Craftsman Hand-Tools Now Made in China

[Spoolx]

For people that think china metal is as good as American metal I have a story for you.
I work as a Reliability Engineer for a medical device manufacturer.
We were doing some reliability tests and noticed some weird failures that we couldnt explain and had never seen before.
We sent the parts to our metallurgical lab and had them run the tests on the parts to verify the alloy was what is was supposed to be.
Come to find out the alloy was "dilluted" with cheaper the cheaper metals.
We tracked the lot of the material to mcmaster-carr and sure as can be they bought the material from China. We now demand made in the USA material and expect a certification when the components arrive.
We havent had a failure since.

 

[shurur]

The sad part is that many American's don't care and will keep buying Craftsman tools, oblivious to the country of origin. We allow this to happen to ourselves. We are creating this world in which we have to live in by the choices we make.

I agree with you somewhat My Fellow American...but when you lose your career to China or H1B visas..and go from $40/hr+ to $8/hr..it's a bit hard to stay loyal to your country and Buy American...ask us how we know..

 

[shurur]

For people that think china metal is as good as American metal I have a story for you.
I work as a Reliability Engineer for a medical device manufacturer.
We were doing some reliability tests and noticed some weird failures that we couldnt explain and had never seen before.
We sent the parts to our metallurgical lab and had them run the tests on the parts to verify the alloy was what is was supposed to be.
Come to find out the alloy was "dilluted" with cheaper the cheaper metals.
We tracked the lot of the material to mcmaster-carr and sure as can be they bought the material from China. We now demand made in the USA material and expect a certification when the components arrive.
We havent had a failure since.

Funny...my brother is a director of quality control $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ ...Statisical quality control and lean manufacturing has been helping to move jobs to Mexico for years..and now China...."quality control been..very very good to him (SNL)"......goodbye jobs..goodbye quality....

Silly me..I chose to serve my country in the military...then get an EE degree and work my way up to IC design engineer before getting axed forever.

My other Brother has worked for the state all his life...he is retiring soon.

My brothers and I are a perfect example of what is happening in America.

Glad you are demanding material from the USA...but you're not really helping most of us poor private sector non-management types much.

This is the real problem...noboby cares until "it" happens to them.
poor parts for poor people...let us eat cake.


************************
My brother is a quality control "sensei" and IMHO doesn't give a damn about America.

The real problem is as old as Cain and Abel: "Who is my Brother?"..."Am I my Brother's keeper?"

 

[shurur]

Made in the USA, the great price, and the swap out warranty was the lifeline for Craftsman. It has been the only tools I've ever bought. This is terrible news.

I wonder if/when Sears will be asking the Fed for a bailout!?

Probably to fatten management's bonues/stock options/success sharing bonues......including middle and lower management's bonuses before going bust.

"Quality Control" also often includes providing job search services (including pay) for upper management....yup....can't have the company being embarrassed in front of the stock holders by having them marched out like the "common laborers."

The true source of poor quality revealed.

 

[shurur]

ok guys..I'll stop now.

 

[Chicostang]

It all started going downhill when Kmart bought Sears

 

[WOT 88]

For people that think china metal is as good as American metal I have a story for you.
I work as a Reliability Engineer for a medical device manufacturer.
We were doing some reliability tests and noticed some weird failures that we couldnt explain and had never seen before.
We sent the parts to our metallurgical lab and had them run the tests on the parts to verify the alloy was what is was supposed to be.
Come to find out the alloy was "dilluted" with cheaper the cheaper metals.
We tracked the lot of the material to mcmaster-carr and sure as can be they bought the material from China. We now demand made in the USA material and expect a certification when the components arrive.
We havent had a failure since.

I have had the same issues.

I work in the water treatment industry as an engineering and project manager, and there are certain cases/aspects of our industry that will not even accept Chinese materials, with or without reports. One of the regulatory agencies we are scrutinized by will not accept materials such as plate, piping or fittings because of the Chinese getting busted a few times forging mill documents.

We build commercial ion exchange vessels, ozone contactors, condensate polishers, sand filters, and fuel treatment vessels. Generally, at the core of everything we build, lies an un-fired pressure vessel. When the inspector shows up to verify a bill of materials and witness a hydro test, we must provide mill test reports that verify origin, heat numbers, also material and chemical composition.

We have had a few government contracts over the last few years, including a few environmental projects that were funded by stimulus money (Not directly to us) Both those scenarios fall under the ''American recovery and reinvestment act'' which deem that 80% of materials used must be of US origin.

Point is, there are certain sectors of industry that are getting wise. We are finally putting some water on the flames of this Chinese fire drill. I have been happy to see it in my line of work.

 

[hoamskilet]

Very unfortunate. Most of my tool box is filled with Craftsman. I can in no way justify the price of snap-on/matco/etc....but where the hell do I turn to now? If Craftsman is just gonna be cheap outsourced shit I might as well buy form Harbor Freight for a fraction of the price

 

[Swannyvill]

Yea that does suck. I always liked craftsman for the for the American made and price. I don't really know of any tool that is only made here now. I have bought stuff from snap on that was even outside the US.

 

[7t7ta400]

so if we brake one of your usa made tools it will be replace with china shit ;;;; ITs JUST A MATTER OF TIME AND THEY WILL STOP REPLACING WARRANTY TOOLS ;;;GOODBYE SEARS

 

[Bullitt357]

I have a bunch of SK hand tools, made in the USA, that I'm very happy with. Not sure if they're made here anymore but they used to be.

 

[shurur]

I have had the same issues.

I work in the water treatment industry as an engineering and project manager, and there are certain cases/aspects of our industry that will not even accept Chinese materials, with or without reports. One of the regulatory agencies we are scrutinized by will not accept materials such as plate, piping or fittings because of the Chinese getting busted a few times forging mill documents.

We build commercial ion exchange vessels, ozone contactors, condensate polishers, sand filters, and fuel treatment vessels. Generally, at the core of everything we build, lies an un-fired pressure vessel. When the inspector shows up to verify a bill of materials and witness a hydro test, we must provide mill test reports that verify origin, heat numbers, also material and chemical composition.

We have had a few government contracts over the last few years, including a few environmental projects that were funded by stimulus money (Not directly to us) Both those scenarios fall under the ''American recovery and reinvestment act'' which deem that 80% of materials used must be of US origin.

Point is, there are certain sectors of industry that are getting wise. We are finally putting some water on the flames of this Chinese fire drill. I have been happy to see it in my line of work.

I worked with Chinese engineers..and what you say comes as no suprise..the Chinese think nothing of stealing designs and reverse engineering patented designs and calling it capitalism.

They also have many words for "friend"....none of which mean anything close to our our one word "friend."

It's one thing for them to pay for their own industrial revolution with having to live with their own cheap parts...but now we Americans are taking the hit for them instead.

I'll buy kobalt because that's all my poor A$$ can afford...and I don't have to be loyal at the bottom of the pile as I now am.

 

[tdschst]

This is horrible news. I, my dad, even my grandpa have always used Craftsman tools. Part of the reason for buying Craftsman was the pride that they were American made. Sears is really going downhill, along with this country.

 

[cobraman1024]

Craftsman tools are overpriced IMO at Sears. I can find the same Craftsman tools at the NEX for less than half price what Sears wants.

Interesting that you say that. At MacDill AFB, the AAFES store there has some Craftsman stuff thats actually more expensive than Sears. I was checking out the prices there during one of my Navy Reserve drill weekends.

The hand tools from Craftsman are great..........the electronics are a different story. I picked up two ammeters from two different Sears stores in two different states and verified the calibration specs on each one. BOTH were grossly innaccurate. I returned them for a refund citing the innaccuracy of the calibrations of each being that neither met the published specification tolerances.

 

[timbo3282]

I've been buying Snap-On tools for years used from the guy on the truck. I let him know what I am looking for and when he gets them he calls me. I pay Craftsman prices for Snap-On tools. Even the American made Craftsman tools were honestly junk. I've broken countless Craftsman sockets and ratchet gears, but I've never broken a Snap-On socket or wrench.

GO to Snapon.com and look up your local driver. Strike up a conversation with him - it'll be to your benefit.

Outsourcing IS killing the US, but that is thanks to the Democrats insisting on raising the corporate tax rate. The US now has the HIGHEST corporate tax rate in the world. Outsourcing has just begun. The only way to stop it sadly is to vote Republican as the Democrats are insistent on raising taxes further. Corporations don't pay taxes - they just pass them on to their customers. The Democrats force higher taxes on oil companies and you think the oil companies pay higher taxes? Nope we just pay more for gas. Simple as that.

 

[SID297]

so if we brake one of your usa made tools it will be replace with china shit ;;;; ITs JUST A MATTER OF TIME AND THEY WILL STOP REPLACING WARRANTY TOOLS ;;;GOODBYE SEARS

That's my big issue now.

 

[NeoTokyo]

Snap-On and Craftsman are what I grew up with, when I got older and had my own money to buy my own tools I chose Craftsman for the simple facts that they were American Made, easy to get and had rock solid quality backed by a 100% replacement guarantee.

I started to become annoyed with Craftsman when I would warranty out old tools that had become too worn to work well any longer and they would be replaced with lesser tools.

I replaced a standard 3/8" ratchet and got something back that had a plastic switch, button and C-Clip that was almost all the way out.

I kept breaking those replacements, knuckle busting anger. Eventually I got a manager that would allow me to put the credit to higher end ratchets.

They started bringing in the non-US stuff in the replacement tools.

I started to become upset with the replacement parts and then saw that it was moving into the standard lineup too.

Those changes helped me upgrade to the thin profile tools, the Professional line and my most recent purchases the Craftsman 'premium' 84 tooth ratchets which are REALLY nice.

Luckily all of my Craftsman Handtools are made in the USA, I got in under the wire.
I wont be buying direct from Sears or Ace or K-Mart or OSH any longer. Ebay has lots of Craftsman tools for much cheaper and you can choose the ones made in America.

Another experience I had with Chinese made Craftsman tools is their cordless 1/2" 200ftlb Impact wrench. I have gone through 6 of these damn things just doing the Suspension work on Aprils 96' and parting out three Mustangs over the course of just a year.

I exchanged the damn thing so much that the original $170+Tax that I paid for it went down to $120+Tax because they could not find record of the $50 dollar gift card that I used on it, so the last time I just said I want my money back. They would not give me Cash Back because the warranty time does not increase when you exchange a tool, so they gave me a gift card back for $120 plus whatever taxes were.

I have not bought anything since at Sears or any of its sister stores. Dealing with managers for hours multiple times to fix their systems mistake, a fix that never happened and cost me $50 dollars and hours of my time is not something I am very happy with. They treated me like I was trying to scam them each time.

Quality and US Brand of the Tools are gone.
Customer Service is Gone.
This Customer is gone.

The Snap-On Man is more than happy enough to sell to me when he stops by my Dads shop, Ebay sellers are more than happy to sell their Old Stock and good used USA Made tools to me.

Just my little rant.

 

[Blown 89]

It's terrible to see a US made product shipped overseas but I've yet to see any proof that the Chinese versions are inferior in any way shape or for.

 

[NeoTokyo]

The plastic parts in the standard tools should be proof enough for you, the machining differences are there too.

The ratchet teeth on the replacements that I got were always stripping, I have lost a lot of skin and blood because of those damn things, I never had that problem with the US made ratchets.

I have also had one break the clip causing the gear head, fox head, spring and ball bearing to fall out, this was a replacement ratchet.

For me it was obvious.

 

[STLR FN]

For those that still want USA made products:

Still Made in USA.com - American-Made Tools