From: Fred Martin (mung@in-touch.net)
Date: Fri Mar 14 2003 - 03:29:35 PST
Joe...don't ever change...we wouldn't want you any other way. A gripe
for me is...I have a buddy that is always on the lookout for a crippled
Craftsman tool at one of these places (for a buck...usually) and takes
it to Sears for a new one. This is what makes the company have to take
steps like offering you a reconditioned tool instead of new. I have
never done this in my life. If I didn't buy the set from them new...I
figure I don't have the privilege to get a new one free. It seems that
the younger generation sees some of these folks doing this and follow
suit. I'm like you on this one...don't believe in unethical business
practices. Would you take a punch back for replacement? Anyone can
destroy a punch...made by Snap On or whoever. I am a tool lover...they
never call a lawyer or get mad at you...their friends for life. Use them
accordingly and they will generally last a lifetime...most any of them.
(foreign stuff excluded) The ratchets that get taken back broken are
usually abused...when the bolt won't budge...switch to the breaker
bar...thats what it's for. A lot of the broken sockets are regular
sockets that have been used on a rattlin wrench (impact). Guaranteed for
life...but you have to help it a little by using common sense. We had a
little tool company here in my hometown called Mecto and I have been
through the mill in tool making...from overhauling board drop hammers to
forge them on...to building dies and trim dies. Out there in the shop in
an old Kennedy toolbox...I still have the first wrench struck on my
first set of dies (I was 21 years old)...a 13/16" combination
wrench...and to finish the box end on it in a Bridgeport mill...I used a
fly cutter in a boring head. Too much chatter...so the last few
thousandths...I shut the mill off...fed the tool in a couple and gave
the ratchet and socket on the drawbar a turn or two...a couple more
times...worked great...got a good finish. I'd like to say that I still
have that old Craftsman ratchet and socket and make this a happy ending
story...but...an ex wife helped to see that it didn't happen. Same boat
as you. You are not alone! As a side note, these Mecto wrenches are
still with me and I have never broken the first one...maybe a little
chrome peeling...and the company has been gone for 25 years. KD Tool
Co., Lancaster, Pa. bought them and sent the company to Waterboro or
Walterboro, South Carolina. Six months down there and the phone rang in
my shop and a Jim St. Peters introducing himself as plant manager says
"I hear that you made this plant go when it was in Greenfield." "How
would you like to come down here and do it again"? Being kinda startled,
I said...aw...I don't know...what's it pay? Just a minute...I'll get
Lancaster on the phone. Needless to say, I didn't go...six months
later...they folded up. I still think of how good the fishin was down
there at Santee-Cooper. Gawd...I probably missed a bunch of lunkers.
Fred Martin
MVTrucker@aol.com wrote:
> I purchase my tools at Cowtown, a local farmers and flea market. Amazing the deals I get. Snap-on, S-K and even some
> Sears junk. Who needs a lifetime warranty when I buy a $25.
> tool for $2.00? Like new 1/2" air impact, complete with a full
> set of sockets (Ingersol-Rand) for $50.00. Snap-on dude flies
> me the finger when he goes by :) Cripes, I'm using tools from
> my dad's garage that he was operating in the forties. I didn't
> become wealthy spending money foolishly. I did become poor
> through too many divorces. If a babe can't handle me, I pay
> 'em off and start over :)
> Joe "can't learn a lesson" Young
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Wed Apr 23 2003 - 13:25:51 PDT