Craftman Chinese wrenches
- Thread starter tkdone
- Start date
jjjrmx5
Well-known member
I have bought a fw of the chinese made combo wrenches to fill in a set of combos I bought at a flea market to use as a back-up set.
They were the smaller sizes 8mm, 10mm and 3/8" IIRC and have worked fine.
I have noticed and it has been pointed out here on GJ that as you go up in size the open head grows much larger than the USA units thus the name "Lobster Claws" they have been given.
That can become a problem in tight areas but it has not affected me yet.
Fit and finish if the Chinnese units can be "hit or miss" with some lacking finished grinding or bad chrome.
Still not a bang for the buck given the ease of replacment, (especially brick and mortar) and cost is good if buying in a full set on sale, but as time goes on I'll be curious if there are problems with quality and failure or damage if using.
Duralast combos rank high on my scale and are Taiwan made (last time I looked) and you might want to take a look at Kobalts and check COO, but the quality is there and they are full polish.
C'man raised panels were never an ergonomic wonder if using a lot, but were a good value. As they value-engineer to keep costs down, the quality of the tool is beginning to slip. Will it slip more? Only time will tell, but I value most tool purchases as a life time use investment so I try and plan accordingly.
There are a ****-ton of used USA c'man raised panel combos floating around for sale out there all the time so that can be an option and then you just need to fill in if not complete.
That's the option i chose.
Good luck.
They were the smaller sizes 8mm, 10mm and 3/8" IIRC and have worked fine.
I have noticed and it has been pointed out here on GJ that as you go up in size the open head grows much larger than the USA units thus the name "Lobster Claws" they have been given.
That can become a problem in tight areas but it has not affected me yet.
Fit and finish if the Chinnese units can be "hit or miss" with some lacking finished grinding or bad chrome.
Still not a bang for the buck given the ease of replacment, (especially brick and mortar) and cost is good if buying in a full set on sale, but as time goes on I'll be curious if there are problems with quality and failure or damage if using.
Duralast combos rank high on my scale and are Taiwan made (last time I looked) and you might want to take a look at Kobalts and check COO, but the quality is there and they are full polish.
C'man raised panels were never an ergonomic wonder if using a lot, but were a good value. As they value-engineer to keep costs down, the quality of the tool is beginning to slip. Will it slip more? Only time will tell, but I value most tool purchases as a life time use investment so I try and plan accordingly.
There are a ****-ton of used USA c'man raised panel combos floating around for sale out there all the time so that can be an option and then you just need to fill in if not complete.
That's the option i chose.
Good luck.
Last edited:
doan
Well-known member
I was gifted a set of the full polish flare wrenches made in china. The are OK but the 5/8" opened up when I leaned on it to get a brass fitting out. I had to put vice grips across it to hold it closed.
NC-Fordguy
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2012
- Messages
- 1,391
I don't have any of the polished combo wrenches but do have a couple flare line wrenches and a few sets of ratchet wrenches-all outsourced.
I have yet to run into any issues with any of my wrenches. I've tried to find places where the oversized open end presents clearance problems and as of yet not experienced an issue.
There have been reports here on this forum of issues but there has been no pictures of said issue, so who knows?
The USA made cross force wrenches have the same basic design on the open end. I have had that set since they first came out. No issues with those either