Many years ago I had amassed a combination of Craftsman, Snap-On and Matco hand tools. While I really liked the Matco and Snap-On tools, they might be outside my means for the occasional Shade Tree/Weekend/Race Car stuff.
I got a lot of flack in the shop for the Craftsman tools, but I liked them too. Well, I liked everything but the ratchets. They worked ok (nice beefy, comfortable handles) but the ratcheting mechanism felt cheap and failed periodically. The last 1/8" or so of the sockets had a bit of a flange to them, which liked to round off the corners of really short bolt heads. I didn't run into this often, and they were fine for most everything else, but I eventually ended up getting a set of sockets and a few ratchets off the Matco truck.
I had the older-style 'drop forged finish' wrenches, before they started making the 'Pro' wrenches with the mirror finish (to identify with Snap-On, MAC, Matco, etc). I remember correctly, they were actually more comfortable to use than the others, because they had a wider side. We're probably going back about 15 years or so, maybe everything is different now.
Ideally, I would wait until there's one of those huge mythical estate sales where you find a pair of Snap-On rollers loaded to the hilt for $1K, but in leu of that, how are Craftsman tools these days? I see their huge tool sales in the SEARS adverts, where you can get a pretty good starter set for a couple hundred bucks. They seem pretty hard to beat anywhere else, but how are the ratchets and sockets, these days?
Would it be worth it to spend the extra dough and get the 'professional' wrenches? Sure they're easier to clean, but are they more or less comfortable than the 'old style' wrenches? I've worked in an office for the last 7-8 years, so I have 'wimpy' hands now 0_o
There's always the dirt cheap stuff you find at Harbor Freight, or even Flea Markets. I always wrote that stuff off as junk, but I've never used any of it. Am I wrong?
Stepping up a little are the 'store brands' you find at places like Home Despot, et al. WorkForce, Husky, ToolTrade, etc. How are those?
Every once in awhile, I see people selling odds and ends of tools in the paper, but nothing's ever a complete set. I bet if I waited long enough I'd probably find something nice and decently priced, but who wants to do that?
Thanks for any suggestions or experiences.
-phaeton