Hi, straying off from tools, once I tried a trumpet made in India. The guy who owns it bought it for 80.00 plus 20.00 shipping. Brand spanking new horn. When I tried it, wow, this thing is seriously stuffy. No way I could play it like normal. My horn is '70's vintage Besson, made in U.K.
professional
Never tried a Snap-On tool, but I would guess they're decent quality from what I've heard.
I'm still using a Husky ratchet set I got in the 60's to work on my first car and never had a problem with any of its parts. Even the plastic case is still like new.
I got curious.... Starting in the 70's, Husky went thorough a series of being bought & sold and manufacturing moved off shore. Now Home Depot owns the trademark.
It's interesting to read the ratchet patent that Husky founder Sigmund Mandl received in 1927:
Was Herbrand made by Her Husband, who posts here on occasion.
Herbrand was a Canadian tool supplier that ran trucks like SnapOn. I actually liked many of their products better than Snapon. Herbrand trucks usually also carried SK tools
In the states, Mac Tools also had trucks that went to work sites. They were good tools at the time ('70s) but the company was bought by Stanley. Some Stanley products are good, some are crap so I don't know how the Mac line is these days.
Hang on to them. Mine go back to 1963 and they are much better than what they have today.
I knew there was anotherame I had missed. We had MAC up here too. Just saw a MAC tool truck within the last month or so. Might have been "parkrd" - cannot remember. Didn't realize Stanley had bought MAC. Most Stanley tools are clunky industrial looking things - gussied up with coloured chrome (UGH)
I fully intend to. I'll be letting my mechanic's licence lapse on my
62nd birthday. Been licenced underDept of labour, Colleges and Universities, and now the College of Trades over a period of 45 years. The big tool chest occupies a position of honour in my crowded garage!On 4/26/2014 8:38 AM, snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote: ...
MAC still going...they're still operating as independent even though no longer self-owned. What I've seen recently doesn't appear to have been changed any.
I've Craftsman socket sets dating back to late-50s/early-60s as well and there are still some here on the farm from grandfather's era of the 20s/30s.
I've bought a few replacement/fill-in (mostly metric, ugh!!! :) ) since and my impression is that the sockets themselves are just as good but the quality of ratchets and particularly the "fit and finish" are way off. I've a couple of ratchets that never use for that reason but it was cheaper to buy the whole sets than the individual sockets/combinations.
I've seen the same trend w/ the hand tools as well, unfortunately--they may be as hard but they've really cheapened the finishing operations to cut costs.
Now that Sears has sold off Craftsman and it's every where, not sure where it'll go from here--probably can't be good.
You could buy S&K tools cheap in the early 70s. I think I paid $12 for a set of S&K metric sockets, 7mm-19mm, in a steel rack holder.
nb
Depends where the new owners want to take it. Could well be better than if retained by K-Mart
He was talking about the vertical, not the horizontal.
That may have been true a while ago, but not anymore.
Lowes partnered with a division of Snap-on back in 1998, then starting in
2003 the Kobalt line was made by Danaher, the same company that made/makes Craftsmen, NAPA, Matco, Armstong and many others. Obviously not all Danaher lines are/were of the same quality.Even more recently (2011?) the Kobalt line began to be made by JS Products, another company that manufactures tools under various names, including Steelman specialty automotive tools.
It's tough to keep track of who is who these days.
My job requires constant use of screwdrivers. The best most wear resistant ones I ever had were the cheap black and yellow stanley ones. The gripped better than craftsman. Sadly they arent this good anymore:(
From time to time I misuse screwdrivers. When something ABSOUTELY MUST come apart..
Here's what Consumer Reports said in their latest review of ratchet/socket sets, from Aug., 1993 (their latest review of camera tripods is about 20 years older than that). They said Snap-On and Craftsman 3/8" and 1/4" ratchets were equally strong and durable and lasted over 30,000 strokes (the limit of their testing), while the worst ratchets wore out in 10,000 strokes.
Sears has 3 grades of Craftsman hand tools:
...
Well, the holding company still owns it but they've gotten into the licensing the name game so that one presumes the likelihood is a repeat of Stanley hardware and the like with the ill-fated garage door opener line and all that kind of stuff. Fly-by-nighters will come in w/ all kinds of promises to feast off the name recognition and milk it for a while and then be gone would be my best guess of what'll happen...
sears is being broken up by eddie lampert for one last get rich effort. Its tragically sad to see a once proud merchant destroyed just to make a buck....
without concern for the company or its workers
That must be why SnapOn prints on the handles of their screwdrivers: WARNING: This is not a crowbar.
Joe
Snap On for me every time.
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