalt angle grinder recently stopped working. Instead of paying for a new one, $10 on Ebay for new brushes and good for another 5 years hopefully.
As for sockets, I have several sets. Craftsman, Master Mechanic, Snap On, Mac, Pittsburgh... And then I have a flip top box full of all the offbrand and :chinese: stuff.
The good thing about Home Depot and their Husky sockets... I had one deepwell socket crack up the side and when I went to the store, they broke open a full set and handed me the new socket. No questions, BS, etc.
As for sockets, I have several sets. Craftsman, Master Mechanic, Snap On, Mac, Pittsburgh... And then I have a flip top box full of all the offbrand and :chinese: stuff.
The good thing about Home Depot and their Husky sockets... I had one deepwell socket crack up the side and when I went to the store, they broke open a full set and handed me the new socket. No questions, BS, etc.
i remember back in the day the only place you could buy Craftsman tools was at Sears but now KMart ( part of Sear) and Ace sells them. as a kid i would always get the Sear tool supplement catalog and drool over every page. over the years i would hit the Sears store at the mall back when they had a great tool and sporting good department .most of my tool boxes - cabinets have Craftsman name on them.
I have 3 milwaukee grinders and one thats for parts. Im about out of good parts. Most of what broke was from dropping the grinders on the ground. But the brushes Iv been able to fix. When they wear out and stop working iv figured out the wire that goes to them actually holds them back and only about 1/2 used. So I unsolder and reposition the wire and they are good to for another 5 or 10 years lol. Iv been very happy with milwaukee over the years. Its the only brand of power tools Iv used that iv never had a catostrophic failure. Always been able to fix them pretty easily. Dewalts pretty darn close second they hold up real good too.
Since that post, I have seen 3 DeWalt cordless 18v drills eat their gearboxes at work. We all use the same model with the hammer drill option and they all give up when regular drilling. Mine is still going, but they have started buying the DeWalt 20v ones to replace the 18v's.
I have the same 18v drill but without the hammer option at home and it is doing well so far.
One of my favorite wrenches to use while I was in the US Navy was Bonney combination wrenches.
I have the same 18v drill but without the hammer option at home and it is doing well so far.
One of my favorite wrenches to use while I was in the US Navy was Bonney combination wrenches.
I did the same thing when I was younger Bob, as far as I know, Sears is still the only place to buy Craftsman in Canada, or at least Saskatchewan. Unless you order out of the Summit Racing catalog.
That's what I thought, every other tool box I looked at was "Made in China". I tried finding a nice older Craftsman box but all I ever see in my area are the top boxes. I'll post up a picture tonight. :thumbsup:
I'm forever pulling tools out of the scrap yard. Old Billings wrenches, SK, Proto, the curved Ford wrenches always sell good at the swap meets.
One time I picked out a Billings wrench that weighed 80#, and looked like it had never been used. It was almost 3' long and I think had a 4" open end. I sold it to a collector in New York, he told me it was most likely used for railroad equipment.
One time I picked out a Billings wrench that weighed 80#, and looked like it had never been used. It was almost 3' long and I think had a 4" open end. I sold it to a collector in New York, he told me it was most likely used for railroad equipment.
i wish i had the room as i like to have one of those large stainless Kobalt tool cabinets with the roller bearings and the built in stereo and fridge. i have two rolling tool cabinets with tools boxes stacked and a workbench with a cabinet below but be nice if everything was in one place. the other day when the site was down while working on a mini i located some more shelving and actually cleaned up my workbenches and re-organized some - heck i knew there was work space under all that junk :smile:
I ran a industrial supply house for 25 yrs. and you'd be surprised about who makes what. Milwaukee for example only MAKES a few of it's drills,most are made for them by Sioux Tools in Iowa. Milwaukee doesn't (or didn't) make a single one of there grinders...Bosch made all but one for them!
DeWalt? The old Black&Decker...period. Once B&D bought DeWalt Radial Arm Saw Co. They immediately sold all equipment & manufacturing rights....all they wanted was the name. B&D consumer tools had ruined their name so this was how they fixed it.One month after purchase they simply changed color dye in the plastic and labeled them DeWalt.
We really had a hard time selling some of these tools to old timers and we'd have to bite our tongues when they'd say the Milwaukee grinders beat the Bosch grinder hands down ! Or B&D drills sucked compared to the new DeWalt drills.
I could bore you for hours about the tool market in America lol There's a very big player about to enter the market in 2015 (hand tools) and I almost guarantee they'll be buying someone for their name within a year.
If you want true domestic quality hand tools ...Williams or Wright Tool....you'd be surprised who they private label for !!!
DeWalt? The old Black&Decker...period. Once B&D bought DeWalt Radial Arm Saw Co. They immediately sold all equipment & manufacturing rights....all they wanted was the name. B&D consumer tools had ruined their name so this was how they fixed it.One month after purchase they simply changed color dye in the plastic and labeled them DeWalt.
We really had a hard time selling some of these tools to old timers and we'd have to bite our tongues when they'd say the Milwaukee grinders beat the Bosch grinder hands down ! Or B&D drills sucked compared to the new DeWalt drills.
I could bore you for hours about the tool market in America lol There's a very big player about to enter the market in 2015 (hand tools) and I almost guarantee they'll be buying someone for their name within a year.
If you want true domestic quality hand tools ...Williams or Wright Tool....you'd be surprised who they private label for !!!