To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!

Craftsman flare nut wrenches

B

bw77

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 10, 2009
Messages
1,316
Location
Upstate NY
I was at the mall today buying tires at Sears, so I spent some time browsing the tools department.

I had read that the flare nut wrench sets are now made in China, and I saw those sets, priced at $35 for a set of five.

What surprised me was that they had a few USA made flare nut wrenches, not in sets, just single ones on pegs, and they were priced at about $18-20 EACH. I double checked the online prices when I got home, and it's the same online (although it doesn't have the COO online). That's more than 2x the price per wrench bought as a set. Needless to say, I did not buy any flare nut wrenches.
 
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!
D

dede2897234

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 1, 2008
Messages
1,716
Location
Northern, Ohio
bw77,

I went to the Sears mall store in Erie, PA last weekend. I was outraged to see the singles of the new Chinese made, Craftsman 1/4" x 5/16" and 3/8" x 7/16" flare nut wrenches for $17.49 and $17.99 apiece. I am sure there will be no takers for those wrenches at those prices!


Dave
 
N

Nix

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 11, 2007
Messages
82
Location
Erie,PA
warmpancakes said:
buy the set and warranty them for the usa ones
Click to expand...

Great idea!

dede2897234 said:
I went to the Sears mall store in Erie, PA last weekend. I was outraged to see the singles of the new Chinese made, Craftsman 1/4" x 5/16" and 3/8" x 7/16" flare nut wrenches for $17.49 and $17.99 apiece. I am sure there will be no takers for those wrenches at those prices!
Dave
Click to expand...

****. Nevermind. :lol_hitti
 
I

Intel

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 12, 2008
Messages
263
Location
Chicago Northwest Suburbs, Illinois
Or just buy a nice used set from some other manufacturer as I never liked the craftsman line wrenches. One of the worst tools to have splay on you or not do what you want as I hate replacing brass brake line fittings etc.
 
OP
B

bw77

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 10, 2009
Messages
1,316
Location
Upstate NY
Intel said:
Or just buy a nice used set from some other manufacturer as I never liked the craftsman line wrenches. One of the worst tools to have splay on you or not do what you want as I hate replacing brass brake line fittings etc.
Click to expand...

Which brands do you like?
 
1

1969

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 8, 2010
Messages
1,412
Location
East Coast
I have both the SAE and metric Craftsman line wrenches. (New) Not happy with them, started buying snap on , much happier. BTW, I have other Craftsman tools and am very happy with them. My .02.
 
O

Old Donn

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 26, 2009
Messages
1,585
Location
Michigan
I've got SK and the dreaded C-man raised panel, both sets standard and metric. I use whichever fits the fastener best.
 
K

kythri

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 3, 2007
Messages
6,330
Location
Lebanon, OR
$35 for a flare nut set? Were those the full-polish, or the raised-panel ones?

As far as I know, only the full-polish have shifted production, as they were former SK rebadges.

The raised panel stuff was Danaher US production, I believe.
 
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!
J

jeepnut24

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 23, 2006
Messages
797
Location
Morrison CO
I have the "pro" US Cman set, and I HATE them. I can't wait to find a SO set for a reasonable amount. The CMan doesn't instill any confidence and always seems to open up on the tough fittings.
 
B

Bran Diezel

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 27, 2010
Messages
633
Location
Bristol, Va.
kythri said:
$35 for a flare nut set? Were those the full-polish, or the raised-panel ones?

As far as I know, only the full-polish have shifted production, as they were former SK rebadges.

The raised panel stuff was Danaher US production, I believe.
Click to expand...

look up the gearwrench stuff its the same
 
I

IMCA38

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 21, 2007
Messages
998
Location
Bennet, NE
I can relate to the same frustration.
I have had a set of C-man raised panel SAE line wrenches for probably 10-15 years. Guessing I may have paid about $20 or so for the set back when Sears used to have decent sales. (Also have about 2 complete sets of raised panel combo wrenches SAE and Metric)
I now have a small tractor and a large diesel mower which have metric flare fittings. Thought it would be nice to have a set of Metric line wrenches for these.
Wanting to keep everything consistant, I went to Sears a couple of months ago thinking I'd pick up the Metric set for $20-30. Much to my shock, the local store didn't even have a set, but had the individual wrenches for about $18/ea! :shocking:
Needless to say, I left Sears empty handed. A couple of weeks later, I was at HF and saw a set there, decent looking, w/high polish finish and even a little plastic holder. Price for the set was about $10 and I used a coupon to get it down to about $8. I figured WTF,:wtf: I'll give them a try and see. I kind of decided if I'm forced to buy stuff from China, may as well buy it as cheap as possible and thus give them fewer American dollars!
 
OP
B

bw77

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 10, 2009
Messages
1,316
Location
Upstate NY
IMCA38 said:
A couple of weeks later, I was at HF and saw a set there, decent looking, w/high polish finish and even a little plastic holder. Price for the set was about $10 and I used a coupon to get it down to about $8. I figured WTF,:wtf: I'll give them a try and see. I kind of decided if I'm forced to buy stuff from China, may as well buy it as cheap as possible and thus give them fewer American dollars!
Click to expand...


Have you used the HF flare nut wrenches? Are they good?
 
I

IMCA38

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 21, 2007
Messages
998
Location
Bennet, NE
Interesting, I was in Sears yesterday, and saw they now again have sets of line wrenches. The set cost about $40 and the wrenches and little plastic holder were basically identical to the HF set I referenced earlier- right down to the "MADE IN CHINA" label. :wtf:
I have no idea why I even bother setting foot in Sears anymore. :headscrat
 
K

kythri

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 3, 2007
Messages
6,330
Location
Lebanon, OR
IMCA38 said:
Interesting, I was in Sears yesterday, and saw they now again have sets of line wrenches. The set cost about $40 and the wrenches and little plastic holder were basically identical to the HF set I referenced earlier- right down to the "MADE IN CHINA" label. :wtf:
I have no idea why I even bother setting foot in Sears anymore. :headscrat
Click to expand...

  • 1> Sears still has lots of USA-made tools, and their sockets are pretty-much an unbeatable deal when bought in sets.
  • 2> Sears still has the warranty (see next item for why this warranty is better than HF).
  • 3> Sears still has a ton of open stock, so you can use the above mentioned warranty, and not have to replace an entire set.
  • 4> Sears is in far more locations than HF (I have an HF 25-miles north, and 25-miles south. I have a Sears 5 miles away, as well as both locations those HF stores are).
  • 5> Sears might actually shift production back to domestic sources (everyone here has claimed that they've "tried this before" by shifting to Taiwan, and then shifted back to USA), while it's very doubtful HF will.
  • 6> Sears carries a decent supply of Lisle and other nifty stuff that HF doesn't.
  • 7> Sears carries a lot of GearWrench stuff (including open stock wrenches), and regularly puts them on sale. HF may have ratcheting wrenches, but they don't have the deep selection that GearWrench does.
  • 8> Sears has rebadged lots of awesome, more-expensive-under-it's-own-name stuff as Craftsman, and sold it for less (Knipex Cobras, the SK stuff that just left, Mayhew pry-bars, etc) and will likely continue to do so.

I'm sure there's more reasons...

I hate the sourcing of the SK-produced stuff to China as much as everyone, but hopefully, it's just a temporary thing until they can find another US-manufacturer, or they can find capacity at Danaher's domestic plants. I'm not holding by breath or anything, but I want to be optimistic about it.

Maybe if enough people wrote polite, well-written letters to SHC's management, they might listen.

Then again, they might not.

I won't go out of my way to purchase the Chinese-made Craftsman stuff, but if the Chinese-made Craftsman stuff ends up being a better deal (or equivalent deal) to other Chinese-produced stuff, I'd probably buy the Craftsman stuff. Sadly, for Sears at least, there's other Chinese-produced stuff with other brand names that's just as good that I'll go buy.
 
Last edited:
I

IMCA38

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 21, 2007
Messages
998
Location
Bennet, NE
I'm not totally dissing Sears, I have gotten a TON of stuff from them over the years. I could bore you for another hour listing all of the craftsman stuff I have in my shop. Problem is that the majority of it was bought some time ago. Sears USED to have great sales where some things would be 40-50% off and then you tack on the Craftsman Club card for another 10% if I remember right.
Now, it seems like all of the big sales are on the "Companion" stuff and the good stuff is only a nominal amount off.
Also, I've had a few very disappointing issues with Craftsman stuff the past couple of years.
I bought an 18V drill/flashlight set that I absolutely loved a few years back, used them a lot and they worked well. One battery crapped out and then I was down to only one remaining battery. When that one crapped, I went to Sears to get a replacement. Picked up a battery and took it home- wouldn't go into the drill- stem was a different shape/size. Took it back and said I got the wrong battery. Clerk said, this is the only one we have. Come to find out, they changed the configuration of the 18V setup and left me out in the cold.
Also, a few years ago, my wife, trying to be the awesome wife, bought me a Craftsman chainsaw for Christmas. Without going into tons of details, just suffice it to say this thing is a worthless hunk of ****.
Lastly, a couple of my Craftsman racheting box end wrenches have stripped out. First one, they had changed the size pairing on the wrenches so in order to get the sizes I had on the broken wrench, they had to give me two new wrenches. I know, that doesn't sound like a good gripe, but why in the heck did they have to change it and mess things up? Was it broken the way it was before?
The last one I stripped, they gave me a replacement that looks NOTHING like the old style. I know of some people that would take the rest of the old ones and start wailing away on some old rusted bolts until they stripped them all out. Not my style- I'll live with the mis-matched set.
Anyway- to my point- if HF has the same thing for $8 that Sears has for $40, guess where I'm buying....
 
C

crewchief888

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 3, 2009
Messages
13,736
Location
NW indiana
the few CM flare nut wrenches i had any experience with didnt inspire any confidence in them.

i bought SO in the select sizes i needed at the time.
ive picked up a few more over the past year or so from flea mkts, swap meets, and a local used tool store. all SO, matco and SK, all like new, and less than 1/2 of suggested retail.

:beer:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!
Top Bottom