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Killed my 1/2" drive rachet...

78Suburban

78Suburban

1/2 ton status
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so I bought a contract for the rest of my life.... for 24 bucks.. I'll never be rachetless.... Boy, I was like a kid in a candy shop in Sears.. I told my girlfriend that from now on, all gifts must be sears gift certificates :bow:

craftsmanrachet.jpg
 
I like the Craftsman warranty. And I like the fact that they are open on Saturday and Sunday, which is usually when I break my tools.
 
Good luck with that particular ratchet. They are junk. Plan to make MANY trips back to Sears to get a rebuilt ratchet, one after the other. Lord knows how many I've gone thru and I'm getting tired of these cheap made pieces. Thank god for warranties though.
 
Ummm, Tool Shed material?

I have a couple 15, 20 yr old 1/2" Crappy ratchets, standard and fine tooth... They've held up well, good for the average job... Never a return... They don't get sole duty, for serious stuff, I break out my Snappy...

33917.JPG


Now 3/8's and 1/4 drive Crapsmen? forget it, don't own any more and wont waste my time.. Blew up a 1/2 dozen 3/8's in a year and swore I'd never use em again...
 
My parade has offically been rained on... Well, I'll see how it holds up... I'm pretty hard on rachets... Kinda put long pipes on them sometimes :o

Are Cobalt by Lowes any tougher? I think they have a similar warranty..
 
Cobalt is ok . I have some of that now ( Lowes Card bad to have in Pauly's wallet :eek1: ) . The sockets I bought are holding up , as well as my garage floor jack .
 
Keep 2 of the ratchets on hand. If one goes down, you can still keep working. I have 4-2 Craftsmans, 1 Blackhawk, and 1 Pittsburg(Harbor Freight). The Pittsburg has actually held up very well. I put a 5' cheater bar on it to loosen the lugs on my 1 ton, and had to stand on it to break the lugs loose! The ratchet still works fine. One of my Craftsmans is 30 years old, and still works fine. The other Crafty is less than 10, and the reversing lever moves all over the place. I found the Blackhawk, had to soak it in ATF for a month to get it to work, but now it is the best.:D
 
Ive got the same 1 and it feels all loose,like it wants to strip. I will be replacing my whole craftsman ratchet set as they break with snap-on or mac.
 
I've used Craftsman tools for as long as I can remember. Never had a single problem with them. I don't think I've ever broken a ratchet. I usually lose them before they give up. I have had a couple with the replacable guts, that I didn't like. Seem to fall out. Those were traded in for new ones. Breaker bars can save your ratchets from the cheater bar. In all actuallity it isn't hard to build a good breaker bar.
 
seriously 78Sub craftsman will work just fine for the amount of wrenching you do, why blow 180$+ on a snap on ratchet when you dont really need it. dont listen to guys that whine about cheap tools, so what.. warranty is really nice for that stuff and just use it till either u want something more money or just keep replacing them they will be just fine for ya !
 
I have heard some of the newer Craftsman stuff has plastic parts, but I have the same ratchet pictured and have used it for about 4 years no with no problem. I have problems with my craftsman 1/4" drive..it like to slip, but it's used for pretty light duty stuff so :wink1:

I got a 1" drive set from my Dad who bought it in the 80's sometime. No issues with it yet:D
 
I use Craftsman tools at work. Only broken one, it was a 1/4" 5" ratchet. It just broke while lightly turning a screw out. The thing never saw torque in its life. So that pissed me off and I spent $60 on a Matco fine tooth one. 2 weeks later, I dropped that by accident and the guts spit out of it. Yay? Now I'm waiting until Tuesday(when the Matco guy comes) to get it bitch and moan and get it replaced.

My 3/8" and 1/2" barely get used at all. Air tools are the savior of ratchets. I used to go through a 1/2" ratchet(exactly like that one you have) a week, then I started using air tools and haven't broken one since.
 
I think Craftsman is just fine. I'm still using the 3/8 ratchet I got in 86 or 87. The 1/4" one had to get swapped out when the mechanism failed.
I might have had to swap out the 1/2" once, but can't remember for sure.
 
If people hate their craftsman tools so bad, they should send them all to me :D .....I'm in town fairly often, and can swing by sears and get another if I do happen to kill a tool.. And as previously stated, I really don't do enough wrenching to justify any top notch tools.
 
WhiteBurb said:
I think Craftsman is just fine. I'm still using the 3/8 ratchet I got in 86 or 87. The 1/4" one had to get swapped out when the mechanism failed.
I might have had to swap out the 1/2" once, but can't remember for sure.
Click to expand...
ones made in 1986 or 87 are a heck of a lot better made and stronger than the new ones you buy off the shelf today.


If you search for my post I broke 3 1/2" drive Craftsman ratchets in a WEEK. None with a cheater bar on them. One was broken out of the sealed box... Slipped whichever way you went.

Don't get me wrong, I have a LOT of Craftsman tools, I make my living with them, but if I could afford to I'd replace all my drive tools with Matco or SnapOn.
 
The durability of Craftsman ratchets are what people generally grumble about, but you can up the quality of your Craftsman ratchets while still keeping that easy exchange-at-the-Sears-store-seven-days-a-week, and do so for a great price. This set of three Craftsman Professional ratchets is only 60 bucks, so buy them and keep your standard Craftsman ratchets for use as spares. Full-polish, good action, and easy on the hands.
 
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