**Craftsman Owners 'Fess Up**

[Scrollist]

Craftsman

I don't own any newer Craftsman tools, but I can tell you this. I have Craftsman circular saw, saber saw, electric drill, and a radial arm saw I inherited from my Father. These tools are very old (still have the metal cases), and refuse to die. They are very heavy, and somewhat awkward, tools and have really been through the mill.

[Sawatzky]

I have a Craftsman belt sander. Not a PC, but did not cost what a PC costs either! It does a great job. I also have a Craftsman "Professional" sheet sander. It does a great job. I have on old all metal drill that I don't think will ever die and a bench grider that works great. I think when it comes to working with tools, quality counts some, but the skills of the user are what matters most. Somone who has never used a router for example will make mistakes and produce work that is not professional whether they use Craftsman or Porter Cable. The tool does the work, but it is still guided by human hands.

[cwsmith]

With the exception of recently purchased drill guide, all my Craftsman tools are well over 30 years old, purchased back in the early 70's when we bought our first house. My father-in-law was the local hardware dept. manager and unquestionably Sear had the best selection of tools in town. While I never took him up on his "employee discount" (I don't believe in taking privilege) I managed to buy the following:

1/4-inch Companion Drill (1968)
3/8-inch VS, reversable Drill (1970)
7-inch Circular Saw (1970)
3 x 21 Belt Sander (1971)
Single-Speed Sabre Saw (1969)
1/4-inch, 1-1/4 HP Router (1974)
Router Table (1974)
10-inch Radial Arm Saw (1973)
and a fairly good assortment of wrenches, screwdrivers, pliers, etc, including a decent brace and bit set. (1967 through 1980's)

I used most of these quite a bit in the first few years of our marriage and through three separate moves, doing lots of remodeling, repairs, and even some building of bookshelves, porches, stairs, and a couple of decks. Then they sat for almost 15 years in a damp and somewhat messy basement.

I retired three years ago and decided to get all of these tools together and clean them up. Surprisingly, all the portable power tools were made by Ryobi. The RAS was a 1973 Emerson Electric which was the last of the cast-iron column RAS's that wore the Craftsman badge.

I took every tool apart, right down to the armatures, and cleaned and lubed everything. The only thing that I had properly stored was the RAS, treating the column, rails, and yoke with a rust preventive and packing and bagging the motor and carriage assembly.Unfortunately the original table had gotten moved from it's original storage area and was water damaged. So in addition to a new table for the RAS, the only other items required was the spring steel backing plate and drive belt on the belt sander and some new brushes for the 3/8-inch drill and circular saw. Everything else, once cleaned and lubed was in perfect working order (once I removed to moldy sawdust and ancient spider droppings). Bottom line is, I was quite impressed with the tool's resilience and a bit embarrassed that I let them get in that condition.

The only Craftsman tool of that period that was a disappointment was the Router which has a really bad collet design. The other tools work great and the 3/8-inch drill, though a bit large is still a "workhorse" tool. My circular saw easily takes the newer 7-1/4-inch blades and like my RAS, I wouldn't trade for anything. My favorite tool above everything I own (including a pile of much newer tools) is the RAS.

My personal oponion is that many of today's Craftsman tools are cheaply made in comparison to the old stuff, especially the hand tools like screwdrivers and pliers. With regard to the power tools, it depends on the particular tool, but surely almost every new tool has an advantage in weight and features. As mentioned in many of the previous posts, these new Craftsman tools come from a variety of manufacturers, so a lot depends on the source. The new line of Bandsaws, for example, look very good to me, and some of the lesser bench-top tools look rather cheap and junky. So, when looking for a new tool additon, I shop around and still keep Craftsman as a brand worth taking a look at, although their power tool warranty seems a little lacking when compared to the competition.

My opinion anyway,

CWS

[germdoc]

The problem with assessing Craftsman tools is that they put their name on so many things with such a variance in quality. I agree it's up to the buyer to make an informed decision.

I inherited a corded drill, belt and 1/4" sander and circ. saw from my father, all of which I eventually replace with higher quality stuff. Recently I bought a 16" scrollsaw on clearance for ?$40-50, and I have the 12" Rikon-made bandsaw which I have come to appreciate as a really useful and well-made tool.

I wish I had one of their hybrid saws--I'd like to upgrade when I get the chance.

[Hellrazor]

Friends don't let friends buy Craftsmans power or gas tools.

I have my share and I am annoyed with a bunch of them.

1. 18v drill/saw/light combos - I killed 2 sets of these over 3 years. Junk. Moved to Ridgid.
2. Angle grinder - It works, how could they screw it up.
3. Chainsaw 18" - Its plastic and I beat the snot out of it. Almost impossible to start it anymore. Moved to Stihl.
4. Dremel knockoff - Cheesy.

[andrew.r.w]

Craftsman is OK by me

How can you complain about an inexpensive tool being outlasted by an expensive one? For what you pay, I believe Craftsman gives you fair value by and large.

I have many Craftsman tools and I've been happy with them all.

Sure, DeWalt makes some tools that are tougher and may last longer, but for my needs Craftsman and far-lower prices often make more sense. I'm not a brand-conscious type. I'd rather you look at my projects than my tools.

[onedash]

I just seen their new catalog and it looks like they now carry the entire Biesemeyer line.....The fence on my saw sells seperately for $418.
Make the saw seem like even more of a bargain.
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/searc...&gobutton.y=12

[Hellrazor]

How can you complain about an inexpensive tool being outlasted by an expensive one? For what you pay, I believe Craftsman gives you fair value by and large.

Well the "professional" labeling on some tools comes to mind. My guess is the "professional" circ saw was made for a Astronaut and the "professional" drill was made for a CEO.

[meika123]

I also must confess. I have several, and have had several Craftsman
tools.
Presently I have:
14" band saw
8" jointer
1 1/2 hp plunge router
Air compressor
belt sander
Scroll saw
Sears clone BT3

Plus, a $#&% load of hand tools, wrenches, pliers, etc.

Dave in NC

[Howard]

Love my Craftsman/Bosch professional router. Works like a champ! All of my mechanics style tools are Craftsman. My dad had 'em. Good nuff for me...

[broschultz]

Did you know that Black and Decker owns DeWalt? They purchased the name for a high end line of tools after research showed it had an excellent reputation. At least that's what I read about 10 years ago.

[LCHIEN]

Wow, I missed this extensive thread, looks like it was going in October when I was traveling a lot.
I have three comments:

1) I went thru about 30- some replies. No one mentioned this:

What I really dislike about Sears Craftsman is their way of specifying power. they use this "Maximum developed Horespower" which is a really cheesy thing in my opinion. It inflates the HP rating of a product by at least 2:1.

I had to research this to understand why some tool I was looking at had so much more power compared to it's competitors (and it didn't even weigh more or cost more); as an engineer I believe nothing is for free.

I find that MDHP is a sears exclusive term, only they ever use it. It refers to drawn power with stalled rotor current and is thus basically a measure of the winding resistance of the motor, since no useful work is done with the motor stalled. To measure it, of course, you have to disable the circuit breakers and do it fast before the motor windings melt down - a non-useful configuration.

2) Competition: In general, since only sears sells the tools, part of the competition is removed and Sears has slightly but not really competitive pricing. The compete by tool type but not by model number.
That is, you can buy a dewalt 735 from HDT, or Amazon, or Home Depot but you can only buy the Sears Craftsman planer from Sears. It's hard to compare the sears planer with the Dewalt because you can't see inside easily as to who used platic gears vs metal gears for instance, but at least you can compare the 735 price from Amazon to HDT.

3) the router family - they sold similar routers for a quite a few years - that got several complaints about the cheesy elevation ring giving problems was, IIRC, a Ryobi designed and manufactured item.

[Knottscott]

...
1) I went thru about 30- some replies. No one mentioned this:

What I really dislike about Sears Craftsman is their way of specifying power. they use this "Maximum developed Horespower" which is a really cheesy thing in my opinion. It inflates the HP rating of a product by at least 2:1.

I had to research this to understand why some tool I was looking at had so much more power compared to it's competitors (and it didn't even weigh more or cost more); as an engineer I believe nothing is for free.

I find that MDHP is a sears exclusive term, only they ever use it. It refers to drawn power with stalled rotor current and is thus basically a measure of the winding resistance of the motor, since no useful work is done with the motor stalled. To measure it, of course, you have to disable the circuit breakers and do it fast before the motor windings melt down - a non-useful configuration.

One of the Sears jobsite saws stated 4.4hp IIRC! Their older "3hp" contractor saws, some of their "2hp" jointers, plus many other tools I"m sure used the MDHP rating. Lots of ambitiously rated circ saws and many tools with universal motors get away with big stretches....

It is a useless and misleading approach to rating HP, but I don't think all their tools use the MDHP tactic anymore, and I don't believe they're alone in it. My 22124 TS has the same 1-3/4hp motor found in the Delta and Steel City hybrids, and my 22400 12" BS has what appears to be a reasonably true 3/4hp induction motor....whatever it is will resaw > 6" hardwood.

The Hitachi 10CFL TS overstates an ambitious 3hp motor for a 15 amp induction motor that appears to be an off the shelf Asian motor much like all the other 1.5 to 1.75 hp motors on other saws. My Ridgid shop vac boasts something crazy like 6.25hp! I believe the Bosch 4000 TS states 4.4hp, Routers are notorious for this....my Milwaukee 5625 states 3.5hp...it's relatively strong but it'll produce 3+ hp only when struck by lightning! There are lots and lots of examples of this type of "white collar" crime out there.

[HarmsWay]

Don't usually rant on "baaad" tools, but since there is an invite--here goes. Bad first: First router I ever bought was a Craftsman. Can't remember the year but must have been at least 10 years ago. What a piece of s**t! Had a plastic body that had to be twisted around to set the height of the router plate/bit. Secured with a nut in a square plastic setting. Of course he first thing that went was the method to secure the height.

I have the same router I think. It's the only tool I'll lend out and not surprisingly, anyone who's borrowed it never asks to borrow anything else. Because of that router, it's not likely I'd ever consider a Craftsman power tool.

The only tool I've bought that was worse was a Black and Decker battery operated saw powered by those tiny (versa?) batteries. What was I thinking?

Bob

[mpc]

Didn't a couple of the air compressor makers out there get burned by nonsense HP ratings too? I seem to remember Campbell-Hausfield being one of them that settled in a class-action lawsuit with HP ratings beyond what a 120volt/15amp outlet could theoretically provide - the MDHP type of nonsense.

I don't think Sears was alone in this unfortunately... lots of big-name compressor makers were in that same bed.

"my Milwaukee 5625 states 3.5hp...it's relatively strong but it'll produce 3+ hp only when struck by lightning! "
Thanks for a good afternoon chuckle; my day sucked up till now.

mpc