Thread: Wrenches

Tonight I went to Sears to get a 19mm wrench. I needed one to get the bike rack off the 4-Runner. My metric set only went to 18mm,,I've been a millimeter short all my life.

I wanted a quality wrench and one with the fancy ratchet in the hole. I was a bit shocked at the price of the wrench, $28.00 with tax. The shelves were full of China & Taiwan tools with Sears name on them, for less than half the price of this one.

I do yard sales most weekends & look for good old tools, sometimes I get lucky. Half of the tools I have, I don't even know how to use them, but I search them out nevertheless.

I think if you check into the warranty on the sears tools the U.S.A. made ones are life time. That's the way it used to be when they came out with the Sears brand vrs the Craftsman. I found the same with Bucks knives. I buy the US made at about 30% more and if I break a blade they give me a new one free. Mag Lite does the same thing. Can you tell I sell tools ? Not to mention I have 4 roll-aways full of them. In general I would say ,where it was made and how much it costs tells you what your getting. The deciding factor for me is , how much am I going to use it and how long will I need it. You gt a good one and will never have to buy another. Well unless you loan it out, which is another thing I do not do. They never seem to come back. It's like the word loan turns into gift when the borrower is done with it

The salesman said it had a lifetime warranty.
A friend of mine, at the time, wanted to read one of my judo books, he kept it 5 years.

Craftsman makes pretty good tools and when I have to warranty one of the tools they always swap it out no questions asked. When I used to work as a vehicle glass technician I purchased Snap-On tools and is what the largest part of my tool inventory is. Now Snap-On is sticker shock compared to Craftsman and has the same lifetime warranty.

You cannot go wrong with Craftsman. Good tools.

Snap-On is art. Beyond tools. I don't have a lot of them but every now and again, when I need a wrench I make it a Snap-On. Ebay is a good source for high end tools. The USA Craftsman, vintage S&K, Proto, are all good. Vintage J.H. Williams too.

Originally Posted by 10Pups

I think if you check into the warranty on the sears tools the U.S.A. made ones are life time. That's the way it used to be when they came out with the Sears brand vrs the Craftsman...snip..:

And unfortunately that is often a call by the store manager. I have been told that that is no longer the case in a couple stores, so I shop at the ones that do the warranty swap." I also tell the creep store manager that my friends and I will shop other Sears stores in the future.
~Richard

Same experiance as geezer,but the quality of U.S made Craftsman tools is still very good. is pretty rare to break them.
Only time I have broken one is using a non-impact socket with an impact gun (no I did not try to return it)
Now for you straight razor folks,Palmera made fantastic wrenches back in the day and still do,have not seen any of the new stuff but vintage from the 30s/40s are very fine tools.

Originally Posted by Geezer

And unfortunately that is often a call by the store manager. I have been told that that is no longer the case in a couple stores, so I shop at the ones that do the warranty swap." I also tell the creep store manager that my friends and I will shop other Sears stores in the future.
~Richard

I wonder if you went up the food chain to a higher management level that the answer might be that it has a life time warranty. Wouldn't be the first time a store manager has made up the rules to help his profitability report.

Bob

Sears Clarifies Craftsman Tools Warranty

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Sears Clarifies Craftsman Tools Warranty

Well that answers my question and the answer was what I suspected it would be. Thanks for posting that.

Bob