I quit buying Snap Off tools years ago. Even though I have a couple of complete Craftsman sockets and ratchets I always reach for my 35 year old Husky set.

I have a buddy  who works for Emerson Electric, who told years ago their CEO and Sears CEO had an agreement that Sears would give Emerson exclusive rights to make all the Craftsman tools as long as he was CEO. When he retired, they went offshore without telling Emerson their plans, leaving Emerson hanging....
Sooo, Emerson courted Home Depot and got the Husky acct. to replace the lost Sears business.
I believe him, because I see a lot of the old Craftsman in the Husky tools.

As an aside, Emerson is still eating losses for old Craftsman radial arm saws they are buying back to get off the market, even though they no longer have a business relationship.

Depends on the user on sockets wrenches etc. I have snap on craftsman Kobalt and a few husky my favorite ratchets are pittsburgh pro composite 3/8" drive tear drop and the long flew 1/4" x 3/8" ratchet awesome tools. Husky sockets aren't bad your getting apex tools which are part of matco.  The one thing I wasn't sure about was on the deep sockets they have they aren't a true deep or even a semi deep for that matter the hex socket only goes down maybe a 3rd of the way.  I wasnt sure about that feature when I was looking at them. This was mainly because my ole snappys were the same way and they pissed me off when I needed a deeper socket so I could use my locking lug nut socket.  I'm actually curious how the tolerances rate on craftsman snap etc.  the reason why is because I had an old 8mm craftsman shallow 1/4" drive socket that fits great I needed the same thing but in a deep socket for something I was doing i went and got a new craftsman 8mm they only had a 12 point so i went to use it and I could twist the socket a 1/4 turn before it would grab.  Not cool I then went and grabbed a kobalt 8mm also only 12 point available tried it and fit like a glove.

I've been twisting wrenches on airplanes since 1968 and most of my stuff is Craftsman. Don't have much Snap On stuff cause I just couldn't see spending a lot of extra money on a tool with a fancy chrome job when the Craftsman tool most of the time would do the same job for a lot less and with a lifetime warranty. I do have a few Snap On specialty wrenches that Craftsman doesn't make, but just a few.

Sally - I also have a short 3/8" ratchet with VAH-10 on it that somehow ended up in my tool box. I asked the Snap On guy to give me some new innards to the ratchet, and he tool one look and said "ah, a military tool..." he laughed and gave me the kit and told me that all S/O ratchets like that with an "FV" in the model number make it a military contract tool.
The newer stuff seems a bit lighter weight than the old stuff, but it does the job.

I quit buying ANYTHING from Sears after them and Kmart climbed into bed!  I lost 200 shares of Kmart stock in their bankruptcy!  Guess what I don't buy from Kmart either

I don't know when Craftsman started using plastic gears in their wrachets;but, they are crap.  Also noticed I can't read the numbers on a lot of my sockets, very annoying.

I was never a big fan of Craftsman. I started buying them when I lived near a Sears while going to school in Ohio. When I moved back home I found out they did break and there was no Sears near us. I remember throwing a pair of their channel locks in the Monongahela River. After busting my knuckles for the second time while working on something at a power station, I decided it was time for them to go. I think that was the last Craftsman tool I bought. They are probably still down there if someone would want them. As true74 said, I think HF makes some decant hand tools for the home mechanic. Not everything but some of the tools are good.
 

I will say I haven't ever had a problem returning something to Sears ever. Even though I do home mechanics side jobs and now I'm going to be in a auto/collision repair shop I've used a lot of different tools. I can honestly say I've broken actually a few more snappys than craftsman. Screw drivers as for craftsman/husky red and clear or blue clear handles for get about it crap.  Then again I've bent a few snappy screw drivers. The screw drivers I'm liking right now are some husky composite handle screw drivers as well as channle lock screw drivers now that a good amount of them are USA made. To bad were not a few years back I remember when homdepot still was into their huge hand tool selection. If you broke a craftsman ratchet they would send it out for you they'd get a credit and you would get a husky as a replacement. One reason craftsman tools are overt Seas now is because of all of us who some what abused our tools.  Sears could've said no on swapping some tools out but they wanted customers. So they delt with it and because of it they said they couldve stayed USA made and lost the warranty or keep it and go over seas and get the tools for less. If it was me I could care less about warranty as long as they were USA made still.  To many places want to get everything cheap. And they don't want to support us at home sad times.

josh-kebob wrote:

Anyone wishing to earn "Garage Points" can send their unwanted/unbroken Craftsman hand tools to me.

I'll provide them a happy home while you can bask in the knowledge you helped a fellow mustanger.......

 
To bad we cleaned out my grandpas garage. He use to work at Sears years ago when they all were USA made.  He was given sets all the time for his hard work.  He also got all the broken sockets ratchets screw drivers etc he wanted but had to promise on those he couldn't swap them out at his Sears.  When we cleaned out the garage he has five gallon buckets filled with sockets to the brim. We ended up having a garage sale at my grandmas house and sold everything but a tool box an old table saw and that's about it.  Sockets I think we were charging 15c 1/4" 25c for 3/8" and 35 for 1/2" don't recall on the 3/4".  My grandma may have sold them cheaper me and my dad only told her a decent price to start with.

I would check your local pawn shops eBay etc for deals on tools.  There's always good ones oh and especially at some storage lockers and garage sales.  My dad got a craftsman box 30" tall 6ft box for 70 bucks and a garage sale one year. She she sold it cheap because she didnt have the keys to open it up and take the tools out.  I would also check and lowes and homedepot on Christmas and Black Friday sales. Kobalt sockets go as low as 4.95ea for 1/4"  shallows 9.95 for 3/8" shallows and 12.95 for 1/2" shallows deeps are around 22 a set.

Greg B wrote:

And people wondered why I collected the vintage stuff and the rebuild kits for them.....  

 
I have to agree with you Greg, the vintage stuff, -V-, =V=, -VV-, was probably the best they made. That is why it sells so well on eBay. It's amazing that you can still find like-new fifty year old Craftsman tools. Looks like a lot of the home handymen that bought them never used them much. I find the occasional socket that is as smooth on the inside as on the outside, but they go directly into the scrap metal bucket.

Craftsman still has some good mechanics tools for sale, but they are the Professional or Industrial lines which most of the retail stores do not stock. It's hard to understand their marketing strategy on tools. It would be easy to assume they are competing with Wal Mart for mass market low end tool sales, but the Stanley tools Wal Mart sells are better than the standard ChiCom Craftsman tools. Doesn't matter, sales trends indicate that Sears will go the way of Montgomery Wards fairly soon. The Craftsman brand is already separated from Sears, so expect the Craftsman brand rights to be sold in the liquidation. Maybe someone will resurect Craftsman tools like was done with the old S-K, which is now a very good line of tools.

Tools to look at: S-K, Wright, Armstrong, Williams. Pro level tools made in either USA or Taiwan. A little more expensive than WalMart, Home Depot, or Lowes, but noticably better quality.

The tool Truck tools: Snap-On, Matco, MAC, Cornwell, are all top quality tools, but the price puts them out of reach of the home hobbiest. The warrantee programs might make them justifiable to a full time pro, but it would be easy to spend thirty grand filling one of those big pro toolboxes (not counting the price of the box).

I am available for lunch most days. I am retired you know.

Hot Rod Power Tour?????????