Craftsman replacing Kobalt?

[97RangerXLT]

I know not all of you have a Menards near by, but their MasterForce tool series is pretty decent. Most of my wrenches and sockets are from the late 80s to mid 90s, including a lot of Craftsman. If I need to replace them, I would probably go with Masterforce for quality, but as Dirtman said, Sunex is pretty decent for the price. I bought two huge Sunex wrenches (36mm and 1 5/16" for the fan clutch and pitman arm on the Ranger respectively) and the quality of both of them was on par of the 90s era Craftsman wrenches. the only thing I could ding Sunex on is that they didn't de bur the wrenches as well, but otherwise a decent wrench. and only 14 bucks for the 1 5/16" and 17 bucks for the 36 mm. a Husky or Kobalt equivelent was over 45 bucks for each of them.

while I have not tried these out, the Tekton tools look pretty decent as well. they are sold at Meijer. I have a few HF breaker bars and a cheapo pittsburgh wrench set that I keep in my pull a part box, and they do not have the tolerances that the Craftsman tools that I have. but, that being said, my set is probably 15 years old when HF really did have crappy tools, and now they are putting out some pretty decent stuff.

if you want some good tool advice, check out The Garage Gazette. I haven't been on in a while, but they have some good stuff there. https://garagegazette.com/

AJ

 

[Josh B]

I never used Kobalt, but then I seldom went to Lowes looking for tools(maybe a saw blade or something)
Even before this thread if you'd asked if I had any Kobalt, I wouldn't probly thought some kind of mineral.

I did recently buy a Husky step ladder. I knew they were good from seeing them on the job sites for many years.
I went to find it online and typed in "Husky" but it started showing me nothing but Werners. After investigating that a bit I learned Werner was Home Depot's replacement for it.

I began to see this principle first applied at Kmart in the 70s an 80s, they'd change their stock every few months to where you could no longer get parts for it etc, meaning you'd have to buy their new one.

Most of the brand names have pretty much followed suit over the years, I saw it in Sears tools in the 90s I guess, they'd change their tools a bit every 6 months or so, including the stock number attributed to it(meaning that's how long the warranty was good) and simply say "we don't carry those any more"
I know this wasn't a blanket practice, but was still all too common.

I had a Craftsman hoe that had been pretty good but one day while chopping some weeds the blade broke off and I saw it had always had an air pocket in it, but it was solid steel.
Took it to Sears and warranted it and they gave me a cheapo pos made in Mexico equal to a dollar store special.
I wished I had just taken the old to someone with a welder

 

[Dirtman]

the blade broke off and I saw it had always had an air pocket in it, but it was solid steel.

It's called porosity!

 

[Uncle Gump]

The last few purchases of tools I've made have been Milwaukee Tools and were for my mobile tool bag. It lives in my truck for emergency truck repairs and also for restaurant maintenance.

The coolest was the two screw driver set (phillips and flat blade) with through handle shafts with a metal cap on the handle... designed to be beat with a hammer. Because who hasn't beat a screw driver to death with a hammer?I know I have... these things rock for the $9.95 price tag at Home Depot.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

A few years ago I was in Lowe's and they had their largest kobalt hand tool sets on managers special for $99. Being a shameless cheap-assed bast*rd, and almost never missing a clearance sale,I grabbed a set. That set became my junkyard and every day kit at work. Not a bad set overall. The six point sockets are "good" and the 12 points are garbage. The Torx and Allen sockets are absolute junk. Spanners are worthless for anything rusted; box ends strip when used in conjunction with an impact, and the open ends are just for show.

The redeeming factor for that kit was the ratchets. The older chrome kobalt ratchets were really good, imo. Have beat the hell out of mine. My protos are still my go to for at home (I won't risk losing them at the JY) because you can literally beat them like a breaker bar to get stuff apart. But the kobalts have done really well fighting Detroit rust and Berlin loctite (every fastener on Benz and Volvo has effing German/Sweetish versions of loctite all over them. The stuff is miserable when salt gets to it).

All in all, that set has been "ok" considering it was marked down from $399. If I paid full price, I'd be p*ssed. For $99 though I'm happy.

However.

A few weeks ago I was in Lowe's and saw a few tool sets in the clearance bin. They seemed to be the new version of my set, with a few more spanners and missing the 1/2 inch drive stuff. Black phosphate finish, and square tooth sockets vs traditional 6/12 point.

Bought two sets for $60/each. Figured they'd make good "Oh sh*t" tool kits to toss in the back of the fleet trucks. Nothing exceptional, just enough to get someone out of a bind. Saw it as a good sized kit for the price.

It's been about three weeks. Both sets went back to Lowe's yesterday. Every single ratchet broke off their gears first use (on newer bolts, mind you, nothing rusted). Additionally, the square tooth sockets are NOT sized properly. Spanners are somehow worse than the old ones.

Every. Single. Piece. Is lower in quality than the "old" HF garbage tools (their older Chicago/Pittsburgh junk series, not their good ones).

I cannot understate how horrible they are. My knuckles are currently busted up from one of the 1/4 inch ratchets that blew apart taking the throttle body off a GM 6.0 (thanks Lowe's!). The internal teeth in the ratchet exploded on a 10mm. Violently. Granted, this is partially my fault for no gloves (I'm anal about gloves now, got tired of scrubbing grease out of cuts), but still. I've literally put the boots to the older ones. Never hurt them. New black phosphate ones couldn't even handle a single grunt pushing on them.

I'll stick to my HF pro series sockets. As for ratchets? Picked up one of the icon ones. So far so good, but I'll take my protos any day.

 

[4.0blue98]

I've had a variety of cheap stuff and decent stuff over the years. Never a really expensive big name set. I have only broken a few of the really cheap no-name generic ratchets. I usually am quick to go to a breaker instead of whaling away on a ratchet. I have used Kobalt and like them! I have some old Craftsman and like them! Not sure about newer stuff but found a 193 pc set for $75 on a clearance rack at Ross's (I shouldn't complain about shopping with the wife I guess). All intact and Made in the USA. Guess it was an old leftover? It currently resides behind the drivers seat of my Ranger.

Side note: I've had a set of Metrinch that was a gift over 25 years ago. Their sets are expensive but I use it most times for smaller stuff. Only a 3/8 set but I can't break that ratchet. Almost impossible to round a bolt or nut off with them too.

 

[Josh B]

Craftsman went to China a long time ago, not even exactly sure when, but I doubt they advertised it. Seems to be everything begins heading downhill these days shortly after it's inception(as opposed to basically pre WWII)

After WW2 the Japanese geared up to do manufacturing, and by the early 60s were into just about every market we had. Why? Because they were doing it "cheaper". Growing up in the 50s and 60s I remember my father took us on a lot of family trips, although we were in no ways wealthy, my father took good care of us. We'd sometimes stop at little gas station/souvenir shops, dad would gas up the car while we'd take a break and look around inside, and laugh at the "local" souvenirs all having a "Made in Japan" sticker on the bottom.

By the time I was coming of age darn near every market we had(save groceries) was all but dominated by the Japanese, not sure about my bicycle(likely from Montgomery Wards), but my first bike was an "old" Suzuki, and the next one was a Honda, they were both fairly tough. When I started getting into vehicles they were mostly 2nd hand USA.
65 Biscayne, 64 Impala, 63 Chevy Fleetside, 64 Galaxy 500, 73 Ford Econoline. Hek, I don't remember the first time I got into a foreign car, yes I do, my Moms 70 VW Karman Gia (wasn't even thinking of that side of the pond( Yes, it has certainly become a small world)

Then through the 80s and "free trade" we watched all our long trusted manufacturers pack up and go to Taiwan, Bangledesh, India, China, that list is endless, and even as we speak keeps on growing
WELL
They say we don't always get what we want,
BUT
The corporations wanted "profits"
AND
We wanted "cheap"

 

[sgtsandman]

Yeah, Japan wasn’t cheap enough because, they gave a crap about quality still. Well, to the most part. I had a couple earlier Japanese vehicles that the powertrain would run forever. The body would rust out under you but the powertrains were bullet proof.

China could care less as long as the product gets sold and last long enough to make it past the 60-90 day warranty.

 

[Snoranger]

I’ve broken every brand tool there is... it’s inevitable. It all boils down to :
1) How long they last before they break.
2) How well they fit the nut/bolt.

-Cheap tools don’t do either well.
-Mid range tools fit better and strip less bolts.
-The big ticket brands are built to better tolerances and just fit nuts/bolts better, thus they tend to loosen stuff that cheap tools strip. In the flat rate world, cheap tools cost me more money then expensive tools.

 

[91stranger]

I have a lot of craftsmen stuff that I bought while working at sears from 2008-2012ish and I have yet to break anything. I've put breaker bars on socket wrenches, pryed like the dickens on flat head screwdrivers, Used regular sockets on an impact gun and still yet to break. I know craftsman isn't the same as what it was even 10 years ago but I'd rather buy a craftsman socket set over anything else just because they don't skip sockets like everyone else does. I still get pissed when I look at a nice socket set and it's missing the 14mm, 16mm or the 18mm. Not gonna waste money on a "set" when it's missing sockets. I have a Kobalt pass thru socket set I bought off a friend for $25 and it has 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2" and its a really nice set, well, one of the ratchets has a broken tooth so it skips every now and then. I take it to Lowes and they don't even carry that same set or even those ratchets. My options were to trade the pass thru ratchet for a regular ratchet (WTF) or trade the entire set for a smaller set with 1/3 less sockets. I said hell no, I'll just deal with the ratchet skipping from time to time. I don't use this much since it is a pass thru socket set but it pissed me off because the set wasn't even a year old. Couldn't even find the same ratchet online either. HF stuff has gone up in quality. They still skip 14mm, 16mm and 18mm from time to time but you get what you pay for. Same goes for wrenches, STOP SKIPPING SIZES.

 

[4x4junkie]

I can't remember having ever used the 16mm sizes in my Craftsman tool sets from the '80s and early '90s... The 18mm though, yeah, that one missing from all the other brands is very annoying. (ironically, many (most?) of them sell the 18mm separately as a single tool too, so it's not like they don't make that size...)

I bought a bunch of crap from HF back in 2005 after I had my BII up and going. The tools looked cheap as far as quality, but somehow they (the hand wrenches anyway) have held up remarkably well. My biggest gripe is the smaller size wrenches have a rather thick halo at the box-end, and occasionally doesn't fit into tight clearances well (and of course the missing 18MM wrench which I had to buy from somewhere else).

Don't ever buy HF snap ring pliers though, the one I bought didn't last a single use (they were $2.99 IIRC), I bought Channellock brand snap ring pliers ($12 or somewhere thereabouts) which have held up well.

I did recently buy a Husky step ladder. I knew they were good from seeing them on the job sites for many years.
I went to find it online and typed in "Husky" but it started showing me nothing but Werners. After investigating that a bit I learned Werner was Home Depot's replacement for it.

I think it's the other way 'round... Husky is Home Depot's house brand, Werner is the ladder manufacturer.
I've had a fiberglass Werner step ladder for maybe 30 years now. Quality stuff for sure (or at least back then it was, anyway). No fiberglass splinters yet either (I dread the day that starts happening though lol)

 

[Josh B]

Not for ladders it isn't

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I can't remember having ever used the 16mm sizes in my Craftsman tool sets from the '80s and early '90s... The 18mm though, yeah, that one missing from all the other brands is very annoying. (ironically, many (most?) of them sell the 18mm separately as a single tool too, so it's not like they don't make that size...)

I bought a bunch of crap from HF back in 2005 after I had my BII up and going. The tools looked cheap as far as quality, but somehow they (the hand wrenches anyway) have held up remarkably well. My biggest gripe is the smaller size wrenches have a rather thick halo at the box-end, and occasionally doesn't fit into tight clearances well (and of course the missing 18MM wrench which I had to buy from somewhere else).

Don't ever buy HF snap ring pliers though, the one I bought didn't last a single use (they were $2.99 IIRC), I bought Channellock brand snap ring pliers ($12 or somewhere thereabouts) which have held up well.




I think it's the other way 'round... Husky is Home Depot's house brand, Werner is the ladder manufacturer.
I've had a fiberglass Werner step ladder for maybe 30 years now. Quality stuff for sure (or at least back then it was, anyway). No fiberglass splinters yet either (I dread the day that starts happening though lol)

I would just lay down some resin if the fiberglass gets feathers.

 

[Shran]

I have almost zero HF hand tools in my collection. Couple oddball ratcheting wrenches and a set of 1/2" impact sockets is all (and I HATE those, by the way, either the 1/2" drive hole is too big and falls off the impact, or the other end is too big and doesn't fit fasteners worth a crap.) Lifetime warranty on HF tools is pointless when I break them the first time I use them or they don't work right and then it takes an hour to stand in line and get a replacement.

Kobalt... meh. On par with HF. I have one flex head 1/4" ratchet that I really like but I haven't kept any of the other junk I've gotten from there.
Craftsman wrenches are IMO the best tool they have ever made. The only one I've ever trashed was the open end of an 8mm wrench. They are otherwise excellent quality - just about everything else they made is crap, though, unfortunately.

One other brand worth mentioning is Duralast from Autozone. Weird place to buy tools but everything I've picked up from there is good stuff. I like their ratchets and magnetic spark plug swivel sockets.

My collection right now is about 60% GearWrench, 20% Craftsman, 10% NAPA Carlyle, and 10% Sunex, GP, and other random stuff. I really like the GearWrench line but the metal they use for the sockets is a little soft and deforms pretty quick... my only complaint. Sunex has been hit or miss, their impact sockets are pretty good but their wrenches are crap. GP/Grey Pneumatic is top quality but hard to find.

For those who don't know, Stanley makes a lot of the MAC tools and GearWrench/APEX makes most of the Matco and TEQ (Carquest/Advance brand.)

 

[4x4junkie]

Not for ladders it isn't

Husky indeed is Home Depot's house brand.

Husky (disambiguation) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Werner is a private manufacturer primarily of ladders. They are sold at many retailers, not just Home Depot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Co

.