Craftsman Extreme Grip Wrenches

[myers212]

So I did a search on here about the extreme grip wrenches and it seems that the opinions were mixed, mostly not in favor of them. Most thought the seemed like a gimmick. Especially at the price Sears has them for. So my question to all of you, would you purchase the 3pc SAE or 3pc Metric for oh, say $2.50?

I saw these posted over at slickdeals. Kmart has them for the low price of $2.50. I decided to buy 2 sets of each (one for me and one for my dad). Whether or not I ever use them is a different story, but for the price, why not!

--Edit-- In-Store Only

 

[eschoendorff]

Another extreme wrench thread? yawn....

 

[myers212]

Hey, I just thought I'd share a deal with everyone here. No need to criticize. If you don't like it, move on.

 

[SocketDeviler]

I'm seeing $19.99 for ea. 3 pc set at Kmart.

 

[Joe B.]

Cool deal. Do you need to go to the store to get it? Looks like a pricing mistake.

 

[myers212]

I edited my original post. This is in-store only. I purchased from two separate stores with the same result. The price scanners throughout the store will verify the price for you.

 

[64merc]

Darn it, there isn't a Kmart in my area anymore!!!!

 

[Moose-LandTran]

I think they'd be good for tie rod hex sections when doing wheel alignment. Otherwise, i've no real use for a set.

 

[JB740i]

Hmm, so would these have the same sizes as the 6 ratcheting ones we all got a few weeks ago?

 

[Mugenlude]

$2.50 even for the ratcheting wrench end (even if they are course) is worth it. I got mine with the $20 deal at Sears, haven't used the extreme grip end yet, but figure $20 for the ratcheting end is decent, $2.50 and I would probably buy all of them they have in the store!

Time to head to Kmart!

 

[chappys4life]

$2.50 even for the ratcheting wrench end (even if they are course) is worth it. I got mine with the $20 deal at Sears, haven't used the extreme grip end yet, but figure $20 for the ratcheting end is decent, $2.50 and I would probably buy all of them they have in the store!

Time to head to Kmart!

actually the 3 piece set doesn't have a ratcheting end

 

[PoorOwner]

I have the ratcheting version and the ratcheting end is nice, made to handle high torque and also longer than typical ratcheting wrench. I would paid $20 just for the ratcheting end.

 

[JB740i]

actually the 3 piece set doesn't have a ratcheting end

My bad. I threw the confusion in there. I was trying to figure out if these 3 double ended wrenches were the same sizes that were in the 6 metric combination wrenches that I got on sale.

Guess I could look myself.

The standards would still be good though. I'm going to Kmart on the way home and will get all they have.


Didn't see it on slickdeals when I searched there though.

 

[Norton155]

My bad. I threw the confusion in there. I was trying to figure out if these 3 double ended wrenches were the same sizes that were in the 6 metric combination wrenches that I got on sale.

Guess I could look myself.

The standards would still be good though. I'm going to Kmart on the way home and will get all they have.


Didn't see it on slickdeals when I searched there though.

Yes the three piece double ended sets are the same sizes as the six piece ratcheting sets.

 

[xroad]

A regular open wrench have the opening at 15 degree angle. You can flip it at every 30 degree of turn. This Extreme Grip wrench is one direction only, so it require you to have minimum of 60 degree turn movement instead of 30. I like the design since it grabs the 2 side face of the nut rather than the 2 corners.

Since I am going to replace the open wrenches in my motorcycle carry tool kit, I hope this won't be an issue in tight space situations. In return, I run a lower risk of rounding off a nut.

The length is too long. Of course, it is suppose to be high torque, so .....

 

[xroad]

Is this K-Mart only? Sears have this $2.50 price?

 

[myers212]

This is a Kmart in-store only deal. I was at Sears today and they were marked $24.99.

I've been searching slickdeals for Craftsman ever since the $5 of $5 or more coupon. Here's the Kmart thread where the wrenches were found:

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=596875&page=25

 

[JB740i]

I went and cleared out kmart on the way home from work. Got about 12 sets between the metric and SAE.

 

[rsanter]

none in the visalia store

bob

 

[Joe B.]

I went and cleared out kmart on the way home from work. Got about 12 sets between the metric and SAE.

What on earth are you going to do with them? Just sell them on eBay or use them to tip the pizza boy?

 

[JB740i]

What on earth are you going to do with them? Just sell them on eBay or use them to tip the pizza boy?

My wife likes buying lots of christmas presents for her family. So between hers and mine we could get rid of most of them. I'd like to sell a set or two on craigslist and try and break even on the whole deal.

I'll keep a set of the SAE and not sure on the metric yet since I bought the ratcheting version last month.

 

[xroad]

Went to 2 different K-Mart. Neither one have any on the shelf.

The 1st of the 2 K-Mart was a weird experience. Funny and frustrating.

me: eh, exceuse me, do you have the Craftman Extreme Grip Wrench?

clueless clerk (cc): What?

me: do you have the Craftman Extreme Grip Wrench?

cc: (blank look)

me: Tool?

cc: Tool?

me: wrench.

cc: wrench?

me: I - am - looking - for - Sears - Craftman - wrench?

cc: Sears?

me: Yes, Sears Craftman tools.

cc: This is K-Mart.

me: (can't help but notice that we are standing in the middle of the Craftman tools department) Yes, but you sell Sears tools.

cc: Sears is down the ro ...

me: I am not looking for Sears, (pointing to the big Craftman tool box and the shelf full of Craftman stuff).

cc: (a dim bulb seems to slowing start to glow) Oh, eh, what are you looking for?

me: I - am - looking - for - Sears - Craftman - wrench?

cc: Oh, they are here, (pointing to what I was pointing at just 30 seconds ago.)

me: It is not here. Do you have some sort of inventory data base to see if they are in stock?

cc: (again goes into a trance)

me: Is there a Manager?

cc: manager?

me: ( ARE YOU ON DRUG? I really wanted to ask, but did not )(I can see that this is not going to get anywhere) (I went and found the manager.)

Manager: Tools? This way ....

me: No, no, no, I just came from there, you don't have it on the shelf. Can you look it up to see if they are in stock?

Manage: We can't

me: How do you know what you have in stock?

Manager: We can look up K-mart numbers, not Sears numbers.

me: You can't do a search by product name?

Manager: No, you have to have a product number, even for K-mart stuff.

me: You mean if I ask for a Dirt Devil blah, blah, blah, you can't find it ? You need the stock number?

Manager: Yeah.

me: OK, Thanks.


20 years ago, K-mart was really bad, a total mess, and then they started to reorganized and started to improved. I actually invested in a few shares of K-Mart stocks. Lately, it seems to taken a turn for the worst. Everybody in there is totally clueless. Last month, in another store ...... Items on sale and the managers and floor people have no idea they even have the stuff. I pointed to the flyer with the picture and they don't know where the item was.

 

[a390st]

I walked through the tool isle in the local K-Mart a month or two ago and saw that the Craftsman Mechanics Tool Sets were on 60-80% off. WOW!!! I picked the one up that I liked the best and scanned it. 15% off! I got an employee down the isle to check the prices on all of them, and they were all 10-20% off. We took one up to the CS counter where they got a manager to figure it out. The manager was as hateful and bitter of a person as you could ever imagine. She VERY reluctantly said to give me 60% off and yelled at the boy to RUN back and get those signs down. She told me that I could get that one at that price, but I could forget about getting anything else on sale. I didn't even ask, she just came up with that herself. I was totally unimpressed. K-Mart will barely take anything back that you want to return. They don't like to honour their own sale prices. They put things on clearance and then charge nearly full price for them. I just won't buy anything there that I don't have to or that isn't on a really good sale after the way I have been treated there. If you think Sears is bad, the K-Mart stores I have been to are much worse.

 

[xroad]

Granted I have not been in K-Marts more than a few times over the last 20 years. I clearly seen a trend of improvements back years ago. I thought they were getting their act together to fight back Target and not want to go the way of Two Guys department stores, remember them? How could things gotten so bad so fast? I really think the marriage with Sears have a lot to do with it. Looks to me Sears and K-mart people have been cross breed and produced a bunch of real bad attitude incompetent clueless zoned out zombies. I actually find them to be below fast food counter person of years ago. Not to knock the fast food people, I actually find them improved tremendously in the last decade. They are quite bright, fast and enthusiastic in doing their jobs. This K-mart experience and recent Sears encounters took me by surprise.

 

[russlaferrera]

xroad, I feel your pain. I went to K-Mart yesterday, All the Craftsmen tools were list piece . The wrenches in question were not there now were they ever.

The sales lady gave me the "I don't know look in Spanish., when asked. Not to waste gas we bought 10 lbs of bird seed. Got to treat American birds good.

 

[cruiser808]

Que lastima? I'm a third generation Cubano who was told by my maternal grand mother, "you embrace everything that this Country stands for and you and the world will be better for it." She said it in Spanish because thats all she knew. From childhood, I had to know to speak Spanish, but it was secondary to becoming a person that could speak Engish. I couldn't have had a better teacher. Because of her, I write technical engineering manuals in English and Spanish. To her, english was a second language, but her pride for her adopted country put me on my road to a very happy and successful life. Thanks Nana and God bless America.

 

[danc333]

I guess I got lucky. On the off chance that the Kmart on my way to work still had any left I checked. To my suprise they had 3 sets of standard and metric. They were $24.99 on sale for $19.99, but when I scanned them at the price scanner the said $2.50. So I am now the proud owner of 3 Sets of standard and metric Extreme Grip Wrenches. The way I look at it is I got $150.00 worth of wrenches for $15 bucks and my fathers day shopping is done. If I only use them 1 time its nice to not have to got to the store to get a wrench you need to finish a project.

 

[a390st]

I went to three K-Marts looking for a certain toy for a kid's present because I had a K-Mart coupon. Fun. Needless to say, none of them had the toy. They did last week when I didn't have the coupon... Anyway, I checked for the wrenches. Only one had them, and would you believe it, they scanned $24.99. I asked if that was the right price, and said they were supposed to be on sale for $19.99. The manager said they are $24.99 here, and that's what they are going to stay until they are sold. Of the three stores I was at, that was the only one where everything was locked up and they had nothing on sale in the entire store. The store in the best section of town was covered up with sales and clearance. Who knows???

 

[bchee]

Got mine for $2.50, at the 2nd kmart I visited. The 1st kmart had none.
The 2nd kmart didn't have them where they were supposed to be, but someone left some on a shelf nearby. Only one of each left mm/sae.

 

[warbirdta03]

Picked up 2 sets of mm and 1 set of SAE for $2.50 each, also picked up a set of metric companion nut drivers for 1.50.

 

[Jay H 237]

Picked up 2 sets of mm and 1 set of SAE for $2.50 each

Darn! I just bought 2 sets of the metric and 1 of the SAE a few weeks ago when they were $14.99 each.

I have a set of metric and the SAE here at home and took the other set of metric to work since 99.9% of our equipment is metric. Haven't used them here at home yet but I have used the metric ones at work a few times already. I will have to say I'm pleased with them. The extra length is great for breaking stuck bolts loose. I will say they shouldn't be your only wrench and they aren't the first ones I reach for from my toolbox at work but when I come across a stubborn bolt on our injection molding robots and automation they have come through. Once I break the stubborn bolt loose I grab a regular wrench or one of my Gearwrenches.

Bottom line, they have worked for me so far for what they have been advertised to do. Like I said, not to be the main wrenches in your box, but great to have for when you do need them.

 

[xroad]

Well, this is X'mas in June. Found a K-Mart with the wrench in stock. Took care of myself and a few X'mas gifts for this year.

 

[russlaferrera]

Que lastima? I'm a third generation Cubano who was told by my maternal grand mother, "you embrace everything that this Country stands for and you and the world will be better for it." She said it in Spanish because thats all she knew. From childhood, I had to know to speak Spanish, but it was secondary to becoming a person that could speak Engish. I couldn't have had a better teacher. Because of her, I write technical engineering manuals in English and Spanish. To her, english was a second language, but her pride for her adopted country put me on my road to a very happy and successful life. Thanks Nana and God bless America.

I am glad you speak 2 or more languages . I too and old and am 3rd gen Italian. My grand parents (all) spoke fluent English because thats the language spoken here in the US. Other foreign language speaking people in the US speak 2 or more languages . If I were working in a foreign country I would be compelled to speak their language. I could see this if I was located at a Mexican border town/state as a Northerner I had to learn Ya'll and other Southernisms.

I think they wasted her talents, as a sales clerk. She should have been in Customer Service.

 

[xroad]

My experience with is K-MArt clerk ..... definitely it is not a language problem with him. It is purely a dumass problem. I suppose I cannot blame it totally on Mr. Clueless. Their management have some responsibility to screen him and then train him. The problem usually comes from the top. As a leader, at all levels, you cannot demand some action and not follow up to make sure whoever assigned to do it is accountable.

Anyway, I digress. The wrenchs are not perfectly finish. As expected, the usual Craftsman quality, whatever that is. I like them, good for the money. THIS particular set, FANTASTIC for the money. Maybe I should go back and get a SAE set for my collection.

 

[xroad]

A while back, K-Mart had a sale of the Extreme Grip 3 piece wrench set for $2, yes it was two dollars. I bought 5 sets, figuring I can use it as gifts and keep one set for myself. Finally, I get a chance to use them. I had a slightly rounded nut on a very old bicycle. The box end wrench is slipping. So, I took the Extreme Grip and it worked great. It grabs the two opposit sides of the nut, not the corners.

Few observations ....

1/ The chrome plating was not all that great. I see spots of rust on every piece, all 15 pieces.

2/ The "jaws", the contact points to the faces of the nut, is not always parallel.

3/ The size of the jaw, is not consistent. One wrench will have a jaw tip thicker than another wrench. Sort of like the off center Snap-On flare nut wrench issue recently. Function is fine, fit and finish is not so fine. Maybe it is a feature like some had suggested. Probably not, it is a Craftsman, not Snap-On.

4/ Number of scratches and machine marks not clean off before the chrome plating.

5/ This wrench requires a swing of 60 degrees, minimum. You cannot flip the wrench like an open end wrench and get away with 30 degree min swing. The wrench is ONE direction only.

6/ I am too ****. For $2, I am still bitching.

 

[xroad]

If anybody care .....

Finally got to use the Extreme Grip wrench. The axle nut on a bicycle was well rounded. My 12 point box end wrench was slipping. I did not want to use a 6 point socket to furter kil what's left of the corners. Tried the EG wrench ... perfect. Took it right off without any further damage to the nut. Used it to put the nut back on as well. I was impressed.

Too bad the finish on them were so bad. After sitting in my basement over the summer, on one of the 5 sets I bought, I can see surface rust on 2 peces.

 

[Roadsters.com]

Dude, that's extreme!

Dave
http://www.roadsters.com/

 

[bchee]

Used it to put the nut back on as well. I was impressed.

hey why did you put a rounded nut back on??

lol I've done it too