I use alot of "cheap" tools at work, eventhough it's my livlihood. PIttsburgh Forge, CT, ect..... for over 25 years. I've had Craftsman ratchets break before Husky's ever did. I do not believe in the Mattco, Snap-on, or
any other "must buy USA made" hype. Sorry, they haven't held up as well as the chicom, chiwanese or Japanese stuff. I don't own my soul/paycheck to the Snap-off man either.
The "Pro" stuff at HF is pretty damn good, and you won't go broke.
I agree, it's absurd that some people are practically indentured to a tool truck bill. Especially, guys just out of trade school, whom are already facing $15-20k tool loans from Snap-On... which isn't uncommon. Without a doubt there are cheaper alternatives now, which is partly what I originally was trying to discuss with this thread. While the majority of Chinese and Taiwan tools are very low end... they do have some very nice tools at quite reasonable prices, especially Taiwanese stuff like the
Gearwrench brand. In most cases, they are still night and day in quality from Snap-On and Matco... but who cares (in most applications), when they're still good to great tools at a reasonable price.
At the very least though, try picking up a few nice 4-5 degree, 80+ teeth, high quality ratchets... the smoothness is amazing! Your hands will be thankful, if you're using them regularly.
I've never been a "Must Buy USA" person for anything, but I've been always inclined to lean towards locally made stuff or at the very least, from a reputable quality based country.
Craftsman and Husky are both generally designed to compete with each other now, so neither brand is going to be a particularly better quality buy, in general.
I picked up an Allen wrench socket at Auto Zone on my way to the junkyard because it was convenient. The second I put any torque on it, that stupid thing shredded into a dozen pieces. I switched to the no-name forged Allen wrenches in my toolbox, which I should have done in the first place. Stupid waste of money.
Allen tools are marketed by Danaher as their very entry level brand of tools, supposedly similar to Craftsman, but NOT Craftsman Pro.
Most of my power-tools are Makita, mechanical tools like wrenches, spanners and socket sets are Bahco and non-powered carpentry tools are from Stanley.
How do you like the Bahco tools? Since they're now a division of Snap-On, they're being marketed along side Williams in Snap-On's pseudo-industrial line. I really don't have any experience with them though.
Hand tools I have mostly NAPA premium ones with some of their cheaper Evercraft stuff.
More specialized things are all across the board,torque wrench is an SK,dial indicators,bore gauges and calipers are various brands with some OTC specialty engine tools.
I have found MSC to be a good source of tools.
NAPA premium tools are contract manufactured, at times they've been some extremely high quality tools!
S&K actually just went into liquidation, all of their factory tooling and equipment is currently up on some industrial auction sites. I think Ideal bought the brand name though, and is planning on bringing them back to some extent.
MSC's Saver fliers have phenomenal deals listed as loss leaders, always great for cherry picking! Another good one is ToolTopia.com, it focuses more on auto repair tools but has some of the best prices online. They also carry and discount many of the brand that relabel their stuff for Snap-On, Matco, Cornwell, Etc... HUGE savings, for the same tools with different colored handles
