Mechanic's Tools

FlaMtnBkr said:
I don't work with tools but have a home shop, 2 actually, that are filled with tools. They are all Craftsman which work great for me. I can just run up to Sears if I need something or one happens to break. Plus they put them on sale quite often where many things are half price.
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troll GTFO
 
Hahahahahahaha. Some people just don't understand. Craftsman tools are like comparing a Gerbers to a Sebenza. :)
 
Got Snap-On KRA4800 tools chest, Sk, Facom, Mastercraft for handtools and chinese drill bit to throw in the garbage after one use (lol)!
 
I got a set of KRL single bay top and bottom. The same set you see on NCIS:D Just about everything in it snap-on except a couple sets of sockets. Have a few HF to bend with a torch. Will pay the truck off and the tool credit to be done with this crap soon.
 
cool, it will be a great feeling to pay that sh&% off i am sure. I had a Matco 5s 72" box with hutch, was $8K and paid for it cash [may have had to pull off a couple jewel heists to do it but nonetheless, lol and muhehe] BUT had issues with: drawer detents, casters wouldnt stop the box when loaded, and the FN thing had a dent Matco refused to own. [plague be upon them] anywho i had it on evilbay for 18 FN months and finally got $4K for it. My lesson is dont get the 6 footer box until I have a more or less permanent well settled place for it. I had FN goobers offering me ridiculously low offers, but just had to wait the F'ers out.
 
I won't buy a new box. Seen too many get damaged in truck shops. Mine has paint faded, pain missing and a touch of rust. Someone bumps it with a trans jack or something I won't cry. Plus, they wash the floor with water hoses and caustic floor cleaner. Gonna stick to my 20 yr old box.
 
TheCarbideRat said:
troll GTFO
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I'm a troll and you're an idiot. The average person doesn't need a set of tools that cost as much as a car. Craftsman work fine and have a lifetime warranty and are affordable. I understand you can always buy a better brand but unlike a Gerber and a Sebenza I can't see how a snap on wrench will loosen a bolt any better/easier/more fashionably than a Sears wrench. I also don't like Sebenzas as I think you are paying for a name and are getting an average steel with a soft heat treat. I don't care that the flatness is held to 0.0005" tolerances because that doesn't make it cut better. I would rather pay half as much and get a sprint run Spyderco that cuts twice as long just like I would rather buy Craftsman tools that cost a third that I can walk into Sears and get replaced for free instead of waiting a month for a truck to stop by. And just to clarify the only tools I have had to replace under the warranty are screw drivers that were abused.
 
FlaMtnBkr said:
I'm a troll and you're an idiot. The average person doesn't need a set of tools that cost as much as a car. Craftsman work fine and have a lifetime warranty and are affordable. I understand you can always buy a better brand but unlike a Gerber and a Sebenza I can't see how a snap on wrench will loosen a bolt any better/easier/more fashionably than a Sears wrench. I also don't like Sebenzas as I think you are paying for a name and are getting an average steel with a soft heat treat. I don't care that the flatness is held to 0.0005" tolerances because that doesn't make it cut better. I would rather pay half as much and get a sprint run Spyderco that cuts twice as long just like I would rather buy Craftsman tools that cost a third that I can walk into Sears and get replaced for free instead of waiting a month for a truck to stop by. And just to clarify the only tools I have had to replace under the warranty are screw drivers that were abused.
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I don't see you as a troll, just someone stating the tools they use and what works for them. :thumbup:

You said "The average person doesn't need a set of tools that cost as much as a car" and your correct. I was the one that said if "I had the money I spent on tools I could buy a car". I too have some craftsman tools. But doing the work I do, building machines, I have seen my craftsman wrench heads flex and roll a nut, thus the need for Mac or snap on. When your really putting torque on a fastener, I want to know my wrench isn't going to slip or break, again not something the average person has to worry about when using Craftsman but something I worry about. There are lots of differences, sometimes that head that is slightly thinner on a Mac wrench makes all the difference getting into a tight spot. I had so many craftsman screwdrivers break, and sure you can replace them, but I was going to Sears too often, I bought a Mac screwdriver set and no more broken tips. What do I use at home...the craftsman tools I took home from work. How do they do at home...awsome.:)

Edit: I know it wasn't directed at me but our Mac truck comes once a week.:D I wish I didn't have too pay Mac prices, but I need that Mac quality for my job.
 
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hey, FMB, i originally wrote you a nice post. asking for pics of your shops EVEN.

BUT when you didnt come back within 72 hrs I just went ahead and judged you a troll,
you need to realize that mechanics sometimes have to guard themselves from putdowns,
prejudicial putdowns from a disgruntled motorist who hates shop A but shits on [or tries to, LOL]
mechanic B. Their misplaced anger pops up in the most unsupecting places.

So anywho, we also dont need to know craftsman tools are warrantied or go on sale, that really
set the troll gears in motion because WE KNOW about craftsman tools.

So another anywho, let's start over, HI and do you have any pic of your shops / tools you would like
to share with us?
 
If Joe Blow's wrench slips and busts his knuckle chances are it is just a boo boo that won't really bother them at work tomorrow. If I bust my knuckle the brake clean is going to burn, the parts washer is going to burn it. Crap is going to get in it and cause an infection.

Your hands get tired after holding a craftsman ratchet for a few hours, same for their wrenches. Their screwdrivers feel horrible when your hands are sore. Mac wrenches do the same to me, edges are too sharp. Craftsman doesn't make an 80 tooth ratchet, real PITA when you have about 10 degrees to swing a ratchet. Good luck taking apart hydraulic cylinders with a HF or Craftsman breaker bar. I had a 10 foot pipe on one and failure.

Craftsman stuff is great if it's to work on the car in the afternoon or fix the lawn mower. If you have to use them for sometimes 14 or 15 hours straight you really start to appreciate tools like Snap-On.

There's really nothing wrong with Craftsman, hell I sold them at Sears when I was in college. I do know their limitations though. I'd never put together an engine with one of their torque wrenchs, you are just asking for it if you do. There are some places their wrenchs will not fit and a Snap-On will.

An Ingersoll Rand 2135 can't do what a Snap-On impact will. Much less one of the air cats that MAC sells. Snap-On is the only one of the American big 3 that makes their own impacts. Matco and Mac both outsource. Either IR, some Taiwan tool company that I can't remember the name of or Air Cat.

It takes about 6 months to wear out my 10mm 1/4" Mac socket and the chrome to start peeling off. Craftsman doesn't stand a chance. Try buying a 2 3/4" 3/4" impact socket to take loose a transmission yoke off a transmission at Sears :)

Sebenza to Gerber isn't a fair comparison once I think about it. It's more like a Strider compared to a dollar store knife. The Strider will get the job done.

David
 
ssblood -great post, I got 3 AirCats and they are fkkin awesome, my 1/2" ACat I've had for about 6 years now and it's never failed in function or has it failed to loosen a fastener and I work/worked in a rust prone area. They were being made in the USA, Exhaust Technologies in Spokane, WA. At least the boxes mine came in said "made in the USA". Rock on brother! :cool:
 
I have no animosity against mechanics. I guess I'm lucky enough with my vehicles that I haven't had to dislike certain shops or mechanics. I also am glad I don't have to work on modern vehicles as they sure look like a pain with so little room to work and having to remove so much to get to something else. I've often wondered how mechanics are able to take apart certain things because of the lack of room and it sounds like the tools can help with this. Thank you for the brief explanation how the more expensive tools can excel at this.

I usually work on smaller engines and do maintenance on my families vehicles. I also weld a lot and make various things and I also do quite a bit of house work. For my uses Craftsman tools work fine and I haven't run into the problems mentioned above. I don't have any pictures of my shops but I could go take a few. Unfortunately both are very cluttered right now since we have been remodeling and the shops have turned into storage areas. I will still try to get a couple pics and I might have some of the 2 mills and lathe that are fairly recent additions.

Anyways, sorry if I stepped on anyone's toes as I was just saying what I owned and used.
 
I tried an Air Cat for a little bit, just couldn't get over the feel. First impact I ever used was a CP and I still can't get used to something that has plastic anywhere. I did use a Mac IR 2135 for a couple years, same thing happened to it though that happened to my first 2115. Buttons or something go weird in them and it won't apply full pressure in both directions. Have had this happen on 2 of the 3/8" and 1 1/2". Our Mac man is a joke, nothing on the truck. Has more DeWalt than mechanic tools. I don't even bother going out there anymore.
 
'sup FMB, cool, I am actually going to get into a 2 stroke motor phase when i get a home workshop so you are way out in front of me in this department, I also like to weld I had to eventually get my own MIG and teach myself due to my shop not providing training [i'm sure lots of other shops are the same, sad]. I had to buy my own ignition scope to learn on that as well and these together cost as much as a good used car, crikes, could have been to many titty bars BUT NO! LOL. Oxy Acetylene welding is good shit too, and guess what we have the torches but no rods! Some goobers swear by coat hangers but I don't buy that, these are the same guys who let the torch hoses lie on the floor while cutting mufflers off and let the red-hot/ gold hot slag bounce off them, our hoses have multiple blisters from this dainty activity WTF.
 
ssblood said:
Hahahahahahaha. Some people just don't understand. Craftsman tools are like comparing a Gerbers to a Sebenza. :)
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I use quite a few tools as a professional electrician and I must say that Craftsman wrenches, ratchets and sockets are all top notch made in the USA, covered by a lifetime warranty. Snap-On is way overpriced and not any better than Craftsman IMO. The other good brand for mechanical tools is SK.
 
I've used craftsman tools since 1983, I have a set of craftsman wrenches in my car now but I am a professional mechanic and Craftys are not in the starting lineup, they are 2nd string and backup. An electrician? whatever, are you a mechanic? and i mean that in the general sense of the word not the specific ie auto mechanic would be a specifier and would be a specific indicator.
 
rookie4real said:
I use quite a few tools as a professional electrician and I must say that Craftsman wrenches, ratchets and sockets are all top notch made in the USA, covered by a lifetime warranty. Snap-On is way overpriced and not any better than Craftsman IMO. The other good brand for mechanical tools is SK.
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Seriously... go to work Tuesday with a pair of HF 9s instead of Klein, Greenlee or the brand you usually prefer. That's the comparison you just made.

I tighten or loosen more bolts in a week or two than most Electricians would in 6 months. Most electricians will never take loose a bolt or nut that is torqued to 250+ lbs.
 
Craftsman_Clamshell_Toolbox_by_angusman219.jpg


Here's what I've got. Mostly portable stuff. My power tools are at my dad's workshop. This box handles 90% of my needs.
 
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