Craftsman slim handle ratchets china.

[kythri]

looks like I will stock up on rebuild kits....they can keep the made in china **** I will not be buying any

Yeah, I'm going to need to attempt to do the same.

If anyone knows the best method of doing so, please let me know.

 

[brickG-man]

I just wrote to Sears to express my displeasure in gong Chinese too and attached the link to this post. I hope that many do the same.

 

[AZ_Catskinner]

I just wrote to Sears to express my displeasure in gong Chinese too and attached the link to this post. I hope that many do the same.

Where it may or may not make a difference, I too hope that Sears gets barraged with Emails regarding this. It may be the catalyst that starts the return of Craftsman to a quality American brand.

 

[wrh3]

Thanks to the OP for starting this thread, I went through all of my TP wrenches (bought when they first came out) and found that the 1/2", like the 1/4" I had warrantied earlier this year, had chrome flaking off. The 3/8" has seen a LOT more use than either of these and does not have this issue so the 1/4" and 1/2" may have been part of a bad initial batch for prep or somewhere else in the plating process.

Trying to find USA made versions was a challenge but I found some at the fourth store I tried. ACE also had some USA versions left on the rack when I went there last night, I bought another set. The USA versions seem to have better external finish and engraving quality and as others have noted seem to feel better as well although this is subjective- the chrome plating issue I had with my first set notwithstanding.

I have accumulated more than a few Craftsman tools over the years and it is sad that the new off-shore items cannot be made to the same standard as the older tools. I also have a fair amount of GearWrench tools and am not opposed to another COO for Craftsman but at the very least the quality should go up or the price should come down.....if they were smart they would have a core high line still made here in the US to higher standards and a low line to compete at the HF price point with similar levels of quality.

 

[scott4]

Wrote a rather lengthy, cited letter on the subject.
Probably won't go anywhere, but my business will when Cman is no longer made in the USA.

Count myself and my acquaintances among those who will reject Craftsman tools from Chinese manufacture. This is not negotiable, and it appears that this sentiment is very representative of the type of population that you will find using your tools. The recent move to outsource your excellent value slimline ratchet is one of a long line of heartbreaking moves in what is a tactile and tangible corporate sell out of a brand with deep familial sentimental attachments to our fathers, grandfathers, and symbolic of the skills we intend to pass down. Somehow, your Craftsman brand has attached itself to these emotions, and the offshoring of this brand is, thus, evokes a deep psychological reaction to American workers who are awaiting redundancy from policies generated from MBAs who have sat through a couple of macroeconomics classes and have erroneously determined the American worker as a dinosaur. Worse, this "dinosaur" can clearly see their brand with an artificially hiked pricetag, sacrificing the long term value of the brand in favor of quick, short-term profits. Perhaps, when your company developed this sinking ship of a business plan, you were reading Hubbard's work thats full of unprovable assertions on protectionism, and wages in high-income countries vis-a-vis low income countries. Some of Hubbards justifications include the qualification of child labor as "not that bad" when juxtaposed to prostitution. Coupled with the lack of Hubbard's unprovable assertions, he ignores China's 50 cent per hour wages, the nationally controlled labor union, the absence of a environmental regulator, or a actual sophistication from Chinese manufacturing that he dismisses as unskilled and simple.

The fact is, U.S. jobs are lost when foreign firms who don't need to worry about their worker's health from, say cancer and hexavalent chromium thats popularized in film, or the slave wages offered in Chinese factories. Forbes elaborates on this specific impact on manufacturing and its effects on American jobs and innovation:

Thus, on average, of every dollar spent on an item labeled “Made in China,” 55 cents go for services produced in the United States. So the study trumpets the finding that China has only a tiny sliver of the U.S. economy.
So no problem, right?

Well, not exactly. The tiny sliver happens to be the sliver that matters. What economists miss is what is happening behind the numbers of dollars in the real economy of people.
Decades of outsourcing manufacturing have left U.S. industry without the means to invent the next generation of high-tech products that are key to rebuilding its economy, as noted by Gary Pisano and Willy Shih in a classic article, "Restoring American Competitiveness" (Harvard Business Review, July-August 2009)

The U.S. has lost or is on the verge of losing its ability to develop and manufacture a slew of high-tech products.
(snipped)
A chain reaction of decline
Pisano and Shih continue:

"So the decline of manufacturing in a region sets off a chain reaction. Once manufacturing is outsourced, process-engineering expertise can't be maintained, since it depends on daily interactions with manufacturing. Without process-engineering capabilities, companies find it increasingly difficult to conduct advanced research on next-generation process technologies. Without the ability to develop such new processes, they find they can no longer develop new products. In the long term, then, an economy that lacks an infrastructure for advanced process engineering and manufacturing will lose its ability to innovate."

Frankly, some American workers may not be able to discuss the finer points of Hubbard or Macroeconomics, but they know, implicitly, that they lost their job or its severely threatened by short-sighted egg heads who have lost value in the American worker through a incomplete economic paradigm in favor of a quick jump in profit at the expense of the brand. They know they're the ones being sacrificed, and when they go to the tool rack, and see this symbolized on a ratchet rack at Sears, all the deep familial brand emotions work against you as Craftsman becomes a tangible symbol of this myopia that is selling out the American worker in favor of a quick buck. It took a long time to earn the value in the Craftsman name, and seeing China stamped on a favorite trusted tool drives this concept home in a very emotive sense for an increasingly threatened American workforce.

We will take our business elsewhere to a company that doesn't abide by faulty economic paradigms that do not threaten our jobs and our larger collective national economic health. The compounding effect of a dollar spent domestically is well known, versus one that is spent to pay a Chinese company. More importantly, as the geopolitical frictions grow between a strengthening Chinese rival, the political effort to withhold money from tools with a Chinese COO, is a dollar out of the hands of a growing rival. You might see quick profits, I and others like me see the sell-out of a brand that we have grown up with in favor of a broken economic policy that serves to undervalue us as workers and strengthen a growing economic and military rival. Maybe you can see where the strong reactions are coming from.

 

[dieselmike]

re: colbert report

that friggen pisses me off. "not available in your country"

i hate censorship.. BS.. im pissed.

 

[scott4]

re: colbert report

that friggen pisses me off. "not available in your country"

i hate censorship.. BS.. im pissed.

Go to the site - www.colbertnation.com

Find the URL of a full episode you want to watch . To find the URL, click FULL EPISODES on the main page. There's a horizontal scrolling image bar thingy that shows mini screengrabs of each of the episodes, find the one you want to watch and put your mouse over it's image (don't click) then put your mouse over the PLAY FULL EPISODE text that appears on the popup. The full URL will be shown in your browser status bar. Alternatively just go to the episode's page so it's displayed in your address bar

Note the episodeId= at the end of the URL (e.g. www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=**227417** for the last episode)

Take that number and stick it on the end of this URL http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:PUT_NUMBER_HERE (e.g. http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:227417 for the example given)

Stick that new URL into your browser address bar and watch the show. It'll play the first clip from the episode and automatically roll onto the next one and the next one etc.

It might be jerky as it'll take up the entire browser window; resize the browser window smaller to make it smoother or less pixellated if it jerks you around or the degree of pixellation annoys you

 

[dieselmike]

Wrote a rather lengthy, cited letter on the subject.
Probably won't go anywhere, but my business will when Cman is no longer made in the USA.

Count myself and my acquaintances among those who will reject Craftsman tools from Chinese manufacture. This is not negotiable, and it appears that this sentiment is very representative of the type of population that you will find using your tools. The recent move to outsource your excellent value slimline ratchet is one of a long line of heartbreaking moves in what is a tactile and tangible corporate sell out of a brand with deep familial sentimental attachments to our fathers, grandfathers, and symbolic of the skills we intend to pass down. Somehow, your Craftsman brand has attached itself to these emotions, and the offshoring of this brand is, thus, evokes a deep psychological reaction to American workers who are awaiting redundancy from policies generated from MBAs who have sat through a couple of macroeconomics classes and have erroneously determined the American worker as a dinosaur. Worse, this "dinosaur" can clearly see their brand with an artificially hiked pricetag, sacrificing the long term value of the brand in favor of quick, short-term profits. Perhaps, when your company developed this sinking ship of a business plan, you were reading Hubbard's work thats full of unprovable assertions on protectionism, and wages in high-income countries vis-a-vis low income countries. Some of Hubbards justifications include the qualification of child labor as "not that bad" when juxtaposed to prostitution. Coupled with the lack of Hubbard's unprovable assertions, he ignores China's 50 cent per hour wages, the nationally controlled labor union, the absence of a environmental regulator, or a actual sophistication from Chinese manufacturing that he dismisses as unskilled and simple.

The fact is, U.S. jobs are lost when foreign firms who don't need to worry about their worker's health from, say cancer and hexavalent chromium thats popularized in film, or the slave wages offered in Chinese factories. Forbes elaborates on this specific impact on manufacturing and its effects on American jobs and innovation:

Frankly, some American workers may not be able to discuss the finer points of Hubbard or Macroeconomics, but they know, implicitly, that they lost their job or its severely threatened by short-sighted egg heads who have lost value in the American worker through a incomplete economic paradigm in favor of a quick jump in profit at the expense of the brand. They know they're the ones being sacrificed, and when they go to the tool rack, and see this symbolized on a ratchet rack at Sears, all the deep familial brand emotions work against you as Craftsman becomes a tangible symbol of this myopia that is selling out the American worker in favor of a quick buck. It took a long time to earn the value in the Craftsman name, and seeing China stamped on a favorite trusted tool drives this concept home in a very emotive sense for an increasingly threatened American workforce.

We will take our business elsewhere to a company that doesn't abide by faulty economic paradigms that do not threaten our jobs and our larger collective national economic health. The compounding effect of a dollar spent domestically is well known, versus one that is spent to pay a Chinese company. More importantly, as the geopolitical frictions grow between a strengthening Chinese rival, the political effort to withhold money from tools with a Chinese COO, is a dollar out of the hands of a growing rival. You might see quick profits, I and others like me see the sell-out of a brand that we have grown up with in favor of a broken economic policy that serves to undervalue us as workers and strengthen a growing economic and military rival. Maybe you can see where the strong reactions are coming from.

well written, quite impressive for a tool forum even. thanks for posting.

 

[scott4]

well written, quite impressive for a tool forum even. thanks for posting.

Borrow it. I'm irritated.

 

[ishiboo]

Wrote a rather lengthy, cited letter on the subject.
Probably won't go anywhere, but my business will when Cman is no longer made in the USA.

Count myself and my acquaintances among those who will reject Craftsman tools from Chinese manufacture. This is not negotiable, and it appears that this sentiment is very representative of the type of population that you will find using your tools. The recent move to outsource your excellent value slimline ratchet is one of a long line of heartbreaking moves in what is a tactile and tangible corporate sell out of a brand with deep familial sentimental attachments to our fathers, grandfathers, and symbolic of the skills we intend to pass down. Somehow, your Craftsman brand has attached itself to these emotions, and the offshoring of this brand is, thus, evokes a deep psychological reaction to American workers who are awaiting redundancy from policies generated from MBAs who have sat through a couple of macroeconomics classes and have erroneously determined the American worker as a dinosaur. Worse, this "dinosaur" can clearly see their brand with an artificially hiked pricetag, sacrificing the long term value of the brand in favor of quick, short-term profits. Perhaps, when your company developed this sinking ship of a business plan, you were reading Hubbard's work thats full of unprovable assertions on protectionism, and wages in high-income countries vis-a-vis low income countries. Some of Hubbards justifications include the qualification of child labor as "not that bad" when juxtaposed to prostitution. Coupled with the lack of Hubbard's unprovable assertions, he ignores China's 50 cent per hour wages, the nationally controlled labor union, the absence of a environmental regulator, or a actual sophistication from Chinese manufacturing that he dismisses as unskilled and simple.

The fact is, U.S. jobs are lost when foreign firms who don't need to worry about their worker's health from, say cancer and hexavalent chromium thats popularized in film, or the slave wages offered in Chinese factories. Forbes elaborates on this specific impact on manufacturing and its effects on American jobs and innovation:

Frankly, some American workers may not be able to discuss the finer points of Hubbard or Macroeconomics, but they know, implicitly, that they lost their job or its severely threatened by short-sighted egg heads who have lost value in the American worker through a incomplete economic paradigm in favor of a quick jump in profit at the expense of the brand. They know they're the ones being sacrificed, and when they go to the tool rack, and see this symbolized on a ratchet rack at Sears, all the deep familial brand emotions work against you as Craftsman becomes a tangible symbol of this myopia that is selling out the American worker in favor of a quick buck. It took a long time to earn the value in the Craftsman name, and seeing China stamped on a favorite trusted tool drives this concept home in a very emotive sense for an increasingly threatened American workforce.

We will take our business elsewhere to a company that doesn't abide by faulty economic paradigms that do not threaten our jobs and our larger collective national economic health. The compounding effect of a dollar spent domestically is well known, versus one that is spent to pay a Chinese company. More importantly, as the geopolitical frictions grow between a strengthening Chinese rival, the political effort to withhold money from tools with a Chinese COO, is a dollar out of the hands of a growing rival. You might see quick profits, I and others like me see the sell-out of a brand that we have grown up with in favor of a broken economic policy that serves to undervalue us as workers and strengthen a growing economic and military rival. Maybe you can see where the strong reactions are coming from.

You also have to consider it from the company's standpoint though.

For many companies, its all too easy to just give up on the US and move things offshore. In the case of Craftsman, I'm betting that Sears had to seriously consider the move before making it, as your typical Craftsman owner I bet is far more likely to care about Made in USA. However, my guess is Craftsman is a loosing battle for Sears either way, and based on the lack of consumer demand, manufacturing costs, etc. they have little choice.

I'm not sure if it starts at the company level, though US companies need to be producing great tools at reasonable prices if they want to drive manufacturing back home, IMO the Craftsman sockets/etc. are inferior to the Taiwan-made, at a higher price point. In addition, consumers need to start putting a higher value on Made in USA before things will change. GJ is a small subset of hand tool buyers. The Chinese tools are selling and selling like crazy, which is why HFs are popping up everywhere and Sears stores are closing.

It's all on us to make the change. Given the economy issues, I'm not sure it'd be a particularly poor use of time for the next regime (hopefully Republican!) to come up with a push for things made back home.

 

[scott4]

You also have to consider it from the company's standpoint though..

I have, from quick profit margins to paradigms popular with macroeconomics. I've considered them above, clearly, in a wide context and critiqued them.

 

[ishiboo]

I have, from quick profit margins to paradigms popular with macroeconomics. I've considered them above, clearly, in a wide context and critiqued them.

No, you ranted on and on and considered only your limited view and personal opinion of the situation, and not the corporation's need to profit, making a good return to shareholders and thus surviving.

 

[jjjrmx5]

You also have to consider it from the company's standpoint though.

To quote long ago gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams regarding ****: "If it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it".

See--it's simple as that.s
ishiboo, if you like the flop to Asian suppliers for Craftsman goods then I bet dollars to donuts you are not US based or have a semi-deluded view of how manufacturing based economies work.

Knock yourself out boys but I will professionally voice my opine to Sears. Not that they'll be around long enuff to reply I guess. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.

 

[scott4]

No, you ranted on and on and considered only your limited view and personal opinion of the situation, and not the corporation's need to profit, making a good return to shareholders and thus surviving.

A cited critique from multiple arguments is now a "rant" and limited view.

Ok.

 

[wrenchr]

Take it easy guys.................

 

[ishiboo]

To quote long ago gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams regarding ****: "If it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it".

See--it's simple as that.s
ishiboo, if you like the flop to Asian suppliers for Craftsman goods then I bet dollars to donuts you are not US based or have a semi-deluded view of how manufacturing based economies work.

Knock yourself out boys but I will professionally voice my opine to Sears. Not that they'll be around long enuff to reply I guess. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.

I don't like the flop at all, as an executive in a corporation I am simply sharing the other side of the coin, and that the changes are based on the consumer's activity.

I'd love to see Craftsman continue to be an American (or mostly American) brand, giving the honest Joe a good value on hand tools and contributing to our economy. But I'm disagreeing that it's some misinformed first year MBA making a poor decision to make an extra 3 cents on the dollar when profit margins are huge.

I'm also not taking blame away from Sears, but for me it takes more than a "Made in USA" stamp... it takes a quality product at a fair price. The Craftsman pricing seams reasonable but I'm not impressed with the latest series of USA-made sockets/etc. whatsoever.

Again, corporations are for their shareholders, if you want to change their whole business model back to what it was, it's going to take voting with your wallet and convincing other people to, not blaming the college grads and writing a letter containing what they already knew when they made the decision - a small fraction of their consumers would be unhappy enough to leave and never look back.

 

[ishiboo]

A cited critique from multiple arguments is now a "rant" and limited view.

Ok.

No disrespect intended... I'm just sharing an opposing viewpoint, IMO when you post an opinion on an Internet forum, you invite critique and discussion on it. You did not cite anything, you quoted some articles... that does not change the facts that the Sears leadership based their decision on.

 

[scott4]

No disrespect intended... I'm just sharing an opposing viewpoint, IMO when you post an opinion on an Internet forum, you invite critique and discussion on it. You did not cite anything, you quoted some articles... that does not change the facts that the Sears leadership based their decision on.

Refrain from calling things rants if you don't intend disrespect.
Theres a whole array of arguments dealing with the very issue you seem to think I don't deal with: 'the company's standpoint'

Quoting articles, critiquing Hubbard, bringing up information that chops the people who tend to look at overall manufacturing as some sort of rebuttal. You don't want to call that a citation.

Ok.

That might be an excessively cited letter to a company. Frankly, its too much detail for that format. However, you seem to want more. Would you like me to raise it to the level of peer-review? What exactly has you in a twist?

 

[camarotoolman]

There are some many good used usa made tools out there, why bother with new china stuff. Also you are helping the environment by buying something thats already made and helping an AMERICAN thats selling the used 1. (THAT BE ME)

 

[pipsters]

Instead of completely blaming Sears, you must blame the consumer and the government.

The consumer, because as a whole they/we are unwilling to pay USA prices for the products.

The government, because it created an environment that makes it a no-brainer to outsource production overseas.

I would be really curious if a reporter did some research and determined the cost per piece of say a 3/8" ratchet and a 12mm socket for China vs. US made. Identical quality of course. It's also well known that the Danaher producing Sears products has done an outstanding job of making some crappy tools as of late as well (most are good, but you get just enough bad ones that you just have to shake your head).

 

[scott4]

Instead of completely blaming Sears, you must blame the consumer and the government.

The consumer, because as a whole they/we are unwilling to pay USA prices for the products.

The government, because it created an environment that makes it a no-brainer to outsource production overseas.

I would be really curious if a reporter did some research and determined the cost per piece of say a 3/8" ratchet and a 12mm socket for China vs. US made. Identical quality of course. It's also well known that the Danaher producing Sears products has done an outstanding job of making some crappy tools as of late as well (most are good, but you get just enough bad ones that you just have to shake your head).

You really need to look at neoliberal economics as well. As in the model that people use to generate these plans. Were scratching the surface with Hubbard and macroeconomics. Basically, theres a whole economic paradigm that sees US manufacturing in this regard as a dinosaur. Theres some deep criticisms to it. I've touched on some.

 

[brickG-man]

Thinking way down the road here, just in case the entire US ratchet/socket/wrench market goes to hell in a hand basket. I have seen some of the German made screwdrivers and they have some pretty good quality. I don't know anything about the quality of their ratchets, wrenches etc. can anyone share what the quality of those items are at the present time? If need be I would rather support the German market, (provided the quality is there of course) then the Asian market.

 

[kxxr]

well written, quite impressive for a tool forum even. thanks for posting.

No, the writing is not done well and wouldn't draw a passing grade in a high school composition class. Your points will not be taken seriously if your letter is not 'well written'.