You'll be hard pressed to find many Craftsman tools made in Japan. I have a huge chest full of 'em and not one made in Japan. I've seen impact sockets and 1 wrench set(the only one I've ever seen) from Japan.

 

I'm a Polaris mechanic at a dealership and I have & use Snap on, Mac, & S&K tools. Every day at lunch time we have a tool truck that stops by work & sells tools. Monday Matco comes, Tue. S&K, Wed. Mac,& Thursday Snap on comes. Although I do have to pay more it's convenient when a tool breaks, and they all take payments. Unless you work at a shop it's probably hard to find these brand names but in my opinion Craftsman makes high quality tools.

 

I bought a cheapo set of easy-outs at the local
Big Lots store and every one that I used snapped off. I finally just pitched them. Good tools are expensive but worth their weight in gold. I would love to own Snap-On or S&K but I'm just an average Joe that gets his tools at Sears. I've built up my collection of Craftsman tools since I was a teenager when my parents gave me the basic Craftsman 101 piece mechanics socket set for Christmas. Now my kids always give me Craftsman tools for Christmas. They know they can't go wrong giving me tools as a gift. I know Craftsman probably aren't the best but I've had very few problems with them over the years and I've used them alot. The one tool I don't care for from Sears is their version of vise grips though. They can't compare with real Vise-Grip tools.

 

Speaking of tools, has anyone had any experience with the Met Wrench(spelling??) brand sockets and wrenches? I see a infomercial a while ago that showed these tools in action and wonder do they really work. They are suppose to grip the middle of the nut or bolt and thus be extreemly strong and able to removed stripped fasteners. Any comments?

 

This is why I buy my tools at Valu Home Center. All you need is a big and a small of each then pound it on until it fits!

 

I have worked on cars professionally for 26 years. It is hard to beat Snap-on, Mac or some others for quality. You have to be a constant user of them to really appreciate the difference. Having said that, the price of them is not justifiable for the average guy. Sears or SK will work just fine for most folks. Warrantied, too.

 

I have both Snap-On and Craftsman tools here at the house. The Snap-Ons are of the best quality, whereas the Craftsmans have much poorer quality. What good is a warranty 50 miles out in the woods with a broken quad? Buy the best quality tools that you can afford, and you won't be sorry. BTW, get yourself a can of " PB Blaster" this stuff makes liquid wrench look like water. We take things out of sea water, spray them down with "PB" and soon all of the fastners will come loose. It saves a lot of "Blue tip speed wrench" and easy out time.

 

Well . . . the new Craftsman bits I bought chewed through the crached off WalMart Bit, surplus store easy out and factory bolt like it was butter.

All Hail the Craftsman drill bits . . .

 

Mork,
I have a Metrinch set at work. I thought it was a cheesy tool set when I saw it on TV. I bought it in a last ditch effort to remove some nuts that got rounded off using conventional tools. It worked great. I purchased the set at Sears for around $100 U.S. dollars. I'm very impressed with it.

 

Any easy out that you can drill out, certainly wasn'y worth puting in the hole in the first place. No matter what size you drilled it. Cheap tools like to round off things. Then you really have a problem. I buy big name normally, but I have a shop. I use middle quality on the trail. But I don't give a rats --- about a warrenty. I buy the ones that don't break if treated right. It doesn't matter what kind of warrenty you have when it fails. You still have that fastener to remove, and if it busted the first cheap wrench, it will likely break the second too. That is if it can get on the rounded head now.