All You Craftsman Fans ...

New Craftsman plant planned for Texas ...

Stanley Black & Decker investing $90M to shift more Craftsman production back to US

 

made in usa

 

That's Great News... all part of the Business Plan, IMO.......

 

I haven’t bought a Craftsman wrench in many years. My first tool box and tools were purchased at Sears. Affordable, well made and lifetime guarantee. All the wrenches had “Made in USA” stamped in them and that’s good for everyone.

 

They used to make some of the Craftsman tools here in Springdale Arkansas under contract with the Danaher Corporation, but that dried up a few years ago. Glad they are bringing them back to the US.

Most of my tools are still the large set of Craftsman that my father bought me for my birthday when I was a teenager. I've used the fire out of them, but also take good care of them. A handful have been replaced under warranty over the years, but otherwise they are all still good as new and serve me well.

 

One of my clients is in upper level management at Stanley Black & Decker, and he's kept me up to date on the gradual return to the USA of the manufacturing of Craftsman Tools since SBD acquired it from Sears.

IMHO, Sears very nearly buried the brand by shifting production to cheaper overseas locations, accompanied by the inevitable drop in quality. SBD's plan to bring Craftman Tool manufacturing back to the USA has been underway for several years now, and as described in the article Timgr posted above, is quickly gaining ground. As a lifetime user of Craftsman tools (from about the age of 3) with a large collection, I'm absolutely delighted by this.

As many are aware, Craftsman is now sold by Lowes (see CRAFTSMAN® Tools Now Available At Lowe's Stores Nationwide And Lowes.com ). Notably, Lowes continues to honor the lifetime guarantee on Craftsman hand tools - even those originally sold by Sears, provided that Lowes carries the tool.

BTW, the new Craftsman tool boxes at Lowes are already Made In USA by Waterloo, and they look and feel great!

 

This is good news.

 

Back in the day. one could literally cut one of their wrench's in half with a cutting torch & the Sears guy would hand you a replacement , from under the counter , & you were on your way!

 

Lifetime user of craftsman tools. The sets I got back in high school I still use and have added to it. In fact, that's my first go to when I need a tool. Glad to hear bringing back the manufacturing to US. Getting (been) tired of all the Chinese crap of everything you buy.

 

I'm not a fan of Craftsman anything from the past 15 years. I still have several sets I bought back in about 1975 as my first real tools, and have bought numerous more sets over the years. Then they became junk. Now I buy MAC, Snap-On, Blue Point, even Matco and NAPA, sometimes used.
After buying a couple more sets in the past decade, I'll never buy another Craftsman anything. The lifetime warranty doesn't help when the nearest store is 2 hours away.
I tried to return a Craftsman 25' tape measure around this past Christmas, but Sears no longer carries a Craftsman branded tape. They finally swapped a Stanley tape (no warranty!) after about 1/2 hour and going up 3 levels of managers. I still have my Craftsman (guaranteed forever) garden hose nozzle, complete with the backing card it came attached to, but guess what? Sears doesn't have any Craftsman branded hose nozzles any more! I hate Sears and everything they sell, and they don't stand behind their products. They used to have good products and stood behind them. Not any more!
To me, the return to "made in the USA" tools is too little/too late.
-Donny

 

The only 'bad' experience with theirs tools was I had a long handle 1/2" drive ratchet, that stripped. They no longer had the long handle as the leverage it had was creating mechanism problems so they went to a short shaft, which was not as effective. They also no longer offered the rebuild kit so my only option was trade for the short handle.

 

I have a 1/2 inch drive Fine Tooth ratchet . that has broke . also discontinued many years ago
most likely will never be replaced
still works just won't hold a socket . locking ball fell out
I went through the process of them rebuilding them on the spot or replacing it with a refurbish one . a regular ratchet
couldn't tell you how many times I would refuse a rebuilt one . just by the way it looked