VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION General Discussions Tool choice by brand

I was shopping for small tools at Sears for Christmas for the kids. The salesperson said some are made in China and some in the USA. Both have the same warranty but not the same quality. The price doesn't vary much.
Personally , I would not buy Chinese tools. I have many tool boxes full of tools . My favorite brand is Snap-on, but it is the highest priced. If the garage was on fire ,I'd run in and gather all the snap-ons I could carry if I thought I could make it out.

As long as it isn't made by the Hop Sing tool company........

Snap-On
Starrett
Brown&Sharp
Ridgid



Anything else is much cheaper and less quality. Working for D.O.E. for 40 years in maintence I guess I got spoiled.

After a huge project they auctioned off pallet loads of hand tools. Great buys if you want a entire pallet load.

That explains a lot about your limited experiance with engines and anything Un-Chromed...Just kidding!

Craftsman tools of the first 30 of those 40 years were as reliable and in use along with S-K , Plumb, Williams and Pro-To tools. Those of us that never thought of buying tools on the weekly payment plan stayed away from the red Snap-on and MAC tool truck vendors. Yes, they did and still sell good quality (very over-priced )tools, but they were not any more useful or better that the ones I mentioned.

I still have about 95% of the tools I bought in my liftime.
I was glad to see you mentioned "Williams" tools In my oppenion they were one of the best tool companies ever.
I grew up in Brooklyn N.Y; when I first got interested in tools (about the age of 10 Y.O.) I used to go to the local hardware store and look at the wall they had dedicated to the display of Williams tools...When I started to work at age 16 I used to buy one tool a week...I still have those tools and am still amazed at the quality of Williams tools.....ED

Snap-on Matco and Mac, when you make a living with tools it is hard to beat quality. They cost a little more but they are hard to wear out. I still have many of the tools that I bought when I started in the Chevy dealer in 1971.

Not to many old cars were I worked for 40 years.

https://www.y12.doe.gov/about/history/

I am still using Craftsman tools I purchased in 1951 when I purchased my first car. Recently bought a set of box/open end wrenches from a parts house, wanted them for the old car emergency tool box. Tried the 9/16 out, open end worked loosely the box end would not fit over a 9/16 bolt head.

As a relative newcomer to the vintage car hobby us younger folks never had the luxury of stashing away the good tools when they made 'em... Thankfully my grandfather did!

Except for a few sets of Kobalt wrenches and some other funky specific tools i'm using my grandfathers stuff and picking up what I can at the local flee market. I've been able to track down good used quality tools for good prices... Better than anything over at a Harbour Frieght.

My grandfather's Craftsman breaker bar finally broke last year after decades of use. Sears replaced it but its NOT the same tool I could always depend on...

Did you ever run across any of the NUS Guys from Pa.? I worked with them thru their parent company as a Radiation Safety Officer and auditor back in the 1990s. Did you ever go to the Pantex plant in Amarillo? DOE is a high quality outfit, well it was before the present Administration plugged in their agenda, don't know about now. OOPS! is this close to being a political issue?

All of my Craftsman, williams and S-K tools were bought before 1980. I am still using the S-K 1/2" 3/8" and 1/4" socket and ratchet sets and Allen and Star. I have the S-K hip roof tool box that the S-K 1/2 inch set came in. and still have the S-k 3/8 and 1/4 sets in their original metal boxes. Some of my Snap-on and Proto tools were bought in the 1990s. My small tools I used on survey instruments are Xcelite. and for larger Electrical I use Klien side cutters and pliers. never have been dissaointed with any of these tools and they last forever if taken care of. I agree on buying quality tools, I have been caught at a couple of job sites without my tools due to airline restrictions, and have bought new import tools, they ususlly barely do the job. I call them "use and throw-away tools". Most of my Metric tools are Thoreson, from an auto store, not too bad but not up the the quality of the old favorites. I have a Kobalt 1/2" socket set I bought, for a standby set, they look nice and shiny, but I haven't developed much of a feel good feeling about them, yet, maybe If I had been using them for 57 years, that is how long I have used the S-K 12' and 3/8' sockets and ratchets. My old Chevrolets seem to like them, even the modern one, a 1968 Impala.

No, I never traveled much from plant to plant. There are 11 sister plants.

Pantex
Lawerence Livermore
Savanna River
Portsmouth Ohio
Los Alamos
Hanford
Rock Flats

Anyway there's 4 more.

D.O.E. has had the budget cut in the last 4 years, we did work for NASA and D.O.D. but thats been cut also.

The plant has reduced employees by quite a bit. It was fun while it lasted.

For me the best is Snap-on, Mac, Matco and Craftsman. The latter two are about equal in my opinion.

I think that China is producing better tools than a few years ago.

Don't know if Taiwan is making better stuff now or not. I started avoiding any tool made there years ago and still do.

Charlie

Since almost everything we buy is from China (Walmart), I think they can make any quality tool they decide to make. The problem is the buyers are not really interested in a 100 year tool. Everything now is a throw away version.

Steve...Are you in that picture?? or are you taking one of those legendary Shipyard Shi** that became famous in government run facilities during WW2...Were a person went to the bathroom and did show up again for 3 or 4 days or until all the available magazines were read?????
There are rumors of Some folks not being found until 1950.....Like the abandon Japanese soldiers on those far off Pacific islands..........ED

That reminds me, all the shops I worked in, reading material was barred from the bathrooms...

You also reminded me of those Williams tool displays in the auto parts stores...Seems like they all had them...Seems like nobody ever bought any of them...But they must have 'cause I'm finding them at the flea market...Find a few Snap-On tools there to, but I'm told they are military/government issue...

Now that I'm retired...We either had more work than we could do and worked 20 hrs of overtime a week or we didn't have anything to do. The overtime list was the hottest subject in the plant.

You're not going to take to many restroom breaks. It takes forever to dress out and redress in RAD clothes.