Hope you dont mind me posting this here.
Snapon is a good tool and you pay for the quality.
I just received a order of some of their stuff. The QC has went to shi^.
I spend the bucks and ordered some wobble plus extensions at like 17$ each for a 4" and 30$ for the 14". They have a nice heavy feel to them.
They have a ton of Slop in the connecting portion and will fall apart because there isnt enough tension on the friction ball. I have older snapons that are great thats why I purchased more.
Never Again, Just returned them for refund. God
Anyone else notice this?

 

I always looked forward to adding Snap-ons to my tool hoard back in the 1960's.....

Have they outsourced to chicoms?

 

I have a couple stray Snap-On items I've found but would not buy them new. Quality used to be good but the price was way high, and I have heard second-hand reports they hassle you if you try to return something.

I go with either Craftsman, or Kobalt. Had good luck with both.

 

I could never afford snapon, the few I bought were unable to be replaced due to owner error, and me with 40 years doing this, sears and napa exchange without wimper

 

YEP!, I was at Costco the other day & they had Snap On wrenches in a blister pack. I picked it up & on the back "Made in China"

 

Could be why Sears almost went out of business. After working for Mac Tools, I am very familiar with both Mac and Snap-On. Still the best tools made, both have American made and some made in China but they all have to meet the company specs.

If you had trouble returning a broken tool to either company, it's due to abuse, not "owner error". Abuse would be putting a breaker bar on a wrench, using chrome sockets on an impact or using vice grips on a screwdriver. Unless I saw abuse, we never refused a tool on one of my region's Mac Tool trucks and I know Snap-On has the same policy.

You can buy cheaper tools at Sears and they're happy to replace them because they are made in China and cheap to replace, almost as bad as Harbor Freight.

 

Used Snap On, Mac and even Matco in the early 90s. Good stuff and as expected you pay for it. Not so much anymore, just stick with my old Craftsman stuff, gets the job done.

 

I'm a huge tool nut, And Ive noticed a huge decline in quality from ALL USA tool manufacturers while Taiwan tools have improved greatly.

Sad but true, but alot of the Taiwan tools today are better then the crap some of the USA manufacturers are putting out.

Snap-on quality is still top notch, although not as good as it was 10+ years ago.

MAC & Craftsman are the real disappointment's. Stanley has drove MAC into the china gutter. I wont even buy MAC tools anymore because even if you buy USA today, tomorrow it will be replaced with a China made Stanley tool.

Craftsman is right behind them with all their new china crap. All the Craftsman Professional series wrenches are now china made, and their USA ratchets are so poorly machined that it makes the China one's look great.


I can't afford Snap-on tools so JH Williams & Duralast is my new favorite tool brands. JH Williams makes nice affordable USA tools, while Duralast has some outstanding quality Taiwan tools.
I never thought I would ever say that I like tools from autozone better then MAC, Matco, cornwell or craftsman, but it's true. Atleast with Duralast I don't pay USA prices for Taiwan tools..

 

Im still a Snap-on fan but from now on its from the TRUCK only. Its worth the extra$$. Love their stuff. Have Williams and Vulcan as well as some craftsman from 40 years ago. Still great.
Had a 1/2 craftsman ratchet i bought in early 1970's used it as a breaker bar, lug nut remover via 2 foot cheater bar, finally didn't ratchet any longer, sears gave me a rebuild no questions asked.
Better keep receipts when buying new tools these days though.

http://www.wrighttool.com/why_wright_tool.asp

 

Not quite true, but nice try. Again I was a Regional for Mac and I have seen the plants in Dallas and Bristol where 90% of their tools are still made. ALL hard line items, sockets, ratchets, wrenches and so on are still made in the USA and still offer a lifetime warranty. They also own manufacturing plants in China where they build their import product so the product they bring in from Asia is made by Mac for the most part, although they do source a few promotional items. Stanley has their own plants as well.

Yes, Mac does offer some import items, however they are significantly discounted from the USA made product, I'm not going to argue this point as I have been involved in the pricing, I know this to be the case.

You did not point out that Stanley Works (the parent company) now owns Black and Decker and DeWalt making them the largest tool manufacturer in the world. Still a great company.

 

Thats not so true anymore. MAC has went down hill big time in the last 6 months. Check out this ratchet below. It was given to a friend of mine for warranty exchange for a USA made MAC ratchet.

This ratchet is $65 new. Thats alot of money for a Taiwan ratchet!.




80% of MAC tools are now made outside of the USA. Alot of their ratchets are made by Facom in Italy. Their sockets are mostly Taiwan now, tool boxes are made in Mexico, and wrenches are still mostly USA with some being Taiwan.

Here is the new Facom MAC ratchets

 

My very first set of automotive sockets was a Craftsman 1/2" drive I got for Christmas back in 1960. I still have that set and still use it first out of habit. The lifetime warranty blew me away! When I worked at one of the last Stude dealerships, I always looked forward to the Mac and Snap-on trucks' visits. Beautiful workmanship always trumped the higher prices and I still have quite a bit of both.

Now I don't know who to trust. I heard Cornwall is good-are they chicom too?

P.S. Lushdrunk, are those Italian ratchets marked "Italy" under the Facom brand?

 

That Facom ratchet is a round head 72 tooth 3/8" specialty ratchet, it was never made in the USA. Your friend should never have accepted that other ratchet as a replacement for a USA made item, did he exchange it on a truck? My guys would never be allowed to do that.

Also, I have spent thousands of hours training distributors to sell tools off their trucks and all hard line tools are still USA made, period. They do have some import product as well. For instance, they own Facom and offer a line of Facom wrenches as well as the traditional Mac wrenches in all styles. I just left them about 8 months ago and I just spent some time on a friend's truck last week, it hasn't changed that much.

 

I don't know, Ive never owned one. But I hear they are nice ratchets, even if they are not USA made. Facom also makes their screwdrivers now.


Cornwell has been around forever. Their tools are nice, but outdated. For example, Their ratchets are all 36-tooth vs all the new 70+ fine tooth ratchets from MAC, Matco, snap-on and even Craftsman (google "craftsman premium grade ratchet" to see their new 84 tooth ratchets)

Also not just anyone can buy cornwell tools. You can only buy them from the trucks and only if their is a truck in your area willing to make a visit to your shop.
People like me who work out of a home based shop is SOL. Cornwell won't visit me

Cornwell has done like all other tool brands. They now offer USA pro tools and Taiwan discount tools.
USA/Taiwan-china
Snap-on/Blue-point.
MAC/Expert.
Cornwell/Blue-power.
Matco/Silver eagle.


I don't mind Taiwan tools, (Although, I won't own a china tool) as long as they are Taiwan prices. In the case of the new MAC ratchet, I would love to have one for $25. However, for $65 they can keep it. I'm not helping a USA company get rich by selling me over priced Taiwan tools.

When it comes to trust, Snap-on is the leader. But you pay for that trust. Ive been the victim of "bait & switch" so many times its not even funny. And ALL of it is because I'm always looking for a deal. I stocked my entire tool box with Kobalt tools when they first came out because they where made by JH Williams (a snap-on company), Then they sold out to craftsman, and now have went overseas (check out the new kobalt tools on lowes.com).

 

It was mailed in under warranty and that is what MAC HQ sent him in return.

The ratchet he exchanged was a fine tooth, long handle screwdriver grip ratchet very similar to the Spin FX ratchets offered by proto now.. After he received the Taiwan ratchet in return, He contacted MAC to complain. They said they did not offer ANY long handle USA ratchets that the only USA 3/8" ratchet they had was the standard 8" model.

Long story short, MAC refunded him the original $88 he paid for his old MAC ratchet in 1994.

On another note, I sent a Proto ratchet in for repair a few months ago and they flat out refused to repair it for me because they said that they no longer warranty any tools not purchased from an authorized retailer. Although I did purchase mine from an authorized retailer I could not prove so since it has been almost 10 years.

The biggest kick in the *** is they wont even return my old broken ratchet to me.


As far as I'm concerned, I will never purchase another MAC/Proto or Blackhawk tool again unless it is used at a hell of a deal.

 

That's a shame, I would ask my distributor to send a District Manager out, that's just wrong to receive that from HQ, have to agree with you there.

 

It is a shame, But in all honestly I would rather see company's like MAC & Craftsman go 100% overseas then go bankrupt.

I believe if he had to have handled things better, he could have found a dealer with old stock, a repair kit or even trade up for one of the Facom RHFT ratchets. But he was just so upset about the Taiwan MAC ratchet he basically gave up on MAC without a fight. He is an older "pure American" tool guy.

 

Hey Jon Ive got a question for ya. I got two sets of the GM goodwrench ratcheting wrench sets for x-mas last year. I believe they came from O'rilleys.

Anyway, I was quite surprised at the quality of them and did a little research on the OEM. On the back of the package they have a warranty address in GA, A quick google search of the address showed them to have the same address as Blackhawk ratcheting wrenches.

Have you ever heard of a GM goodwrench/Blackhawk connection before? Or is it just a random supplier that happens to handle the warranty on both blackhawk and GM goodwrench ratcheting wrenches?

On another note, I check a few other GM tools and none of them listed the warranty address like the ratcheting wrenches do.

 

I just bought a snapon box, but I use mostly MAC tools. Both brands are top notch. All points that are being made in this thead may be valid but for me the fact that I have a MAC and Snap On tool truck that comes to my work every week at the same time and garentees me on the spot warrenty and tools when I need them, is invaluable.

As some may know some of the newer fords have issues with spark plugs coming apart in the heads when you try to remove them. Snap On has a ford plug extractor. I didnt have one at the shop. Called my snap on guy and he was at the shop with the extractor in 10 mins. We were able to finish the job that day and make a happy customer instead of having to locate and extractor and tell the customer we wouldnt be able to complete the job until and unknown date.

I totaly 100% stand behind MAC and Snap On.

 

Kobalt no longer "Made In USA"?