kartracer55 said:
Nah, the craftsman brand is a staple, you could get rid of the name. Many non-tool freasks wouldnt know about allen being different or whatever. Raise the prices and sell them as craftsman. Take a look at a craftsman pro wrench and an allen... strikingly similar
Jim
I could be wrong but I thought there was a very old post on Markkw about the Craftsman pro wrenches being made by SK. Or maybe that was awhile back and they are made by Allen nowadays. Like I said I'm not 100 percent sure but those pro wrenches look a lot like SK's long pattern open ends.
The Craftsman pro thinline ratchet is the best hands down in the 1/4" & 3/8" drive sizes, IMHO. If you're thinking about getting the 3/8" drive, don't hesitate. In the 1/2" drive not so much, but that could be due to just mine or maybe it's because I don't use that size as much as the others and needs to be broken in a little. Even compared to my Snap-on and Mac ratchets those pro thinline are more comfortable, (seriously have you ever held one in your hands) but the Craftmans are much more smooth too. All sizes of the Craftmans pro thinlines have 60 teeth compared to 36 teeth on the Snap-ons sealed head high strength ratchets. Thats a difference between 6 degree of movement and 10 degrees. The Snap-ons feel a little choppy compared to the pro thinlines. The pro thinlines also have a sealed head design, which might be a first for Craftsman. I took apart all 3 of them and they have two o-rings, one under the quick release button and one on the other side. The Snap-ons don't have a quick release button and I find it to be a real *****, sometimes. And also the direction change lever is made of metal instead of plastic like the other Craftsmans, which always seems to break. And if that wasn't enough, while I had the ratchets apart, I also noticed that there are approximately ten teeth in contact with the pawl, which makes the ratchet very strong. Most ratchets have three or four teeth in contact with the pawl. And last, but not least, check the finish of them, (chome) they are better then anything else out there. After about two years of using them daily the finist still looks like new. Many other mechanics have agreed with me about these ratchets after trying mine out. Even an area Snap-on rep had to agree these Craftsman were better than what he had on the truck. It's a shame these ratchets aren't available in Canada, got mine when I visited the US. I paid a lot more when they first came out, because you had to buy them separately, now they can be bought in a set of three. The Craftsman ratchets in Canada are totally different and they ****. I also like how there are just Sears tool and hardware stores in the US, without all the clothing, electronics and perfume sales.
