Why people don't buy craftsman anymore

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Well the dont often break while sitting in the tool box now do they?

You are welcome to do as you please. It is still a free country
 
Craftsman power tools are rebrands from other manufacturers. They've reflected the overall decline in quality for at least 30 years.

The hand tools at least up through the early 2000s when I last bought some were fine quality.
 
72Dinger said:
Craftsman power tools are rebrands from other manufacturers. They've reflected the overall decline in quality for at least 30 years.

The hand tools at least up through the early 2000s when I last bought some were fine quality.
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Customers are weird. They bring me all types of stuff they think I may want or need.

Weird stuff.. one guy gave me a interior door knob because he "thought I could use it."


So a guy brought me a "very nice" Craftsman auto buffer/polisher thing. It was in a nice hard case and seemed like a decent tool... I brought it to my detail guy to see if he wanted it and he straight up laughed at me. He said wait one sec... grabbed some polish and plugged that puppy in.. it wasn't fit to dust off an old boot..
It went in the dumpster... fancy case and all.


:rofl:
 
My Snap on Tools comes to my HOUSE when I need something. ...and I live way out in the country. It's tough to beat service like that. They also have tools no one else offers. I have plenty of Craftsman and other brands as well.
 
Treblig said:
I took one "craftsman" older rachet in for exchange after 20 years of use. The replacement didn't last 6 months. That tells me that the newer stuff is crap. So I cruise garage sales and look for older craftsman stuff or buy what I need (older stuff) off of ebay.
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That's the shitty part. You take in a USA-made tool that was a workhorse for 20-30 years, and end up getting it replaced with junk made in Taiwan with the same brand name.

Same thing happened to me last year. I broke a 20 year old USA-made Husky 3/8" ratchet. Home Depot was great about replacing it, but the Taiwan-made one that replaced it with is junk compared to the old one. Even the employee noticed the huge difference as he held both of them. Oh well, I guess.
 
Treblig said:
The best craftsman stuff is found at garage sales. I always look for the older stuff, like old vice grips. Most of the newer stuff is crap!!!!
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This goes for everything. I have a couple of new apprentices in the hangar and the Snap-On tools that they're buying now are garbage compared to the ones in my box from 20+ years ago. Their pliers are visibly rusting after only a month in their toolbox and their screwdriver's rubber handles are deteriorating with exposure to hydraulic fluids. My decades-old pliers are still corrosion-free with the gunmetal surfaces faded but intact, and my plastic-handled screwdrivers are seemingly resistant to everything.
 
OP said.
"So I get another one, get it home and unpacked, start running it and huge air leak again but this time the leak sounds like it's coming from near the motor. So I look around and find a loose fitting . All I had to do was tighten the fitting and problem solved. All ended well but gee whiz is it so hard for them to take care of the issues like they are supposed to."

Well good to see you have it leak free. I have to admit the Gee Whiz comment made me laugh.
I didn't think anyone under 60 used that.
Golly that takes me back.:thumbsup:
 
12 point sockets.... WHY? Grab a thick 6 point or better yet an unplated black 6 point impact socket and put that 18" breaker bar to the test! Only time ill use a 12 point is on a 12 point nut. I have not used my 3/8 drive stuff in years. It's all 1/2 drive with its sockets down to 3/8 and up to 1 3/8 (or 28mm). I have a no name 1/2 ratchet that is nice: beefy, nice contoured grip, polished finish. Has never let me down even with a 3 foot piece of pipe on it to break a lug nut. I have a bucket of 3/8 drive sockets that is dusty now.
 
DemonDave said:
This goes for everything. I have a couple of new apprentices in the hangar and the Snap-On tools that they're buying now are garbage compared to the ones in my box from 20+ years ago. Their pliers are visibly rusting after only a month in their toolbox and their screwdriver's rubber handles are deteriorating with exposure to hydraulic fluids. My decades-old pliers are still corrosion-free with the gunmetal surfaces faded but intact, and my plastic-handled screwdrivers are seemingly resistant to everything.
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Which only goes to show.
There's no tool like an old tool.
 
DemonDave said:
This goes for everything. I have a couple of new apprentices in the hangar and the Snap-On tools that they're buying now are garbage compared to the ones in my box from 20+ years ago. Their pliers are visibly rusting after only a month in their toolbox and their screwdriver's rubber handles are deteriorating with exposure to hydraulic fluids. My decades-old pliers are still corrosion-free with the gunmetal surfaces faded but intact, and my plastic-handled screwdrivers are seemingly resistant to everything.
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Some of that can be blamed on the tree huggers. Lots of materials and finishes we used to take for granted are no longer RHOS or EPA compliant and so inferior coatings, plastics, and chemicals take their place. Some of it is driven by cost, but in the past few years it's also been driven by artificial shortages caused by over-regulation (or poorly managed regulation) holding certain products hostage. Nylon 6/6 became rare as gold due to some political shenanigans and lots of companies shifted to straight nylon 6 (inferior) or some other material - none of which are better than 6/6 unless you pay an ungodly premium for it.

On metals, good chromate went out the window. It was a great corrosion inhibitor. Hard chrome has also disappeared to a significant degree. Only a few dwindling number of places offer it, and only under 'grandfathered' operating licenses.

Soft touch materials universally suck, but the younger generation has been coddled with rubber on every 'touch point' since birth, and so designers feel they're necessary even on hard-use items. They're NOT. Soft materials are weaker by their very nature, and none are completely impervious to chemicals. Only a few can resist hydraulic fluids, and only one or two can resist DEET and hydraulic fluids.

I wish tool makers would build some of today's good tech (high voltage lithium batteries and brushless motors) into cast magnesium housings finished with hexavalent chromate. Best of both worlds, IMO. But then our tools would last more than a few years and they'd likely go out of business.
 
Princess Valiant said:
They sure don't make them like they used to.

First off I'm a craftsman fan, I don't care where they are made or how shitty the quality control is, I'm staying with them. However, I'm seeing exactly why they are not what they used to be.

On black Friday i went to lowes and bought a 33 gallon compressor. My old craftsman compressor was bought on black Friday in 2003 so all those years out of a compressor was excellent but the old thing is tired and it's time for a new one.

So they load up the new one on Friday and I get it home and unpack it and run it and I hear a pretty mean air leak. Turns out there is a 1 and quarter inch plug on the bottom that houses the drain plug. The plug lug is supposed to have an O ring. The o ring was broke and only pieces of the o ring remained. I couldn't find an o ring and didn't have time for it so back to lowes it went to get another compressor.

So I get another one, get it home and unpacked, start running it and huge air leak again but this time the leak sounds like it's coming from near the motor. So I look around and find a loose fitting . All I had to do was tighten the fitting and problem solved. All ended well but gee whiz is it so hard for them to take care of the issues like they are supposed to.

There's no more plug and play, there's only buy, quality check it yourself, service it, and maybe play.

Once I pulled teeth and got it going, it's beautiful.... much quieter and faster than the old one.

View attachment 1715829106

View attachment 1715829107
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Craftsman in 2010ish moved their manufacturing to China. Their tools went to crap along with Sears who used to sell them. Now they are owned by I believe Stanley. Which is also a Chinese made tool. IE junk.
 
Phreakish said:
Some of that can be blamed on the tree huggers. Lots of materials and finishes we used to take for granted are no longer RHOS or EPA compliant and so inferior coatings, plastics, and chemicals take their place. Some of it is driven by cost, but in the past few years it's also been driven by artificial shortages caused by over-regulation (or poorly managed regulation) holding certain products hostage. Nylon 6/6 became rare as gold due to some political shenanigans and lots of companies shifted to straight nylon 6 (inferior) or some other material - none of which are better than 6/6 unless you pay an ungodly premium for it.

On metals, good chromate went out the window. It was a great corrosion inhibitor. Hard chrome has also disappeared to a significant degree. Only a few dwindling number of places offer it, and only under 'grandfathered' operating licenses.

Soft touch materials universally suck, but the younger generation has been coddled with rubber on every 'touch point' since birth, and so designers feel they're necessary even on hard-use items. They're NOT. Soft materials are weaker by their very nature, and none are completely impervious to chemicals. Only a few can resist hydraulic fluids, and only one or two can resist DEET and hydraulic fluids.

I wish tool makers would build some of today's good tech (high voltage lithium batteries and brushless motors) into cast magnesium housings finished with hexavalent chromate. Best of both worlds, IMO. But then our tools would last more than a few years and they'd likely go out of business.
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Isn’t hexavalent chromate what caused PG and E to lose that giant law suit a while back for causing cancers and other crap?
 
dukeboy_318 said:
Isn’t hexavalent chromate what caused PG and E to lose that giant law suit a while back for causing cancers and other crap?
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Yeah, but it was being spray applied w/o respirators or something along those lines. Once applied, it's pretty inert unless you use it on your silverware.
 
RustyRatRod said:
My Snap on Tools comes to my HOUSE when I need something. ...and I live way out in the country. It's tough to beat service like that. They also have tools no one else offers. I have plenty of Craftsman and other brands as well.
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Same here. My snappy rep is a decent guy, gives me deals quite often mainly i think is because i pay for everything and if i do finance its paid off quick
Getting off track, i have some craftsman stuff,but its old. i buy the recip blades,in my opinion as good as if not better than Diablos
 
dukeboy_318 said:
Isn’t hexavalent chromate what caused PG and E to lose that giant law suit a while back for causing cancers and other crap?
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I worked in a Chromate plant back in the 70s. Luckily I only worked in the adjacent buildings but the Chromate workers had constant nose bleeds. Chromate dust will eat the septum (the membrane that separates the nostrils/sinuses). Those guys would brag about there green arms (stained green by the cromate pellets that they handled). I stayed as far as I could from that place even though I was assigned to that building every now and then. We would line up and load railroad cars full of 90 lb chromate bags. I tried to explain to the older workers that chromate was cancerous but they would just laugh. They would show off by digging their arms in barrels of Chromate pellets. Their arms would be stained green, then they would say, "You see this stuff is completely safe". I felt sorry for them and their lack of knowledge.
 
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Just wait until the welds on that Chinese tank let go and it detonates in your shop...
 
Princess Valiant said:
They sure don't make them like they used to.

First off I'm a craftsman fan, I don't care where they are made or how shitty the quality control is, I'm staying with them. However, I'm seeing exactly why they are not what they used to be.

On black Friday i went to lowes and bought a 33 gallon compressor. My old craftsman compressor was bought on black Friday in 2003 so all those years out of a compressor was excellent but the old thing is tired and it's time for a new one.

So they load up the new one on Friday and I get it home and unpack it and run it and I hear a pretty mean air leak. Turns out there is a 1 and quarter inch plug on the bottom that houses the drain plug. The plug lug is supposed to have an O ring. The o ring was broke and only pieces of the o ring remained. I couldn't find an o ring and didn't have time for it so back to lowes it went to get another compressor.

So I get another one, get it home and unpacked, start running it and huge air leak again but this time the leak sounds like it's coming from near the motor. So I look around and find a loose fitting . All I had to do was tighten the fitting and problem solved. All ended well but gee whiz is it so hard for them to take care of the issues like they are supposed to.

There's no more plug and play, there's only buy, quality check it yourself, service it, and maybe play.

Once I pulled teeth and got it going, it's beautiful.... much quieter and faster than the old one.

View attachment 1715829106

View attachment 1715829107
Click to expand...
It's still a peice of crap....
 
I have a Craftsman I want to say it's like a 25 gallon 30 gal or something got two wheels so you can tilt it and roll it but it's about as tall as the one in your picture.
But before that I bought one from Lowe's that's a 60 gallon for about 600 then.. when I moved I got the craftsman since there is no 220 in the garage... so its sat for 10 years now... looks like new still. I had bought to run the blast cabinet. I also bought my pops a 70 or 80 gallon that was 750 or 900 been so long now... he has gone through 2 motors on it in 16 years..lol

I miss the old pale green quite ingersoll rands... new **** sucks, it's all pot metal and Chininkered out...doesnt last.
 
pishta said:
12 point sockets.... WHY? Grab a thick 6 point or better yet an unplated black 6 point impact socket and put that 18" breaker bar to the test! Only time ill use a 12 point is on a 12 point nut. I have not used my 3/8 drive stuff in years. It's all 1/2 drive with its sockets down to 3/8 and up to 1 3/8 (or 28mm). I have a no name 1/2 ratchet that is nice: beefy, nice contoured grip, polished finish. Has never let me down even with a 3 foot piece of pipe on it to break a lug nut. I have a bucket of 3/8 drive sockets that is dusty now.
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Nope. A impact socket on a breaker bar will split it in two. They are not made for a steady pull like that. Just like chrome sockets on a impact. They will eat the anvil of your impact tool and are a dangerous hand grenade when they split. Use the proper tool.
 
GTFO...really? Now I was not expecting that! Ill let you know ASAP when I split an impact socket using a breaker bar.
 
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