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radrush

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 30, 2010
Messages
828
Location
Atlanta, GA
Picked up a mixed set of vintage Craftsman Stainless - Lifetime ratchets from a fellow GJ member.

My wife got the package open before I could get it. So she pulls them out of the box, rolls her eyes and says, "More ratchets???"

I say, "Look - stainless and Craftsman!!!"

She says, "Well there ya go...." She left the room and I'm pretty sure she rolled her eyes again. :rolleyes:

I've seen these ratchets marked both "Stainless" and "Lifetime" in all three sizes. Not sure which came first or why the marking was switched up.

The 1/2" drive and the 1/4" drive are marked "Stainless", but it's obviously a magnetic grade of stainless steel because the ratchets are readily attracted to magnetic fields. Martensitic stainless steels are magnetic and austenitic stainless steels are non-magnetic.

The 3/8" drive marked "Lifetime" has a decidedly more chrome-ish, although not highly polished, finish than the 1/2" and 1/4" drives which are marked "Stainless".

The ratchets have a very thin profile, a handy thumbwheel, and a quick release button. :)

I included a couple of shots of them compared to the other thin profile Craftsman ratchets and the other thumbwheel craftsman ratchet.

Rumor has it that these are highly collectible, that they were only made for a couple of years-1989 and 1990 (???), and that they were fragile and were thus quickly warrantied out of existence.

As far as them being fragile, well, that's why they make breaker bars.
 

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K

kts

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 9, 2012
Messages
158
Location
MD
These just arrived for me. I was curious about the Wera design and wanted some new screwdrivers for my track car tool box.

AptlDiF.jpg


They feel pretty good in the hand but the real test will be in actually using them soon to see how the feel then.
 
N

n8n

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 11, 2014
Messages
3,607
Location
Curtis Bay, MD
ymypate9.jpg


SK deep sockets, Wright 22mm combo (that's for a friend who cut up his to make a stubby in a pinch) and Cman Pro 21mm stubby to finish my stubby set. Still waiting on some SK sockets to fill the holes in the shallows, those are my old Cman ones that I bought in college plus a few pawn shop finds.

Edit: just noticed, the 6, 7, and 8mm are marked S (dash) K while the rest are marked S (open dot) K. Old tooling? Dare I say it, the broaching looks kind of crude on the small ones as well. But those are not high torque applications anyway (hopefullly)

Sent from my XT897 using Tapatalk
 
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P

panknuckshovel

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 29, 2014
Messages
2,990
Location
Land o Lakes FL
Plucked these and a few of there goofy mm cousins fresh off the shelf today. Nice n shiny, all straight and all the USA markings.
 

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T

TJJP77

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
142
Location
SE Michigan
radrush said:
Picked up a mixed set of vintage Craftsman Stainless - Lifetime ratchets from a fellow GJ member.

Rumor has it that these are highly collectible, that they were only made for a couple of years-1989 and 1990 (???), and that they were fragile and were thus quickly warrantied out of existence.
Click to expand...

I bought a set of these brand new around that timeframe. The early ones were honest-to-goodness stainless steel. The later "lifetime" ones (like I had) were no different than the finish on a RP ratchet. The chrome was chipping on a few of my "lifetime" ratchets as they all had seen heavy use.

The mechanism was a terrible design as they used to strip and reverse direction all the time as they aged. I ended up trading mine in some time ago on the 60-tooth thin profile ratchets. Had I known they were collectible, I might have kept them, but mine were far from collector grade.
 
O

owenst7

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Messages
632
Location
Anchorage/Reno
Craftsman stuff from last weekends Sears coupon shenanigans. Should have stuff trickling in daily until at least the end of the week Lol.
 

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D

dR_Freightliner

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 26, 2014
Messages
53
Location
California
radrush said:
Picked up a mixed set of vintage Craftsman Stainless - Lifetime ratchets from a fellow GJ member.

My wife got the package open before I could get it. So she pulls them out of the box, rolls her eyes and says, "More ratchets???"

I say, "Look - stainless and Craftsman!!!"

She says, "Well there ya go...." She left the room and I'm pretty sure she rolled her eyes again. :rolleyes:

I've seen these ratchets marked both "Stainless" and "Lifetime" in all three sizes. Not sure which came first or why the marking was switched up.

The 1/2" drive and the 1/4" drive are marked "Stainless", but it's obviously a magnetic grade of stainless steel because the ratchets are readily attracted to magnetic fields. Martensitic stainless steels are magnetic and austenitic stainless steels are non-magnetic.

The 3/8" drive marked "Lifetime" has a decidedly more chrome-ish, although not highly polished, finish than the 1/2" and 1/4" drives which are marked "Stainless".

The ratchets have a very thin profile, a handy thumbwheel, and a quick release button. :)

I included a couple of shots of them compared to the other thin profile Craftsman ratchets and the other thumbwheel craftsman ratchet.

Rumor has it that these are highly collectible, that they were only made for a couple of years-1989 and 1990 (???), and that they were fragile and were thus quickly warrantied out of existence.

As far as them being fragile, well, that's why they make breaker bars.
Click to expand...

These appear to be the real durable craftsman ratchets. The new ones these days don't feel right.
 
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C

colin39

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Messages
1,498
Bought these today, very nice set, facom flex head box spanners very expensive too £177.0 wow.


 
C

Cap'n

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
53
Location
New Brunswick, Canada
My Snap-on XDHRM wrenches finally arrived today after delayed shipping. Haven't had much of a chance to try them out, but I just love the way they feel. Grabbed the 13 and 15mm versions (mostly work on GMs)





Also got some mastercraft flare wrenches



The new snappys and mastercrafts look nice next to my Mac BHFMs



Some nice new channellocks



Vice grips



A set of Napa 3/8 impact sockets and a Mastercraft flex head ratchet



Can't remember if I posted up my fairly new Mastercraft 3/8 impact, I love it. Working great



And a nice snappy soft handle T15

 
B

bahcoswed

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 12, 2013
Messages
570
Location
Sweden
colin39 said:
Bought these today, very nice set, facom flex head box spanners very expensive too £177.0 wow.


Click to expand...

Expensive??? I thougt it was cheap! Its Facom we talks about:) I payed over 200 euros for stahlwille flex socket wrenches! And that set is only 7 pieces, not 9 like yours:)


Skickas från min iPhone via Tapatalk
 
S

Skin

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 24, 2010
Messages
11,713
Location
Boston
Cap'n said:
My Snap-on XDHRM wrenches finally arrived today after delayed shipping. Haven't had much of a chance to try them out, but I just love the way they feel. Grabbed the 13 and 15mm versions (mostly work on GMs)
Click to expand...

I had the first set of those XDHRMs, ended up moving them along. Too long for general use and during the odd scenerio i wanted something like that i reached for my Matco Kabo versions with the flex first since they save your knuckles. The old Matco Pro-Swing/current Armstrong double box wrenches are a much more useful length for day to day tasks.

It would be nice if Snap-On made a flex version and made a short version also. I do like their ratcheting action even if the mechanism is a little on the fat side.
 
C

Cap'n

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
53
Location
New Brunswick, Canada
Skin said:
I had the first set of those XDHRMs, ended up moving them along. Too long for general use and during the odd scenerio i wanted something like that i reached for my Matco Kabo versions with the flex first since they save your knuckles. The old Matco Pro-Swing/current Armstrong double box wrenches are a much more useful length for day to day tasks.

It would be nice if Snap-On made a flex version and made a short version also. I do like their ratcheting action even if the mechanism is a little on the fat side.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I bought these for some pretty specific stuff. I have flex head short Gearwrench brand ones, use them on occasion. The head is a bit big on the snappys, but they feel much better in quality.
 
Z

Zeroek

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 19, 2008
Messages
1,091
Location
Indiana


Yesterday's purchases. Snap on Ratchet from the tool truck. Cornwell Air ratchet and OEM turnback tool from Craigslist.
 
O

organ

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 22, 2014
Messages
955
Location
Atlanta
KaHuNaZ said:
Nice! where did you find them and how much were they?
Click to expand...
I searched ebay after seeing a few sets here and noticed the same person had sold two sets. I messaged him and asked if he had any more... said he had a couple of sets at another location. A couple of days later, he notified me they were up for grabs... $25.00 per set. Greedy to ****** all four, I know. I may end up getting rid of a couple of the sets.

They're made in spain so I'm guessing Irega? They look an awful lot like the Snap On branded sets. Heck of a deal, I think... considering they're out of production.
 
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