I don't buy any of the new chinese craftsman tools, but I did just pick up this set of USA made sockets. https://www.searspartsdirect.com/pa...MIg5WKkb_B2AIVHD5PCh18-QmKEAEYASAFEgKSQvD_BwE Its a 8 piece set from 1" to 1 1/2". I would guess armstrong or proto built them for craftsman, they're usa made, and that's under $10 a socket for 1" drive impacts. I ordered them and had them in just a few days. I realize sears is circling the drain and may not be around for warranty, but at that price I didn't worry about it. I doubt I wear them out.
Not sure which , Snap On or Stanley, but i heard one of them picked up the craftsman product line. I'm leaning towards Stanley/MAC
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cn...s-lowes-to-sell-the-craftsman-tool-brand.html Shouldn't have to worry about warranty
Thats cool that Lowe's is gonna carry the craftsman brand. It would sure be nice to have a source for their professional grade tools. Guess I don't know if they even have their professional tool line anymore.
Ace Hardware/True Value also carries the Craftsman brand.. but theres probably a Lowes every 3 miles compared to an Ace Hardware.
I stopped in at a local ace hardware and asked 2 employees in the tool isle if they warranty the crafstman sockets from sears and they said yes, then on the way out the manager stated " you didnt fond anything you need" and I replied ill be back with some crafstman sockets to exchange and he said they wont honor sockets bought from sears and im like how can you not? im gona go back this week with the broken ones and see how it plays out, I guess the new stuff is all china made and the older sockets are USA made, so ill see for sure what the warranty policy is and how they can tell where the sockets originally were sold..
Wow Hobby that's nuts.. The tool has a LIFETIME warranty on it.. weather it was made here, china or east Africa.. What part of LIFETIME doesn't he understand?? Feel free to use that, when you go back.. Lol
im figuring the manager was wrong, but ill have to see what they do, thats what I told him..ill see if I cant look up ace hardware websight and see if they have anything on it about honoring the crafstman warranty.. I just called ace hardware 24/7 customer service and they are clueless and after a little pushing they said to goto craftsman.com to the warranty area and I did...looks like its gona be a runaround to get stuff covered take a read for yourself.. https://www.craftsman.com/customer-care/warranty-information
I've got most of my old Craftsman Usa big set that I bought when I was just out of high school. The nearest Sears to me is about a hour away, and the new chinese stuff is not very good, I have a walmart about 5 minutes away that I could by chinese stanley at, and save myself a big trip. If I'm trying to replace a broken 5/8" socket out of my usa set, I just go on ebay and buy a single. Old usa craftsman, williams, wright, s-k, mac, armstrong, etc, are all better than what I can get in the store. And it gets delivered right to the house. I can't drive a hour each way for a $20 socket. Stanley/black and Decker has said they are bringing the Craftsman line back to usa production, and they have the manufacturing capabilities with their MAC and Proto lines. But they've reduced stanley to a chinese importer for walmart, and black and decker electric tools aren't what they used to be either. Their current proto/ mac usa stuff is top of the line, but Mac has got their name on a lot of cheap chinese stuff too. (pliers for instance). I do hope that they can make it work. For new tools, I've gone to s-k, and wright. Proto is really nice also. I really like snap on's stuff, I just don't have the wallet for it, and the truck doesn't come by my shop. While were on snap on: I've got a set of snap on wrenches in SAE and metric, only goes to 3/4" or so. Twice in the last year I've had a bolt that every other wrench wanted to slip off, and I've gotten out the "good" snap on wrench, and gotten them both out. I always kind of thought that the "snap on is better than all the other stuff" was a little much, but those two times, kind of made a believer out of me. I'm not going out and buying all snap on, but I was impressed.
Proto and Wright have the same style open end on their wrenches made in the last so many years. You can litterally smack them with a hammer on the box end and the open end doesn't fly off