Talk:Craftsman (tools)

message: article states that all craftsman tools are covered under the same warranty. this is not true. different products have different warranties, for example most if not all craftsman torque wrenches are only covered for 90 days.
Also - is it just me, or does this thing not read like it was written by a Sears Holding executive?  Or at least an ad agency executive working for Sears Holdings?  Don't get me wrong, I love my Craftsman tools, but I don't get quite this excited about them.
-L. Greenway, Macon, GA — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.82.203.226 (talk) 11:13, 6 December 2005
:Actually, torque wrenches are covered under the lifetime warranty, but calibration of the torque wrench is only covered for the initial 90 days.  Contact your local Sears - I believe if you have a faulty torque wrench, and sending it (and paying for) calibration fails to solve the issue, you'll receive a brand new torque wrench, and a refund of the calibration fee.  Kythri 21:04, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Torque wrenches only have a 1 year warranty against defects in material and workmanship and 90 days on calibration, not the lifetime warranty.  75.6.7.142 20:13, 29 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Warranty 

message: why is there no mention of the growing perception (this writer's personal observation) that the Craftsman brand, quality, and warranty are bygone things now being used only to market substandard 'harbor freight' quality junk to a market that refused to buy such tools, but won't or can't pay 'snap-on' prices? Is there any way to discuss (in an unbiased fashion) whether or not this perception reflects reality?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.163.128.130 (talk) 21:24, 18 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Disillusionment

message: What do the markings on craftman hand tools indicate?
The ones I purchased in 1962 are marked with a  V  or a JW .
I have also seen them marked  with an E, VV, and VW.
Could these characters indicate the company who manufactured them for Sears?
Jerry
Reno, NV 
:Typically, these forge-marks either refer to a manufacturer, or a date of manufacture.  Kythri 21:12, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Craftsman Tools Markings 

message: Craftsman has a new warranty on Framing Hammers & Tape Measurers, Framing hammers are no longer covered under the forever policy & tape measures will only be replaced in the tape fails to retract or the latch at the beginning of the tape falls off.
Craftsman Framing Hammers are still covered under the lifetime warranty; however, Craftsman no longer makes framing hammers. The result is that you can still exchange any old framing hammers you have for store credit which can be used to purchase another brands hammer.
Also the tape measure warranty covers basically anything that happens to the tool except for the blade being damaged. From what I've heard this change is due to abuse where people wpuld cut their tape’s blades in order to exchange them over and over for minor cosmetic damage & such. Also, I've noticed Sears has begun selling replacement blades you can insert into your measure, they're cheaper than buying a new tape and assume once you replace a broken blade your lock etc. is still  covered. Nom Déplûmes 03:58, 26 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Warranty on Framing Hammers, Tape Measures 

message: Does anyone know of the actual warranty text being online anywhere?  I've found a Canadian Sears/Craftsman warranty, but not anything explicit for the United States.  Kythri 21:11, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Actual text of warranty online? 

message: :Image:Craftsman logo.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to ensure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
If there is  other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page.  Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.
BetacommandBot (talk) 21:34, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Fair use rationale for Image:Craftsman logo.gif

message: I removed this line from the page because I couldn't find a reference to back it up:
:Since 1927, Craftsman has sold more hammers and other striking tools than any other brand.
Please don't add it back without a citation. —typhoon (talk) 21:27, 22 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Striking tools 

message: I find it interesting that the craftsman tools sold at Ace Hardware all say made in China, yet the same tool sold at Sears, under a higher price, says made in USA, How do you know where it is actually made? It seems extremely suspicious to me. The quality is now junk, I've been using Older Craftsman tools for decades, and you couldn't pay me to use what they sell now. It's just a name, and no longer stands for anything. I have a roll around tool cabinet that began falling apart the day I bought it, took it back, and was told they don't warranty toolboxes. Go to Lowes or Home Depot, look at the quality of the tool boxes they sell, then go compare to a craftsman unit. The quality decline is apparent to anyone who uses the older tools on a regular basis. MY personal advice is to look in pawnshops, garage sales, equipment sales etc, buy all the older Craftsman tools you can find, plus any other decent American tools, The days of being able to buy a quality American made tool are numbered.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lost1972 (talk • contribs) 07:43, 2 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  where are these tools actually made?  

message: The Dunlap branded tools were not made "into the 1950's".  Sears abandoned the Dunlap trademark reg # 369614 post WWII, branding them Craftsman instead.  A good example of this is the Dunlap branded 109.0703 lathe which was updated and release around 1946 as a Craftsman 109.20630 lathe.  While some old stocks *might* have been sold in the EARLY 1950's,  the brand was abandoned before that.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aoresteen (talk • contribs) 19:10, 16 June 2022 (UTC)
thread_title: Dunlap

message: why don't the little socket sets come in a case like the old ones I just bought the new craftsman evolv 1/4 socket set an it keeps falling out the little snap thing they gave me thought buying craftsmen would get good case with it probably loose all the sockets — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dcoen69 (talk • contribs) 02:23, 25 June 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Untitled

message: As a lifetime DIY and Professional Engineer working at a large R&D Center for the Oil and Gas industry located in Mexico City, I can attest that most comments on this page are quite right.  Maybe, a complete "Loss of previous quality" section is in order.  As it is now, this article is biased and was written as if a too "motivated" and overly "creative" Sears employee or Sears phanatic wrote the introduction.
But the SAD TRUTH is that the truly legendary quality and durability of Sears Craftsman (tm) tools of yesteryear has long been decaying to the "just for hobbyists" quality, if at all. 
But hand tools are perhaps the less affected: Power tools and power bench or floor tools are worst! Drillstands are of lowest possible quality.  Their quill is badly made and has way too much play, so that the holes drilled with Crafstman drillstands are useless, maybe only useful for unappreciative home woodworkers or so, but lack all precision for working with metals. Quill pulleys frequently are badly cast and come with displaced core castings, and even when those appear to be nicely turned on the outside belt grooves, they are grosly unbalanced and unusable, and to add insult to injury, the store refuses to exchange them alleging that the "warranty is only one year", so that sorry if you don't check the actual tool before leaving the store, or you will regret it when discovering the drillstand is useless and the store employees are uncooperative.  As I am a true "Died in the wool" DIY, I refused to throw in the garbage the defective drillstand, and went to a professional lathe technician who turned a steel jacket for me and bored the drillstand head so that placing that jacket on the too loose quill, all the play was removed; then He turned the inside of the unbalanced pulley, and I used a lot of time and patience myself to "square" the drillstand post to a true 90 degrees, so that my home repaired and fixed unit now is workable, at an added cost over half of a new drillstand. When I talked with the aforementioned lathe technician (that is an experienced high precision machinist), He corrected me about my initial impression of the drillstand parts being badly machined with too much  free play (I wrongly guessed they were machined on worn-out machinery, but his expert eye quickly pointed out that was NOT the case: He told me that the factory PURPOSEFULLY machined the parts with TOO MUCH FREE PLAY in order to EXPEDITE the assembly, as the Chinese are assembling their merchandise with the use of both too old and too young untrained people, so that the quill was made to be quickly and easily slided into the drill head, even by Too-old or Too-young workers, some of them working on board the very same ships used to transport the merchandise to America!
When I bought that damn drillstand, I also bought a 6" disk and 4X36" Belt bench sander, but that tool wasn't made in china, but was actually made by REXON TOOLS in Taiwan, and has worked "OK" for several years, much different than the useless drillstand. On  electrical power tools, some people have sent me their Craftsman brand tools to repair them, as the Sears service shop pretended to charge too much for the repairs, making the owners doubt if the tools were worth it. On tools like hand drills, routers and sanders,  I've been able to repair most of them and can attest to their low quality: routers have badly made and badly designed electrical motor brush holders, that fail miserably when the tool is used for more that a few minutes of reasonable use.  Close inspection reveals sub-par materials and molding, that deform under the normal heat of a working tool, so that the brushes loose alignment and risk being catched by the conmutator slots, which destroys the brush and its holder! "Dremel type" Sears Craftsman mototools are also sub-par quality and its bearings get noisy too soon and develop too much play.  Perhaps the price paid by Sears to the maker of the tool causes too agressive cost cutting, but the result is the same: tools that many years ago (more that 20 or 30) were of high quality, now are disposable garbage. We miss the former Sears quality, but won't miss their present quality at all. Sincerely, Amclaussen, 38+ years of engineering experience.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.217.139.188 (talk) 18:26, 10 June 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: I looked around and found lots of forum posts but little in the way of RS. Agreed we can't add this without RS. I did take the awards fluff out of the lead. Kendall-K1 (talk) 22:50, 10 June 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: Sounds good. I was poking around, but saw you were getting better work done, so sitting out til you're done.  Maybe tomorrow I will do another search for articles about quality.  Most magazines won't publish articles on declining quality because they want them to run ads, so there is a bit of conflict of interest.  Then, we have to follow the sources, so it doesn't matter.  Like you said: no sources, no prose.  Dennis Brown - 2¢ 23:00, 10 June 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm done, sorry I got carried away. There's a bit in Consumerist but it's more about people worried about future quality decline than about decline in the last few years. Kendall-K1 (talk) 23:10, 10 June 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Perhaps a "Loss of previous quality and durability" Section is badly needed in this article?