Re: Why do you buy Snap-on tools?

On 07 Nov 2003 04:03 PM, Neil Nelson posted the following:

The most obvious trait to me is how easily the chrome plating > chips/peels from the cheap brand tools (Craftsman, Matco, Mac), > not what I'd want floating around inside the engine of the next > airliner I get on. :-(

We obviously aren't using the same Mac and Craftsman tools. Never used Matco so I can't say about them.

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Reply to
Del Rawlins
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Not unless you're sneaking into my shop when I'm not looking...

As I posted earlier, my first experience with them was somewhat less than impressive.

Reply to
Neil Nelson

I have had Craftsman tools forever. I have never seen any plating peel. The only ones I ever took back was a 1/4" rachet and a couple of screwdrivers that may have suffered misuse. Just alittle thought on this subject. My Brother worked in a foundry in Ohio back in the 70s. He had buckets of unplated sockets that wern't scribed with size or name brand.. They were made for Sears, Montgomery Ward, JC Penny and others. Snap-on makes their own. They invented the socket. When I worked in a garage, the Snap-on man bent over backwards to try to get me in a kit. I would belly up to the truck every week with the other guys and wouldn't find anything I couldn't get cheaper at Sears. I still have a JC Penny deep socket set. I wonder how they will honor the warranty since they quit selling tools long ago.

Reply to
TOLYN9

Come on... Craftsman screwdrivers are absolute shit.

So, for you, it's all about cost/price.

Probably the same way they handle the warranty on their warrantied forever automotive batterys.

Reply to
Neil Nelson

No, but then if you have a Snap-On dealer then you have his number and can maybe get in contact with him to maybe get one. If not and you need one, then I suggest to go to sears and pick up about 6 or 7 of theirs because that is what its going to take to get the job done providing that one of them will break it loose. If you had to put that much pressure on a Snap-On socket to get the job done, I hope you really don't think the Craftsman one would hold up.

Patrick

Reply to
Pt3

Is this a trick question?

I worked for a paving contractor back in '79, little if any paving was done on Saturdays, especially that late in the day. 8^)

To answer your question, yes, I'd call him on his cell phone and he'd either deliver it or someone would chase him down and retrieve the socket. If he wasn't available, I have the names and numbers of at least four other area dealers, three industrial reps, one industrial regional manager, three field managers, two tech reps and the branch manager. I have keys (and free reign)to two other shops in town... As a last resort, S-O world headquarters is one hour away, and their Milwaukee plant is 20 minutes away... I have 1 1/8" sockets in multiple configurations, a mig welder, access to a stick welder, steel in stock, so it would be a minor annoyance at best.

The only thing that stops me are incompetent parts houses. (but that's another thread)

Reply to
Neil Nelson

"bowman" wrote

Actually, yes. Which is one of the reasons I buy Snap-On tools almost exclusively. My dealer is excellent, he'll even help me split a worn out socket or whatever needs to be done to get warranty on the tools. He's super with credit if you need to go that route. I have his cell phone and he'll deliver what I need, or trade me a loaner while he repairs certain types of tools. The tools themselves are excellent, and I suspect that you pay for all the service you get. I don't have time/energy to go off to the Sears or CT stores to swap out broken tools on a regular basis.

Probably like any other technician...I do have a mish/mash of tool brands in my box. I still have most of the Craftsmen wrenches and sockets I bought when I started in the trade. They were much better quality back then and I still use can use their chrome thinwall

12 point sockets on the end of my 1/2" impact wrench with good results.

I do refuse to buy Snap-on screwdrivers in any large quantities...but this has to do with me....not with the quality of the screwdrivers. I lose screwdrivers faster then I can buy them and so I only have a couple of good ones (that I have to work hard at keeping around) and I get the rest of my screwdrivers from garage sales. Actually, you can find some really nice solid old screwdrivers at garage sales. I buy a ton of them for 50 cents each, and if I lose them or break them because I use them as a small pry bar...oh well!

Ian

Reply to
shiden_kai

You buy enough tools and he will. He probably will not for the gent that has bought a couple of sockets and a screwdriver or two. But I know for a fact that a fiend of mine that is a Snap-On rep will deliver on a emergeny. Even on weekends. Greg

Reply to
Greg O

On Sat, 08 Nov 2003 09:43:40 -0700, bowman brought forth from the murky depths:

It's Sunday evening and your MAC 3/4" socket on your Crapsman 1/2" drive ratchet is OK. It's the gear head in the Crapsman drive which has crapped out...again. You take your 1/4" Snap-On ratchet and a couple of adapters, lay on a 2' long pipe for torsion, and remove the stuck bolt without any further hitch. Is there a chance in hell that Searz makes housecalls? Although I lost the lever which changes directions on the little Snap-On ratchet, it is still heavier duty than the old pushbutton Crapsman ratchet that I replaced for the umpteenth time in 1979. MAC, Matco, Snap-On, and Cromwell were my favorites after that. The times I returned to Searz after that were a) to show them the bloody effin' stump which was the result of their latest product failure and b) to get the replacement "tool". They've had no money from me since then. AFAIC, warranties are only as good as the tool. If you have to constantly stop work due to broken tools, it's not worth it and the warranty sucks. On top of that, it was hard to get the local Searz clones to accept some of the tools for warranty. The late 70's and early 80's sucked at Searz.

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Reply to
Larry Jaques

Around here, the battery warranty was moved over to the Firestone Stores. I never bought a JC Penny battery, but a good friend did. He had it repalced twice at Firestone for free befor ehte car finally went away.

Ed

Reply to
C. E. White

This is where you guys are driving me crazy. I have seen the manufacturer's specs for both the Craftsman sockets (the ones made by Danaher aka Easco) and Snap-On. The materials are virtually the same, the heat treating specified is virtually the same. The Snap-On sockets have slightly tighter tolerances and thinner walls. There is no reason to expect the Snap On socket to be significantly stronger than the Craftsman sockets. In fact, I'd say the opposite was true in many cases because the Snap-On socket have thinner walls. I believe that Craftsman Sockets are at the large end of the permitted range (there are industry specs for socket ODs) in order to make them less vulnerable to damage in order to reduce warranty costs.

Ed

Reply to
C. E. White

On 08 Nov 2003 08:04 PM, C. E. White posted the following:

A buddy of mine was a parachute rigger in the air national guard and he mentioned the tool inventory thing to me once. Never heard the one about chrome plated tools.

---------------------------------------------------- Del Rawlins- del@_kills_spammers_rawlinsbrothers.org Remove _kills_spammers_ to reply via email. Unofficial Bearhawk FAQ website:

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Reply to
Del Rawlins

I agree. I also hate the square shafts

Sure price is a concern. I have broken very few hand tools. I won't hesitate to smack a wrench with a hamer. If it breaks, so what. . Its just a wrench. and I have others. Does Strap- on offer same day replacement? Sears does. I am guessing Snap-ons don't get abused like the cheapos. You paid too damn much to risk having to wait till the guy comes around on payday to get another. I worked with anal retentive Snap-on man,( A strange cat indeed). I have a tool box , not a shrine. .

Reply to
TOLYN9

Seems like I've heard of most tool manufactures going through plating, brittle and/or whatever spells from time to time. Even the great Snap On had a bad plating problem for a while...

Snap On makes most of their line in black oxide finish too... pretty much the same thing, but cheaper, and slightly less apt to 'walk off' from various shops that supply tools. I've heard a Snap On industrial rep tell buyers to shut up technicians moaning over not getting chrome tools by using the plating contamination 'line'.

You have to be careful to keep a coat of oil on the black oxides... and they're a little easier to misplace because of the dark color... but are otherwise the same.

Erik

Reply to
Erik

Same thing one of my customers has gone thru. The last time, JCP offered to buy out the warranty for a flat fee. He declined.

Reply to
Neil Nelson

So why is it that when I was a young buck, I was constantly having to warranty Craftsman sockets even though they weren't being used on air tools and in the last 20 years or so with Snap-On, I can't remember the last time I handed in a broken socket that I did not deliberately break?

I have very vivid memories from 1973 when I needed to remove the differential carrier from my 1970 Challenger w 7 1/4" rear axle, I broke (by hand) five or six 9/16" Craftsman sockets attempting to remove the bearing cap bolts, by the time I -did- get it apart, the bolt heads were so mesed up from the breaking sockets, I had to replace them. Now a days, I rebuild at least one rear axle a month, and broken tools are not a problem. (Solution to that problem was another renter from the apartment complex I was living in taking pity on me and going to his fathers factory and getting me a Snap-On socket to use...)

Is it possible that the specs you're recalling were for impact type sockets which very well could spec out the same?

Reply to
Neil Nelson

Sure, to the same extent that any other tool vendor offers same day replacement, i.e., you can go to Sears for a warranty, but if they are out of stock, you won't get it the same day from that store. I remember taking a 1/4"X5/16" ratcheting box wrench back to Sears for warranty a number of years ago, every single one that they had hanging on the peg was broken exactly the same as the one I wanted replaced. Apparently their sales drones were doing the same thing with hand tools as was being done in the auto repair section with automotive batterys.

If it's in stock. If the Snap-On dealer doesn't have a particular wrench or socket in stock, he'll almost always have something of the same size that he took on trade that you can use to tide you over. He can also arrange to get it from another dealer in a bordering territory.

Sure they do. I live in the rust belt, any vehicle over six years old is going to present problems with rust frozen fasteners.

He stops on Mondays, which isn't payday. 8^) Damn near impossible for a Snap-On dealer to adjust his route schedule so that he only stops at shops on their payday (think about it), if and when that -does- happen, it's a sure indication that that shop or employees employed there have demonstrated problems with -their- ability to manage money.

Then again, only amateurs have only one wrench or socket in any one particular size.

???

Same here. They are income property.

Reply to
Neil Nelson

No, but it is possible that the specs for the Craftsman sockets were different in 1973. Sears constantly bids out the Craftsman tools to different manufacturers. I only saw the specs for the Easco made sockets. I don't think they were making the sockets in 1973. However, I still have most of the sockets from my 1973 set and I've never split one (and I have been know to use air tools on them in a pinch). Funny thing is, the only split socket I have in my tool kit is a 14mm Snap On deep six point socket. I originally bought the Snap On socket becasue the Craftman socket's OD was too large to fit down in the well around the nuts on my JH cam carriers. I split it using an air wrech on it after pounding it down over a rounded off 9/16" nut. I guess I need to chase down a truck to get a replacement:)

Ed

Reply to
C. E. White

That would be from the same era that my first set came from. The ratchets were definitely made by Easco though I suspect that Western iron was the socket vendor. Broke plenty of sockets back then as related earlier.

So it wasn't necessarily the torque that broke it as much as it might have been the wedging action from pounding it on.

I think I have a Craftsman 9/16 deep that I bought specifically for R & Ring the jet valves from Mitsushitty 2.6s because they're broached full length.

Or drop it off at a trusted local garage and have them trade it in.

Reply to
Neil Nelson

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