New here-Cuban ?'s

[CoventryCat86]

Oh, and when I was mowing the lawn, I thought of an example that hits closer to home for me, and maybe is a good comparison. Craftsman wrenches vs. Snap-on wrenches.

Both are forged steel with chrome finish. Both have lifetime guarantees, but a Craftsman is significantly less than the Snap-on. Why is this?

They both will tighten, or loosen nuts / bolts. This is not subjective, so why is Snap-on or Matco the "professionals" choice over the weekend warrior Craftsman?

If you're a professional mechanic like my brother is, there is a WORLD of difference between Crafstman garbage and Snap-On tools. I don't have enough time or space here to give you the many examples I know about but trust me, there IS a huge difference but I will give you a couple:

For instance, a Craftsman wrench will strip off the corners of a stove bolt that is frozen where as a Snap-On socket or combination wrench almost never will. As a matter of fact, I've personally been in situations where a friend rounded the corners of a bold with his cheap tools (usually Cratfsman) and when I put my Snap-On wrench on the bolt, it removed it with relative ease. Another example, Craftsman Philips screwdrivers are notorious for ruining the heads of troublesome screws and if you then use a Snap-On Philips head screw driver you can remove the screw that you thought was ruined.

Sure, Craftsman garbage is "lifetime guarantee" but what the hell good is that if the damn things keep breaking on you whereas Snap-On tools won't in the same situations? When you're trying to disassemble an engine on a Saturday night, it's not like the local Sears stores are open 24/7 to replace your broken tools and you can't finish the project whereas if you were working with Snap-On tools in the same situation, odds are very good to excellent they never would have broken in the first place. I can't tell you how many times I had to make good on the Craftsman guarantee only to have them keep breaking. It's a rare occasion I have to make good on a broken Snap-On tool. I've slowly weeded out all the Craftsman garbage from my tool boxes and I'm a much happier person for it.

My brother is pretty much a "professional" and I'm more the "weekend warrior" guy with tools and I avoid Craftsman, Chinese and Taiwan tools whenever possible, it's just not worth it no matter how "inexpensive" they are compared to real tools. Again, there is a HUGE difference and the additional cost is well worth it. eBay is an excellent source for buying Snap-On tools for less than full retail AND you can sell your Craftsman stuff there too in order to get rid of it. Who cares if you only get ten to twenty cents on the dollar, at least you've flushed the turds out of your tool box.

Where did Craig go, I thought he was going to finish his thought "over the weekend" (last weekend that was.......)