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Williams Tools poor quality

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MechMyk

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Just received my Williams adjustable wrenches via ups and thought someone was pranking me. They are Pittsburgh quality if that!

Tons of jaw play and adjuster hangs up almost every rotation. I litteraly have to readjust them after each turn.

No COO so I'm thinking pakastan or India...Not kidding that bad!
Also I stopped off at a tool supplier and he just received a large Williams shipment in and asked me to evaluate them. I did and was
thinking Pittsburgh at best.
 
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MechMyk

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Oh yeah he said a reputable supplier sold them to him at near Stanley cost. He said they all are from 2013 and were dated such on the boxes.

Even though Taiwan was on most packaging a lot of them had no COO at all. The ratchets may be Kolbalt quality but sockets had uneven teeth were crooked going into the base. The wrenches that were under an inch were equally as bad with pitting on the jaw face.

One thing I noticed was the larger wrenches from 1" up were grade a quality no doubt what you'd expect from a snap-on company.

BTW I noticed this after I bought my wrenches!
 
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MechMyk

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I didn't take pics of his stuff but I got some of my wrenches. I can't figure out how to post them though. I'm not exaggerating these were bad he even wondered if somehow they were knockoffs. Maybe defects IDK. I'm just bummed my wrenches are similar.
 
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BobsurUncle

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I have US made Williams.
I have Tiawan made Williams.
I have US made Snap-On
I have Tiawan made Blue Point.

My BS meter is bouncing off 11.
 
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MechMyk

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You think I wrote the part numbers down of all this guys tools?
I'm not a tool detective I was just wondering if anybody has noticed this.
 
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MechMyk

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Fair enough, I tried but I don't know how to load them it just says http...I just have them on my phone.
 
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jeremy v

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I don't have any Williams Taiwan made adjustables to personally comment on their usability, but I just pulled a couple quick listing pictures of them on Ebay. I am relatively unimpressed, so the OPs comments and declarations might not be off base in my opinion. In my pics pulled from an Ebay listing (that is not mine) for a Williams 13210 adjustable wrench you can plainly see the jaw thicknesses at the ends are not even close to matching and the tip angle is off (picture 1), there is a pretty noticeable gap at the side seam for the lower jaw (2nd picture) which would indicate a wobbly lower jaw side-to-side, and the dial mechanism does appear to be somewhat crude in its' execution compared to something like the really nice Irega Channellock adjustables that only cost a little bit more. The last picture is just one from another listing showing the Williams name on the handle with the part number the OP stated stamped in the wrench. Maybe this is a several year old model and that is why it is not in the catalog?

Here is the link to the original Ebay listing if you want to see more of the pics.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WILLIAMS-13...DUATED-JAWS-VERY-NICE-BRAND-NEW-/190919764044
 

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neophyte

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I looked up the part numbers. The adjustables look like the Bahco designs whose production Snap-On shipped to Spain after they bought Bahco. I believe someone in the past posted a picture of a Bahco orSnap-On branded adjustable of that type, that had been manufactured poorly.

I wonder if a company somewhere in Asia manufactures a knockoff version, and they are sometimes used to produce counterfeit versions, either by the manufacturer or somewhere down the line.

Otherwise it might be possible Snap-On shipped a set of dies overseas somewhere cheap to have some of there products manufactured at lower cost.
 
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CWP1616L

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I Googled the part numbers 13208 and 13210 and they only show up on SJ Discount tools and eBay, nowhere else. And like I said earlier, those part numbers are NOT in the JH Williams catalog.
 
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jeremy v

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I think you guys might be right, I am now also starting to think these are actually counterfeit instead of just being an older model wrench or a possible part number change in their catalog. The Williams logo looks nothing like the arched style logo usually found on their Taiwan line of tools and the quality I see in the pics I posted does seem more HarborFreight-esque than Williamsy:lol:.
 
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neophyte

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Maybe contact Snap-On about the wrench. If someone is sellig products as Williams that aren't they may be interested.
 
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Gmonkee

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At a glimse of those pictures I seen current CM Evolv form with a full steel handle......
 
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nicksnothereman

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MechMyk said:
Just received my Williams adjustable wrenches via ups and thought someone was pranking me. They are Pittsburgh quality if that!

Tons of jaw play and adjuster hangs up almost every rotation. I litteraly have to readjust them after each turn.

No COO so I'm thinking pakastan or India...Not kidding that bad!
Also I stopped off at a tool supplier and he just received a large Williams shipment in and asked me to evaluate them. I did and was
thinking Pittsburgh at best.
Click to expand...

Well...how much more than harbor freight were they? If they were the same price no biggie.

I don't think they really make a whole lot of tools in pakistan (knives though) and india (except certain iron (?) stuff such as hatchets and hacksaw frames and other hardware). I found some hacksaw frames in the 99 cents store from india they were so good I went and bought a couple more; I've seen some of their hatchets and they also look good.

This is probably just run of the mill china stuff...probably not taiwanese though.
 
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monomach

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jeremy v said:
I don't have any Williams Taiwan made adjustables to personally comment on their usability, but I just pulled a couple quick listing pictures of them on Ebay. I am relatively unimpressed, so the OPs comments and declarations might not be off base in my opinion. In my pics pulled from an Ebay listing (that is not mine) for a Williams 13210 adjustable wrench you can plainly see the jaw thicknesses at the ends are not even close to matching and the tip angle is off (picture 1), there is a pretty noticeable gap at the side seam for the lower jaw (2nd picture) which would indicate a wobbly lower jaw side-to-side, and the dial mechanism does appear to be somewhat crude in its' execution compared to something like the really nice Irega Channellock adjustables that only cost a little bit more. The last picture is just one from another listing showing the Williams name on the handle with the part number the OP stated stamped in the wrench. Maybe this is a several year old model and that is why it is not in the catalog?

Here is the link to the original Ebay listing if you want to see more of the pics.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WILLIAMS-13...DUATED-JAWS-VERY-NICE-BRAND-NEW-/190919764044
Click to expand...
The only Williams comfort models I've ever seen looked closer to Plastidip than that fancy Bahco-looking thing,

I'm on the counterfeit side here, I have never seen a poor quality Williams tool.
 
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monomach

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nicksnothereman said:
Well...how much more than harbor freight were they? If they were the same price no biggie.

I don't think they really make a whole lot of tools in pakistan (knives though) and india (except certain iron (?) stuff such as hatchets and hacksaw frames and other hardware). I found some hacksaw frames in the 99 cents store from india they were so good I went and bought a couple more; I've seen some of their hatchets and they also look good.

This is probably just run of the mill china stuff...probably not taiwanese though.
Click to expand...

At an old job, one of our teenage detailers got promoted to lube tech/monkey/coffee getter/shop *****. He had some Harbor Freight metric wrenches from India that actually had pieces break off just from being smacked against the top of a chest-high cinder block shop wall. Every wrench in the set did it. To this day, those were the worst hand tools I have ever seen. We got such a good laugh out of it that we pitched in and got him basic Craftsman..
 
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nicksnothereman

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monomach said:
The only Williams comfort models I've ever seen looked closer to Plastidip than that fancy Bahco-looking thing,

I'm on the counterfeit side here, I have never seen a poor quality Williams tool.
Click to expand...

They do use some other types of comfort grip handles (just looked) and the quality on some of those doesn't look so hot (long nose pliers) in my opinion. I assume those are "legit" as in amazon sells them directly. It's kind of an odd brand to knock off if it is a knock off.
 
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nicksnothereman

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monomach said:
At an old job, one of our teenage detailers got promoted to lube tech/monkey/coffee getter/shop *****. He had some Harbor Freight metric wrenches from India that actually had pieces break off just from being smacked against the top of a chest-high cinder block shop wall. Every wrench in the set did it. To this day, those were the worst hand tools I have ever seen. We got such a good laugh out of it that we pitched in and got him basic Craftsman..
Click to expand...

Yeah, but at the same time (for changing oil) quality tools aren't really necessary. You need a filter wrench and a decent socket set for drain plugs that's about it. I don't really use that much harbor freight stuff (usually odds and ends) but I assume it's mostly china now. India...not so good with the "mechanics" tools probably because they don't really have cars (or at the time they didn't) but the other stuff I've had no problem with. But just because you mentioned it I'm gonna go get a set of their box wrenches and see how quick I can bust them.

Nowadays, the cheap stuff isn't horrendously awful. I bought most of my core tools craftsman usa mainly clearance at what were essentially harbor freight prices. That's why I'm not bitter about this "china" stuff. Craftsman was underrated then and overrated now but I still use their stuff because I have access to it. Total amount of craftsman tools I've returned (including chinese made: ZERO. Total amount I've busted: ZERO. No joke, that includes the companion and evolv china stuff.
 
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CWP1616L

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It's looking like counterfeit tools to me. Why would Williams put their name on Bahco adjustable wrenches when they could just sell Bahco wrenches with "Bahco" already on the wrenches?
 
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woody 73

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MechMyk said:
Oh yeah he said a reputable supplier sold them to him at near Stanley cost. He said they all are from 2013 and were dated such on the boxes.

Even though Taiwan was on most packaging a lot of them had no COO at all. The ratchets may be Kolbalt quality but sockets had uneven teeth were crooked going into the base. The wrenches that were under an inch were equally as bad with pitting on the jaw face.

One thing I noticed was the larger wrenches from 1" up were grade a quality no doubt what you'd expect from a snap-on company.

BTW I noticed this after I bought my wrenches!
Click to expand...

I sometimes get confused but I thought Williams came from snap-on not Stanley, so the Stanley part is confusing old woody.:dunno:
 
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JerseyBoatBuilder

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MattPersman said:
Maybe there is 2 Williams tool brands or some new economy line
Click to expand...

That us because there is a U.S. Williams line and an imported Williams line just like SnapOn & Blue point does with hand tools.

The adjustables the OP got was from the cheaper imported line, The part# its self will tell you that.
For a majority of their stuff just #'s will be imported, Letters & #'s wil be U.S.
 
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truckdriver

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The bad part is that the "pics or your a liar" douche brigade showed up and he might not come back. Had someone told him how to post pics from his phone instead of calling him a liar we might have more evidence. Oh well.
 
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cgv69

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truckdriver said:
The bad part is that the "pics or your a liar" douche brigade showed up and he might not come back. Had someone told him how to post pics from his phone instead of calling him a liar we might have more evidence. Oh well.
Click to expand...
I hear what you're saying but the flip side of that is, you can't join a site and then after one month and 30 posts start a thread ripping on some product with no evidence to support your assertions.

Then again, I also hate the replies like "while I don't have the product you are talking about, I do have other products by that company so based on that experience I say you're wrong"

IMO, everyone of the major tool companies including Snap On have some products that are great and some that are not so great. Just because your Williams US made impact sockets are great doesn't mean that their adjustable wrenches are also great. Conversely, just because their adjustable wrenches aren't great, that doesn't mean everything they make is ****.

I am not brand loyal. I judge all tools on their own merits. If these non-US made Williams\BAHCO knock offs ****, then they **** but I'm not going to judge all Williams labeled tools based of of that.
 
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woody 73

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Way back a long time ago I did not understand what a "Troll" was I thought it was that ugly doll at the five and dime they used to sell.

The story sounds well "Fishy" to me, but then again who am I to question the internet tool web Gurus... sigh call me confused on this post!:dunno::rolleyes:
 
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