Ratcheting Wrenches

[trukman1]

Went to Sears to get a battery and of course had to look at tools while I waited. The guy in the auto department printed me off a $10 coupon for tools over $50. Then when I signed up for a Sears card I got another $10 off a purchase. Found a 20 pc. set of ratcheting wrenches (Chinese of course), slim profile design with 5 degrees "sweep" regularly $69.99 on sale for $59.99 but with discounts came to $39.99. Even though they are Chinese, I saw Harbor Freight has theirs on sale but 7 pc. for $19.99 for metric and $19.99 for SAE so I figured it was still a better deal. Even at $59.99 it's still 6 more wrenches than HF for only about $10 more. I'm not a professional mechanic just a hobbyist. Never even thought I'd ever use those type ratchets till I got into a really tight spot and needed them.
Just putting this out there in case anyone needs, or wants a cheaper set of wrenches for the "shade tree" mechanics like me. (Just hope Sears stays in business!)
BTW, I have a Snap-On box and tools from when I made my living working with tools but at my age I (61) figure these should be fine.
Sorry, forgot I posted this in a previous post. Old age is a B***h!

 

[Derrick]

how is the craftsman warranty now? I don't have a Sears near me and want to know before i travel halfway across my state to get my tools warrantied.

 

[rpcraft]

how is the craftsman warranty now? I don't have a Sears near me and want to know before i travel halfway across my state to get my tools warrantied.

Not as good as it once was unfortunately. I couldn't even find batteries that have a 5 year warranty last time I looked (at least not without paying a small fortune for the top of the line gold version) and the chinese crapsman tools are not much better. Be interesting to see what Stanley does with the Craftsman name

 

[4WDKC]

how is the craftsman warranty now? I don't have a Sears near me and want to know before i travel halfway across my state to get my tools warrantied.

Ace Hardware also carries crapsman also.

Not as good as it once was unfortunately. I couldn't even find batteries that have a 5 year warranty last time I looked (at least not without paying a small fortune for the top of the line gold version) and the chinese crapsman tools are not much better. Be interesting to see what Stanley does with the Craftsman name

While sears and HF are a couple miles apart from me, I decided if I am going to buy Chinese tools with a Chinese warranty I may as well save the extra buck.

 

[rpcraft]

I've been eyeing their colored sockets just because I like the idea of knowing no matter what socket i pick up the green or blue one is going to be the same size regardless of where it is in the tool box and whether it is a standard or deep socket.

 

[82sbshortbed]

All my hand tools as far as wrenches and ratchets are craftsman. I've always preferred them to snap on and other high priced tools. Only had to use lifetime warranty a couple of times and never had a problem. Have a Sears store in my town and a service center about 10 miles away. Amazon sells them too. Jmo.

 

[Snoots]

I really like the ratcheting wrenches. Mine have held up well. Sometimes I get mine at Sears. Other times I pick up Craftsman, Snap-On or Mac at the swap meets for pennies on the dollar.

Old? That ain't old. You don't know old. Stop thinking old.
What was I saying?

 

[78C10BigTen]

Went to Sears to get a battery and of course had to look at tools while I waited. The guy in the auto department printed me off a $10 coupon for tools over $50. Then when I signed up for a Sears card I got another $10 off a purchase. Found a 20 pc. set of ratcheting wrenches (Chinese of course), slim profile design with 5 degrees "sweep" regularly $69.99 on sale for $59.99 but with discounts came to $39.99. Even though they are Chinese, I saw Harbor Freight has theirs on sale but 7 pc. for $19.99 for metric and $19.99 for SAE so I figured it was still a better deal. Even at $59.99 it's still 6 more wrenches than HF for only about $10 more. I'm not a professional mechanic just a hobbyist. Never even thought I'd ever use those type ratchets till I got into a really tight spot and needed them.
Just putting this out there in case anyone needs, or wants a cheaper set of wrenches for the "shade tree" mechanics like me. (Just hope Sears stays in business!)
BTW, I have a Snap-On box and tools from when I made my living working with tools but at my age I (61) figure these should be fine.
Sorry, forgot I posted this in a previous post. Old age is a B***h!

Sears is long gone here... lol

 

[yevgenievich]

I have warrantied ratcheting wrenches from harbor freigh at least two or three times in last couple of years. Would not buy again. Guessing craftsman set would probably hold up a bit better. But I had to warranty out couple of ratchets with sears few times as well.

 

[HotRodPC]

I have warrantied ratcheting wrenches from harbor freigh at least two or three times in last couple of years. Would not buy again. Guessing craftsman set would probably hold up a bit better. But I had to warranty out couple of ratchets with sears few times as well.

That standard Craftsman Quick Release 30 something toothed ratchets kinda suck and I've gotten a few rebuilt kits for them from Sears. They do still do lifetime no hassle warranty exchange on most hand tools. Things like shears that go dull from use, they no longer lifetime warranty. There are times I've exchanged tools and they didn't have them in stock, so they ordered it and had it shipped to my house so I didn't have to go back up there. 3-4 days later it shows up.
Some items are discontinued. Long ago I bought a set of fancier screwdrivers. They're now discontinued so as they've broke or phillips tips have gone dull and slip in screws, they now replace them with the upgraded Extreme Grip screwdrivers which are really cool screwdrivers.
I also had some fancy triangular handled nut drivers I bought as a set. They were the ****. I loved them and used them daily for my job as an appliance installer. I wore out the 1/4 and 5/16's after about 3 years of heavy use. 3 years later went for an exchange on a 1/4 inch, the most important one. They no longer made that nut driver and nothing replaced it so they tried to give me a standard round handle 1/4 inch nut driver. I told them, no friggin way. So what they did was refunded me the price of buying that nut driver as a single nut driver when it was being sold new. I think they gave me like $9 for it. I'd have rather had the nut driver since it was a set.
So the hand tool warranty still seems to be fair IMO. Quality has certainly suffered some but so had Snap On quality. Most of my Craftsman tools are well over 20 years old, maybe even closer to 30 years old now, so most are good.
I've been getting steal deals from Sears with being a Shop Your Way and Craftsman Club member. In fact today I got a FREE Cordless Craftsman SawZall type reciprocating saw using my points and a $10 FREE CASH coupon. I'm telling you, you guys need to look at my Craftsman scores thread and what I've got the last year for next to nothing and some of it for NOTHING. Kinda hard to be butthurt if the quality isn't top notch if it's FREE or damn near FREE.

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-c3-1...SellerId=Sears&prdNo=2&blockNo=2&blockType=G2

 

[Colin]

The Sears at the mall near me closed in January. I never went there often anyway.
I bought the HF racheting box-ends (metric & SAE) last year and have been happy
with them... so far.

 

[trukman1]

That standard Craftsman Quick Release 30 something toothed ratchets kinda suck and I've gotten a few rebuilt kits for them from Sears. They do still do lifetime no hassle warranty exchange on most hand tools. Things like shears that go dull from use, they no longer lifetime warranty. There are times I've exchanged tools and they didn't have them in stock, so they ordered it and had it shipped to my house so I didn't have to go back up there. 3-4 days later it shows up.
Some items are discontinued. Long ago I bought a set of fancier screwdrivers. They're now discontinued so as they've broke or phillips tips have gone dull and slip in screws, they now replace them with the upgraded Extreme Grip screwdrivers which are really cool screwdrivers.
I also had some fancy triangular handled nut drivers I bought as a set. They were the ****. I loved them and used them daily for my job as an appliance installer. I wore out the 1/4 and 5/16's after about 3 years of heavy use. 3 years later went for an exchange on a 1/4 inch, the most important one. They no longer made that nut driver and nothing replaced it so they tried to give me a standard round handle 1/4 inch nut driver. I told them, no friggin way. So what they did was refunded me the price of buying that nut driver as a single nut driver when it was being sold new. I think they gave me like $9 for it. I'd have rather had the nut driver since it was a set.
So the hand tool warranty still seems to be fair IMO. Quality has certainly suffered some but so had Snap On quality. Most of my Craftsman tools are well over 20 years old, maybe even closer to 30 years old now, so most are good.
I've been getting steal deals from Sears with being a Shop Your Way and Craftsman Club member. In fact today I got a FREE Cordless Craftsman SawZall type reciprocating saw using my points and a $10 FREE CASH coupon. I'm telling you, you guys need to look at my Craftsman scores thread and what I've got the last year for next to nothing and some of it for NOTHING. Kinda hard to be butthurt if the quality isn't top notch if it's FREE or damn near FREE.

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-c3-1...SellerId=Sears&prdNo=2&blockNo=2&blockType=G2

HotRodPC, While I was waiting (FOREVER!!) to a salesperson to come to the register a guy came in with a broken ratchet. I actually started shouting out "Salesperson needed at the tool counter, very loudly, and eventually, after they got tired of hearing me yell, a lady came over and rang up my purchase. As I started to leave the guy asked if they still had the direct exchange. She answered they rebuild them while you wait and said it would only take a couple minutes. Didn't stick around but I'll bet he got plastic parts installed...

I purchased the Craftsman ratcheting wrenches because I could, essentially, get 10 for the price of 7 from HF.

 

[Dutch Rutter]

As I started to leave the guy asked if they still had the direct exchange. She answered they rebuild them while you wait and said it would only take a couple minutes. Didn't stick around but I'll bet he got plastic parts installed

Last time I warrantied one of my craftsman ratchets, I took in an expensive nice comfort handled 3/8 which had broke, 1 hour later of waiting the person behind the counter brought me one of their normal cheapie 3/8 ratchet in return for my nice broken one. Essentially it was an exchange for one of their "repaired" units. Next time I'm going to grab the nice one off the shelf and approach the counter with identical tools and spell it out that I want the same thing I had paid for.

Btw: I used to work security at K-Mart which is/was owned by sears, they also carry a smaller amount of craftsman tools and will do warranties as well, if you have one nearby.

 

[HotRodPC]

I think all this talk has got me talked into this 20pc of Gear Wrench ratcheting wrenches. @silverscottsk10 claims they're good wrenches.

http://www.sears.com/gearwrench-20pc-combination-ratcheting-wrench-set-sae-mm/p-00935720000P

Had anyone been watching my Sears Craftsman Scores thread??? Anyone wanna bet me I can't get this set of wrenches for FREE??? C'mon, someone bet me !!!

 

[trukman1]

I think all this talk has got me talked into this 20pc of Gear Wrench ratcheting wrenches. @silverscottsk10 claims they're good wrenches.

http://www.sears.com/gearwrench-20pc-combination-ratcheting-wrench-set-sae-mm/p-00935720000P

Had anyone been watching my Sears Craftsman Scores thread??? Anyone wanna bet me I can't get this set of wrenches for FREE??? C'mon, someone bet me !!!

I saw those right beside the Craftsman set I purchased but didn't know what the warranty was and didn't think to ask. Those are about $10 cheaper for, essentially, the same thing. Oh well, live and learn (and waste money.) Story of my life! lol!

If you get'em for free at least share the "how" with the rest of use...please?