jalind
Well-known member
I'm in my 60's and live in the midwest but have also lived in the far west, southwest, east and deep south over the years, plus some years in Europe. I'm not a professional mechanic or technician as they're apparently called now. I have, however, been wrenching on things for decades, including major appliances, electrical, plumbing and automobiles, including major tear-downs and rebuilds, and major drive train component replacement. Did some serious wrenching on military vehicles out in the middle of nowhere when they broke down, just to get them moving again, without the aid of any mechanics (would have taken them hours we didn't have to get there). Carried a very large toolbox around just for that purpose. I've also done woodworking from framing to finished cabinetry and furniture, the latter of which is more precision machining and milling wood than cutting it. The most recent were replacing the drive shaft and bearings in a washing machine and a complete brake job replacing calipers, brackets, rotors and pads on an Impala. Bleeding the brakes, including the ABS module was the most frustrating and time consuming. I don't have the special Tech 1 "tool" GM wants a small fortune for to set the ABS internal pistons, and wasn't about to buy one (used for OBD II they're easily over $400), so I used the time consuming workaround.
Over the years I've accumulated quite a few tools, including some major power tools but don't have any significant metal working tools. Acquired fairly complete S-K 3/8" and 1/2" drive socket sets decades ago, originally all SAE but supplemented with S-K metric sockets since then as vehicles are nearly all metric now. Have a handful of selected Snap-On and Proto as they were available at decent cost at the time, including a 1/2" drive Torquometer. Rarely use it now as there's too much that its large head cannot reach on modern cars. Have USA made Craftsman 3/8" click type torque wrench, and more recently acquired 1/2" drive Tekton and Kobalt click type. Got both to see which I liked better. Will probably sell the Tekton and keep the Kobalt simply because I like how setting torque on the Kobalt works. Also have some Thorsen, including two complete 1/4" drive socket sets from when they were still made in the USA, one of which was my father's, and a set of metric combination wrenches.
For the frequency with which I use hand tools now I cannot economically justify the Tool Truck brands. Was shocked at how much S-K currently cost. I got mine from AAFES (aka PX or Post Exchange) while in the US Army decades ago and they were very affordable at the time. Did not realize how discounted the AAFES prices were then. There was a time when I wouldn't trust anything from Asia, including Japan. That has changed over at least the past decade. Some of the tools coming out of Taiwan (aka ROC) now are quite good. I don't trust much of anything coming out of mainland China (the PRC), and Craftsman has taken a massive nosedive since the mid-1990's. More recently Western Forge, a subsidiary of Ideal Industries that also owns S-K, unilaterally ended its relationship with Sears early last year. They had been making some of the upper end Craftsman hand tools (which I do not know). Sears sued them for breach of contract and AFAIK it's still in litigation. Some of the Taiwan brands I've found their hand tools in general to be excellent value for their price: Tekton, GearWrench (now owns K-D), Performance Tool and Kobalt. I'm not impressed at all with Stanley or Black & Decker, and would not buy either brand, nor would I buy any current Craftsman now, and have no opinion on the Kobalt power tools as I've not bought or used any.
The Tool Truck brands have become quite expensive. If someone is using hand tools daily to make a living the cost might be justified. For mere mortals like me who use a 1/2" drive 50-250 ft-lb torque wrench for automotive maintenance tasks perhaps once or twice a year at most, I cannot economically justify $600 for a torque wrench, or even $350 for one, but $80 for a decent one with reasonable accuracy I can justify.
John
Over the years I've accumulated quite a few tools, including some major power tools but don't have any significant metal working tools. Acquired fairly complete S-K 3/8" and 1/2" drive socket sets decades ago, originally all SAE but supplemented with S-K metric sockets since then as vehicles are nearly all metric now. Have a handful of selected Snap-On and Proto as they were available at decent cost at the time, including a 1/2" drive Torquometer. Rarely use it now as there's too much that its large head cannot reach on modern cars. Have USA made Craftsman 3/8" click type torque wrench, and more recently acquired 1/2" drive Tekton and Kobalt click type. Got both to see which I liked better. Will probably sell the Tekton and keep the Kobalt simply because I like how setting torque on the Kobalt works. Also have some Thorsen, including two complete 1/4" drive socket sets from when they were still made in the USA, one of which was my father's, and a set of metric combination wrenches.
For the frequency with which I use hand tools now I cannot economically justify the Tool Truck brands. Was shocked at how much S-K currently cost. I got mine from AAFES (aka PX or Post Exchange) while in the US Army decades ago and they were very affordable at the time. Did not realize how discounted the AAFES prices were then. There was a time when I wouldn't trust anything from Asia, including Japan. That has changed over at least the past decade. Some of the tools coming out of Taiwan (aka ROC) now are quite good. I don't trust much of anything coming out of mainland China (the PRC), and Craftsman has taken a massive nosedive since the mid-1990's. More recently Western Forge, a subsidiary of Ideal Industries that also owns S-K, unilaterally ended its relationship with Sears early last year. They had been making some of the upper end Craftsman hand tools (which I do not know). Sears sued them for breach of contract and AFAIK it's still in litigation. Some of the Taiwan brands I've found their hand tools in general to be excellent value for their price: Tekton, GearWrench (now owns K-D), Performance Tool and Kobalt. I'm not impressed at all with Stanley or Black & Decker, and would not buy either brand, nor would I buy any current Craftsman now, and have no opinion on the Kobalt power tools as I've not bought or used any.
The Tool Truck brands have become quite expensive. If someone is using hand tools daily to make a living the cost might be justified. For mere mortals like me who use a 1/2" drive 50-250 ft-lb torque wrench for automotive maintenance tasks perhaps once or twice a year at most, I cannot economically justify $600 for a torque wrench, or even $350 for one, but $80 for a decent one with reasonable accuracy I can justify.
John