pulls the pin from the grenade. Enter the 'new' Craftsman thread.

there are some very strong opinions about tool quality on this forum. 

Now be nice about the photo below the lady is actually someone of importance to the debate.

That explains why I am suddenly seeing Craftsmen tools at Rona (Canadian Home Depot)

I also found an email in my spam folder before signing out of hotmail into msn. 

I saw a large Craftsman box at Lowe’s. It felt like the sliders were ball bearing. I don’t remember the price...not sure I actually checked, as I don’t really have room for a bigger toolbox anyway. 

Saw a large assortment of craftsman at Lowes recently. 

I like their handtools, but every craftsman power tool I have bought has been GARBAGE! 

I'm curious how the warranty will work going forward. Only with reciept? 

Is that Kathy Griffin?  

That leaf blower looks like a cheaper version of Milwaukee stuff, even down to the coloring, battery style, etc.  Realize there are only so many ways to skin a cat but geez.  

The last time I was at Sears was to exchange a broken T50 torx.  The one I gave them was made in USA.  The one I got back was made in China.  I think that says all I need to say about the current state of Craftsman tools.

Remember the Craftsman Pro line?  Full polish wrenches that would put Snap-On to shame.  Screwdrivers that rivaled the Snap-On hard handles.  Real stuff for real mechanics.  American made reversible ratcheting wrenches at a price that an average Joe/weekend warrior could afford.  Stuff to be proud of.  Such a shame.  

Sounds like they're trying to make it work. Selling @ other retailers is a good move. We don't have a local Ace Hardware, but Lowes is giving them some prime real estate. Bringing production back to the US can only help perception at this point too. Only time will tell regarding quality, but I'm rooting for them.

STM317 said:

Only time will tell regarding quality, but I'm rooting for them.

Same here.

I would hate to see Craftsman go away.. but I hate seeing it down in the Harbor Freight Hammer section too. I wish them well in rebuilding their image at Lowes

loosecannon said:

That explains why I am suddenly seeing Craftsmen tools at Rona (Canadian Lowes)

Lowes bought Rona last year

nutherjrfan said:

there are some very strong opinions about tool quality on this forum. 

Now be nice about the photo below the lady is actually someone of importance to the debate.

There was a Japanese movie called "Stacy", where for some weird reason, schoolgirls would turn into zombies, or zombies would turn into schoolgirls, I dunno exactly.  Didn't watch it except for the infomercial scene for one of the new consumer products created in order to dismember your Stacy before it tried to eat you.

Yes, that is an Engrished reference to the Evil Dead movies.

Good luck. 

Am I the only person whose experience with "made in America" translates to "cost 3x as much and lasts half as long" when it comes to tools or electronics? 

Honestly I think craftsman has been digging themselves into a hole for a long time, and I doubt Stanley or any other company will be able to bring them out of it. 

I didn't read anything in that article about actually improving quality. Did I miss it? 

I'm done with Craftsman. I have lots of Snap On, Matco, amd Mac tools. They RARELY break, Craftsman RARELY last a year. 

The last paragraph of the story responds to the biggest complaint I hear about Craftsman tools - that many of the mechanic's tools are now sourced from China.

"We're committing to bringing manufacturing of the Craftsman brand back to the United States," where more than 20 plants are now doing some of the work, including a factory in Hampstead that makes Craftsman parts, said Tim Perra, a Stanley spokesman. "It's one of those brands, we strongly believe, [that] should be made in the U.S.A."

Whether or not the quality improves remains to be seen, but bringing manufacturing back to the US will be a strong selling point.

Slippery said:

STM317 said:

Only time will tell regarding quality, but I'm rooting for them.

Same here.

Same here. Paid much of my college tuition with Sears paychecks.

I for one hope they make more high-quality, reasonably priced hand tools, and waaaaay less big plastic gizmos powered by rechargeable batteries.

The problem is Low Quality Chinese tools.....

They could have ordered High Quality Chinese tools and still made lots of money,

The Company chiefs are the ones that sold Craftsman down the river , 

If they get USA made, quality gear sets for their ratchets again, we'll talk.  Most of my old tools are Craftsman, and the few that have been replaced have been replaced with lower quality.

I'd love to be happy with them again :)

93gsxturbo said:

That leaf blower looks like a cheaper version of Milwaukee stuff, even down to the coloring, battery style, etc. 

I'm guessing that had something to with "1500 redesigned products" in 12 months...

WonkoTheSane said:

93gsxturbo said:

That leaf blower looks like a cheaper version of Milwaukee stuff, even down to the coloring, battery style, etc. 

I'm guessing that had something to with "1500 redesigned products" in 12 months...

I bet this happened similarly to what we see in aerospace... "Here is a part we don't have the intellectual property rights to, Can you send it to an offshore company where we can pay an engineer $20/hr. to reverse engineer it so we own the IP?" 

californiamilleghia said:

The problem is Low Quality Chinese tools.....

They could have ordered High Quality Chinese tools and still made lots of money,

The Company chiefs are the ones that sold Craftsman down the river , 

This. With how globalized everything is these days you can get high quality stuff from anywhere. It's not like companies just tell some factory to stamp their brand on whatever crap the factory is producing that day.

Craftsman slipped because someone decided that a little cut in quality here and a little cut there in pursuit of a slightly fatter margin was more important than the reputation of the brand. 

californiamilleghia said:

The problem is Low Quality Chinese tools.....

They could have ordered High Quality Chinese tools and still made lots of money,

I agree with that, but for a LOT of people who wrench it's a black or white thing...anything made anywhere overseas will always be 'junk' to them.  I think bringing their manufacturing back to the US will actually be more important for marketing, and restoring their image.

Was excited, they lost me at "Stanley".

I worked in the tool business for 10 years.

Stanley (Black and Decker / DeWalt) is where quality brands go to die. Stanley can make ONE tool well and that's a nailgun. Stanley bought MAC and Proto and the quality of those two brands went in the toilet. Proto stuff is just rebadged Stanley now.

Bosch (Dremel, Skil) and TTI (Milwaukee, RIGID, Ryobi) are just as guilty.

Craftsman power tools USED to be made by Emerson and were damn good stuff. Then they started contracting to the lowest bidder and the expected happened.

Ideal Tool should have bought the Craftsman name and started pushing S-K as Craftsman, would have been perfect, instant marketing for an under-the-radar brand with excellent quality tools.

Wera should have considered it too.

Eh, S-K is just fine as S-K, I don't really want to see that line blurred.  I really like S-K stuff and don't mind spending the money to get their tools for the most part.