Another SK Quality Control Thread

[ajchien]

Well, I think if you're not happy, return them. We have a pretty good return system in the USA still.

Idk. I recently bought a new flex head 1/2" from SK. 42474 is the number iirc. It came flawless.

Now I've got my own rant. And it's not about SK. But rather about quality. We got some weird stupid metrics going on these days. Where I work, we have all these quality measures going on. Almost every one of the quality measures is about time. How fast is this done? How quickly is it processed? How fast does it go from in to out? And as we get faster and faster, administrators say that we're improving quality. Hah. Not. We're just cutting corners more and more because you wanted fast and faster pretending that faster is better quality.

Ok. Sorry about that rant. At least I feel a little better.

 

[1982fxr]

Amazing to me how someone can trace this country's problems down to a socket with a crooked number stamped on it

 

[DSLTRK]

I hate to bring this thread up, but as I mentioned earlier, I really liked the SK ratchet design. After clearing out my fiance's grandfather's garage who had passed and finding an old SK- WAYNE 1/2 ratchet, and an old SK - TOOLS 1/4 ratchet, I decided to buy a new 3/8 SK ratchet to complete the set, along with a diamond era 3870 Roto head Ratchet.

Never have I been more disappointed in ANY company. The 60 year old (I'm guessing) 3870 ratchet is beautiful and works wonderfully, but the new 3/8 that I ordered from ToolTopia is a mess. AGAIN, this new SK product has manufacturing defects. How a freaking RATCHET can have manufacturing defects is beyond me.

I don't want to get in the whole argument about how I should be more worried about function over form, because form is 100% just as important to me as function, and as I said earlier, it is an indicator of a lack of caring among the entire assembly process.

Attached are pictures, where you can see on both sides that the head is not round. To be honest, the pictures do not show how severely misshapen it is in person.

Damn dude, I thought I had OCD with my tools, but this takes the cake. SK std length ratchets are forged and finished by HAND. Employees don't have the time to get a mic and check to see if a ratchet head is perfectly round...
:

If you need a "perfect" ratchet, get the new flex head SKs, those are finished on a CNC machine.

 

[glowedroid]

when we demand less quality, less attention to detail, companys realize they can lower quality standards and get their stuff made cheap by some Chinese dude who doesn't give a **** about what some American half way across the globe thinks of his work.

THIS is exactly why I'm scrutinizing SK.

 

[glowedroid]

Damn dude, I thought I had OCD with my tools, but this takes the cake. SK std length ratchets are forged and finished by HAND. Employees don't have the time to get a mic and check to see if a ratchet head is perfectly round...
:

They seemed to have the time in the 50's and 60's when they made my vintage stuff...

 

[Skin]

oh, and there's that great american pride and quality we've been missing lately? what kind of BS is that? his OCD is apparently very satisfied with the $2 per socket gearwrench and you're saying we can't expect at least that from the $20 per socket SO? we need to expect more from ourselves or else we just become a nation of over paid sub par quality manufacturer. anyone who actually cares about manufacturing in the USA needs to demand higher standards from made in USA!

Did you look at the pictures and the complaint? Again all socket manufacturers have the "painted" socket interiors simply because chrome plating doesn't adhere well inside the socket. And who examines the uniformity of the detent sizing without even using them? At the end of the day even Snap-On is still making hand tools, not jewelry. American pride and craftsmanship and being incredibly **** about the uniformity of some sockets are two entirely different topics.