Ive noticed something here, there is an awful lot of love for craftsmen. I can understand some have good experiences with them and I myself have a few craftsmen tools, but I feel they are cheap and inferior to most tools out there. I know this topic is going to garner alot of hate and whatnot..
1. The power tools are garbage. Cheap, unreliable, I know of no one who professionally depends on their tools will buy them, they frequently change designs, good luck getting parts or repair and even the local pawnshops sell them REAL cheap and cant give them away. I broke a Cman circular saw building a shed with a buddy (his saw and hardly used before hand) in a day, yet my 10 year old makita had NO issues. Friend has a 14v? nicad Cman drill, its so underpowered its sad-yet my 20 year old makita 9.6V put sit to shame and the batteries are old as dirt. My grandfather has several of the older bakelite type plastic tools, circular saw, sander, belt sander, hammer/VSR drill. They seem fine and my dad has the same circular saw and had a VSR drill (it died after 20 years and using it to drill into cement).. Course the things are very bulky and heavy compared to todays stuff and over 40 years old too!
But thing is, todays stuff I equate to being ont he level of the real cheap black and decker stuff you can buy at the local walmart/kmart. I dont know of anyone professionally who would bother with them when a dewalt or even ryobi is better quality imho. Most pros I know or even serious DIY will buy ryobi, dewalt, makita or milwaukee (what I own myself). They depend on their tools not to break and ya know what-they dont.
2. The mechanics tools are terrible these days. Laser etched numbers that rub off, VERY cheap ratchets (stanley at walmart are better!) they break, uncomfortable raised panel tools, etc. Friend of mine bought a 300pc set, we broke the 3/8 and 1/4 ratchets in 2 hours using it to work on a dirtbike for cripes sake! Even worse is I broke a 1/4 Cman ratchet removing battery terminals, 6 replacements later I gave up. Same cheapo husky from home depot hasnt given up in 6 years..hell I finally lost it otherwise Id still use it.my dads set from the 80's is good (still ratchets leave alot to be desired), but you can see the quality difference.
I mean I understand for the person who hardly uses the tools they might be acceptable, but for anyone who uses them more than occasionally wtf do you do if it breaks. Oh yea yea go to sears they will replace it, well if it didnt break I wouldnt need to bother! I have alot of cheap tools, Im a mechanic by trade and have a box full of husky, SK, stanley, HF and alot of snap on/mac/matco. I bought what worked but i didnt fall into paying my life away to the tool trucks. Somehow Ive broken very few tools over the years using them professionally and not many of them are pro tool truck tools. I had an entire CMan set, the nice 300pc you can get on sale at christmas and stuff. I broke every ratchet at least 1x and wound up rubbing off the laser etching-BTW i bought it before I turned wrenches for a living. I sold almost all of it off before going pro and never looked back.
Maybe I just hate CMan cause the stuff Ive used seem cheap and broke on me?
1. The power tools are garbage. Cheap, unreliable, I know of no one who professionally depends on their tools will buy them, they frequently change designs, good luck getting parts or repair and even the local pawnshops sell them REAL cheap and cant give them away. I broke a Cman circular saw building a shed with a buddy (his saw and hardly used before hand) in a day, yet my 10 year old makita had NO issues. Friend has a 14v? nicad Cman drill, its so underpowered its sad-yet my 20 year old makita 9.6V put sit to shame and the batteries are old as dirt. My grandfather has several of the older bakelite type plastic tools, circular saw, sander, belt sander, hammer/VSR drill. They seem fine and my dad has the same circular saw and had a VSR drill (it died after 20 years and using it to drill into cement).. Course the things are very bulky and heavy compared to todays stuff and over 40 years old too!
But thing is, todays stuff I equate to being ont he level of the real cheap black and decker stuff you can buy at the local walmart/kmart. I dont know of anyone professionally who would bother with them when a dewalt or even ryobi is better quality imho. Most pros I know or even serious DIY will buy ryobi, dewalt, makita or milwaukee (what I own myself). They depend on their tools not to break and ya know what-they dont.
2. The mechanics tools are terrible these days. Laser etched numbers that rub off, VERY cheap ratchets (stanley at walmart are better!) they break, uncomfortable raised panel tools, etc. Friend of mine bought a 300pc set, we broke the 3/8 and 1/4 ratchets in 2 hours using it to work on a dirtbike for cripes sake! Even worse is I broke a 1/4 Cman ratchet removing battery terminals, 6 replacements later I gave up. Same cheapo husky from home depot hasnt given up in 6 years..hell I finally lost it otherwise Id still use it.my dads set from the 80's is good (still ratchets leave alot to be desired), but you can see the quality difference.
I mean I understand for the person who hardly uses the tools they might be acceptable, but for anyone who uses them more than occasionally wtf do you do if it breaks. Oh yea yea go to sears they will replace it, well if it didnt break I wouldnt need to bother! I have alot of cheap tools, Im a mechanic by trade and have a box full of husky, SK, stanley, HF and alot of snap on/mac/matco. I bought what worked but i didnt fall into paying my life away to the tool trucks. Somehow Ive broken very few tools over the years using them professionally and not many of them are pro tool truck tools. I had an entire CMan set, the nice 300pc you can get on sale at christmas and stuff. I broke every ratchet at least 1x and wound up rubbing off the laser etching-BTW i bought it before I turned wrenches for a living. I sold almost all of it off before going pro and never looked back.
Maybe I just hate CMan cause the stuff Ive used seem cheap and broke on me?
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