What happened to Cman?

[gunner3773]

I've been building my tool collection over the last 40 years. I have bought a lot of Cman and then switched to some Snap-On and Mac when I worked in a Ford dealership. After which, I went back to mostly Cman.

Recently, I decided I needed non-flexhead long handle 1/2 and 3/8 ratchets. I thought I would make a small tool order and get them from Mike@Toptul. He was out of the long handle ratchets and a couple other things that I wanted to buy from Toptul, but I was able to purchase a few things from him anyway. Mike was great to work with, but hopefully as his business builds the out of stocks will become less.

So, since Mike was out of stock, and with a new gift card from Sears, I thought I might go look at the long handle Cman ratchets. Boy, have they changed since the last time I bought a Cman ratchet a number of years ago. There was no way I was going to purchase one of those new Cman ratchets. And I should mention that Sears was out of stock on a lot of their sale item tools. "It just ain't what it used to be..."

I guess at this point, I can wait until Mike gets another shipment in and try to put in an order before he sells out of those long handle ratchets or just buy SK or Armstrong. I guess I am leaning toward Armstrong over SK. Besides Snap-On, any other suggestions?

 

[Merkava_4]

Sears is my favorite store - I love that place. I live inside that tent that's on display in the camping department. I'm in there right now.

 

[Joelfke]

Sears is my favorite store - I love that place. I live inside that tent that's on display in the camping department. I'm in there right now.

 

[FNFS2000]

Sears ***** I'd wait for Mike, or splurge on some German stuff

 

[sk farmer]

do not belive merk. his bet would be sk over armstrong and he would tell you to forget about snap-on. me, i will recomend buy what you want and like. i like my long handle sk rats. i also seem to have unpolular opinions around here lately. i also like the long handle proto big dawg rats. you will get plenty of opinions but probably no one right answer.

 

[autoace]

Cornwell makes some real nice, durable long, non-flex head ratchets in all drive sizes.

 

[boostedgt]

wait for an older craftsman or used snap on to show up here in the classifieds is my suggestion

 

[48548]

I love snap on, but after getting my wera, I put my wallet where my mouth is and ordered 175 dollars worth of wera bit holders and 5/16 sized torx and hex bits, and believe me 4 bit holders for over 80 and the rest bits, did buy much but the quality can't be beat in my opinion. The brings me over 1000 dollars in a month and a half of wera stuff and while the zyklops don't replace the dual 80's everything else is nice and I don't have any plans to replace them with snap on. So look at some nice german stuff.

 

[autoace]

Sears is my favorite store - I love that place. I live inside that tent that's on display in the camping department. I'm in there right now.

 

[Adam McLaughlin]

Sears is my favorite store - I love that place. I live inside that tent that's on display in the camping department. I'm in there right now.

Wasn't that in a movie with Natalie Portman? Wasn't it called Where the Heart Is, or something like that? She lived in the store in a tent, using an alarm clock, sleeping bag, work out equipment, etc.



Adam

 

[boostedgt]

Wasn't that in a movie with Natalie Portman? Wasn't it called Where the Heart Is, or something like that? She lived in the store in a tent, using an alarm clock, sleeping bag, work out equipment, etc.



Adam

the dude that had a gambling problem that owned the sporting goods store in the sopranos did too!

 

[mikevango]

So what was wrong with the ratchets?

 

[supertooljunkie]

She was living in the Wal-Mart.

 

[jeepnut24]

I bought a set of sockets last night from sears. Had a gift card left over and needed to fill some wholes. Two of the sockets had the chrome chipping off, and the inside was already rusty!!!! The stuff I saw at HF had better chrome on it and it was imported!!! Im thoroughly bummed out now. At least I got them replaced for free and the open stock sockets were 100% nicer than those in the set????

 

[mossyboy6]

my rule is check what you buy before you buy it..

 

[jeepnut24]

my rule is check what you buy before you buy it..

Yeah, I know, but I shouldn't have too. At least thats way it used to be with CMAN stuff.

 

[48548]

Here is a good american alternative and I actually like the stuff they make, PROTO

 

[jeepnut24]

Here is a good american alternative and I actually like the stuff they make, PROTO

Do they have a brick and mortar location that I can walk in and warranty tools???

 

[Davefr]

Do they have a brick and mortar location that I can walk in and warranty tools???

Would you rather have a B&M store that makes it easy to return their inferior tools. Or would you prefer to have superior tools that are harder to get warranty support for? That's the tradeoff. I'll chose the later.

 

[48548]

Grainger sells proto and so does MSC and hagemeyer NA. I would think most industrial supply places do.

 

[mkdive]

Sears is my favorite store - I love that place. I live inside that tent that's on display in the camping department. I'm in there right now.

Thanks merk, I need a laugh tonight.

 

[krooser]

Merkava was actually at HF....

 

[crtt1976]

I worked at sears for over 2 years a while back. In the time that I worked there the most commonly returned warranty items were the newer teardrop ratchets. I used to rebuild quit a few ratchets for sears when I worked there. The most common ones were the new teardrops, it seemed to me that the design caused the head to warp under alot of stress. The reason I say this is that just about everyone that I fixed, you would have to stretch the spring inside the head itself for it to ratchet properly. Alot of them were discarded into a fifty gallon barrel if they were to warped internally to be rebuilt. I agree with just about everyone, the newer craftsman ratchets ****. I think this is one of the really big problems that keeps craftsman out of the running as a quality tool manufacturer. I have quit a few older craftsman ratchets, with no issues. For the most part I don,t have a problem with any craftsman hand tools except for ther newer ratchets. I have some toptul ratchets that I like very much, good choice in my book. But, buy what you want, try something a little different. As far as the proto stuff goes, keep an eye on ebay! Good deals on proto ratchets.

 

[ZiggyPiggy]

Ok I'll bite, It's a given that their teardrop ratchets ****, but they rebuild easily and are cheap enough to be disposibe. What do you really expect for 13$ new? Everyone squawks about the finish on their sockets, but I have yet to break one, and if it does its job, how much do I really care if the finish is blemished? The C-man line is pretty broad and quality varies but it all has the same warranty. Take C-man impact sockets for example, I have never broken one, they are pretty good construction, and a great warranty. I picked up a set of the C-man pro offset box wrenches last month and the finish is near flawless. Pretty hard to argue with a 12pc wrench set, full polish, made here, and a great warranty for 80$. I too have been lurking around here long enough to hear most of the complaints about Sears/Craftsman and some of it is well deserved. But at the end of the day, I still think they represent one of the best values for US made tools for the average weekend mechanic. In no way are they on the same level as Snap-On or the other truck brands, but they were never intended to be, and the price reflects it. The fact is were are going to be in this financial mess for a long while, and owning, rather owing is more important than ever. C-man is all some will be able to afford, and despite their flaws, they (for the most part) are still made here and still employ Americans.

 

[jeepnut24]

Would you rather have a B&M store that makes it easy to return their inferior tools. Or would you prefer to have superior tools that are harder to get warranty support for? That's the tradeoff. I'll chose the later.

Brick and mortar any day of the week. Face to face service. Id love to go with a truck brand, but Im no pro and don't bun nearly enough to make it worth it. I usually can't wait a week+ turn around when the daily driver needs to be put back together.

The sad point I was trying to make is that HF has the same warranty support, the same prices and not about the same or sometimes better quality...


Ill have to stop by grainger and see what they have. Its been a while since I was over there.