My honest opinion after 20+ years

I bought Craftsman junk in the beginning as a mechanic and discovered some
very good reasons for buying quality over cheaply made crap... When you
use certain tools every single day and can't afford to have to be dealing with broken equipment or destroying bolts on a customers vehicle. Let
alone fighting with "springy" sockets and wrenches to get the job done,
you buy a quality tool! So many don't understand this concept period!

The same rules apply to tool storage there is a difference believe me...
In my 1st year as a mechanic my Craftsman toolbox started falling apart from the sheer weight of tools and wear n tear on a few of my common drawers.
What a waste of money!!! I then bought myself a nice used Snap-On KRL7xx series roller cabinet for $2,500.00 and after 3 years of use it was still like new...

I began to outgrow it quite rapidly as every drawer was nearly "FULL" to the brim causing my work to become more difficult from the lack of space and disorganization!!! So, I hit up my Snap-On guy for a good deal and he was willing to give me $3,400.00
as trade-in value for a box I paid $2,500.00 cash to him for 3 years before!

Now before you get all talking trash about markup hear this! Not only did that box hold its value well I was able to buy a brand new KRL1xxx-series
chest & roller cabinet set for $8,400.00 which would have cost me nearly 12,000.00... plus I bought it on promo 10% off and he threw in a Snap-On jacket, vinyl cover, $285.00 Snap-On roll cart and $1,200.00 in tool $$$
for using Snap-On Credit!

Also, very important to know, Snap-On Tools Credit isn't like a revolving credit card, instead you pay "Installment" payments just like a student loan and when it's paid off your credit gets a very nice little boost! I went from having a credit score
in the low 500's to a score in the upper 600's like 684 I believe once it was paid off!!! So, when I went to refinance my house mortgage the loan broker told me that my Snap-On account gave me a nice plus to my credit score and greatly improved how the
bank looked at my credit history!

This was not a bad thing at all, in fact it afforded me a 2% lower interest rate, my refinance rate went from around 8% for a 30 year fixed loan down to 6%. In 2008 the average 30 year loan interest rate at the time was between 6.0 ~ 6.5% with very
good credit and depending on debt to income ratio.

There is a time and place for Harbor Freight, Sears, Craftsman, Chin Foo, Stanley, Husky, or any other cheap crap tools... think motorcycle kit bag, young kids in the backyard, neighborhood loaner set, use around the house or in rare use situations.
But, if you try to work in any professional type environment with that crap you'll be sorry and it could cost you your job as well!

Think about it!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Saturday, November 8, 2003 at 9:43:40 AM UTC-7, bowman wrote:

Neil Nelson wrote:

When warranty time comes, I don't have to stop what I'm doing, I
don't even have to say hi to the S-O dealer, I can point out what
I need serviced, he'll take it out to the truck and bring back a
new one. At Sears, I have to stop work, get in the truck, drive
to the Sears store, walk in, see if they have the piece in stock,
track down a clerk to open the cabinet, take the tool back to the check-out....
Which scenario is most likely to result in increased productivity?

It's Saturday afternoon, about 6 PM, and you just fractured a 1 1/8 socket using a breaker bar and 6' of black iron pipe. You're a little tense,
because you're trying to repair the hydraulic cylinder on a 10 ton dump
full of rapidly cooling hottop. Does you SO dealer make housecalls?

If you would have bought a Snap-On, Cornwell or MAC socket in the first place you would not have to be dealing with a broken socket thus you wouldn't be running out to your local "CLOSED" or soon to be closed for good Sears outlet store!!! -_- just
sayin!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Thursday, April 17, 2003 at 10:43:29 AM UTC-6, Uwe Knie wrote:

Hey guys!

For a school research paper about hand and power tools in general and
Snap-on in special, I need to know, why people are buying Snap-on
tools, in contrast to other brands.
Do you buy just the quality, or an image the brand has, or additional
service compared to other companies, or convenience, or something
else?
Or why don't you buy Snap-on and prefer another brand (like Craftsman
or maybe European brands like Facom or Stahlwille etc.)?
Does a higher price pay off on the long run? Are you a pro or had you
been one?
It would be nice if you could get me a rough overview or some other
comments, which helps me with my research paper. Thanks a lot and
Happy Easter.

Uwe

I bought Craftsman junk in the beginning as a mechanic and discovered some very good reasons for buying quality over cheaply made crap... When you
use certain tools every single day and can't afford to have to be dealing > with broken equipment or destroying bolts on a customers vehicle. Let
alone fighting with "springy" sockets and wrenches to get the job done,
you buy a quality tool! So many don't understand this concept period!
The same rules apply to tool storage there is a difference believe me...
In my 1st year as a mechanic my Craftsman toolbox was falling apart from
the sheer weight of tools and wear n tear on a few of my common drawers.
What a waste of money!!! I then bought myself a nice used Snap-On KRL7xx series roller cabinet and after 3 years of use it was still like new...
I was outgrowing it rapidly every drawer was "FULL" to the brim and work became more difficult from lack of space and disorganization!!! So I
hit up my Snap-On guy for a good deal he was willing to give me $3,400.00 trade-in value for a box I paid $2,500.00 cash to him for 3 years before
now before you get all talking trash bout markup hear this! Not only did > that box hold its value well I was able to buy a matching KRL1xxx-series
chest & roller cabinet set for $8,400.00 which would have cost me nearly 12,000.00... plus I bought it on promo 10% off and he threw in a Snap-On jacket, vinyl cover, $285.00 Snap-On roll cart and $1,200.00 in tool $$$
for using Snap-On Credit! Also, very important to know but Snap-On Tools Credit isn't like a revolving credit card, you pay "Installment" just like
a student loan and when it's paid off your credit gets a very nice boost!
I went from having a credit score in the low 500's to a score in the upper 600's like 684 I believe once it was paid off!!! When I went to re-fi my house mortgage the loan broker told me that my Snap-On account gave me a
nice plus to my credit score and how the bank looked at my credit history! Not a bad thing at all... in fact it afforded me a 2% lower interest rate.
My refinance went from 8% down to 6% in 2008 the going rate at the time
was between 6.25~6.5% with good credit so... not too shabby. There is a time and place for Harbor Freight, Sears, Craftsman, Chin Foo, Stanley, Husky, or any other cheap crap tools... think motorcycle kit bag, young
kids, loaner set, around the house or in rare use occasions. But, if you try to work in a professional environment with that crap you'll be sorry
and it could cost you your job as well! Think about it!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Anyone who has ever worked on equipment that is assembled with Allen-heads or Socket-head screws & bolts will immediately understand why no other tool manufacturers can hold a candle to Snap-On Tools strength and quality!!!

Think especially Flat-head allen screws or "Low" head allen screws which are even worse!!! If you have worked with them you understand!!!

I always keep extra allen sockets and the bit inserts for them on hand as even the Snap-On ones will break and or twist on nasty red locktite sealed screws from time to time, even after heating the screws up a bit with a propane torch to burn off some of
the locktite.

I had bought a Craftsman punch & chisel set that didn't last even 3 months with occasional use as they kept needing to be "re-dressed" on a grinding wheel constantly during use... if they didn't bend or completely break!!!

It was until I bought a nice Snap-On set and Volla!!! No more problems!

To this day I still have nearly 95% of that original punch & chisel set I bought from Snap-On over 15 years ago! They just work!

I also became fed up with Craftsman's screwdrivers slippery when oily with weak tips, their soft "springy" sockets & "fat" junky wrenches too!

Hand files, Bastard, Mill, Coarse, Half-round, Rasp ect... Forget that Craftsman junk it didn't even last 1 month!

Literally, I was having to go down to the local Sears store after work 2 or even sometimes 3 times seemingly every single week to replace Craftsman crap tools; allen sockets & wrenches, punches & chisels, files, some screwdrivers and even their sockets
what friggin garbage!

If you buy a Snap-On file set or in the old days AKA (Simmons or Nicholson) they last and last and last forever! Just don't drop em or they can break! Extremely hard material so they stay sharp and stand up to massive abuse!

Guys can argue all they want and run their mouth but there is a difference!
You pay for what you get! Cheap junk tools give you broken knuckles, lost time, massive frustrations, ruined fasteners or equipment and wasted money!

I could literally rant for days on this shit!

Don't be a fool buy a good tool!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)