I was a Auto Technician for 5 years and nothing beats a american made
tool. Snap-on, Mac, or Matco all have there ups and downs but you
far better than any china made hand tool. Also, I have seen so many
people go out and buy A huge impact wrench. The only one I will ever
buy is the I R 231. But for the shop I have to buy the cheap ones,
Because employees are always take them home. I rather spend 20
dollars and set of wrench and lose them all in a few months than
spending $150 dollars for the snap-ons and losing the all in a week.

Glenn
Houston, Tx


On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 20:14:54 GMT, Stan Stocker
wrote:



Jeff Wisnia wrote:

snipped
I no longer make my living using hand tools, and I've been tempted to
ask the group this one for quite a while, so here goes...

Patriotic issues and potential long term effects on parts of our economy
aside, is there anything usefully inferior about low cost imported box
and end wrenches and various styles of pliers other than the quality of
their finish and overall appearance? Or, is much of the derision heaped
upon them only the result of "toolbox status" and xenophobic feelings?

Is strength an issue? Has anyone ever bent or busted a full sized
imported wrench and believed that a comparably sized US made product
wouldn't have similarly failed under the same circumstances?

snip
Comments?

Jeff

Guy in my neighbors shop had a chinese wrench snap in half, jagged end
put a deep bloody scratch across his belly after slicing through his
shirt. He had a tractor part in a vice and was pulling on the wrench
with hand/arm strength only, no pieces of pipe or other sillyness. I
looked at the broken ends, really grainy stuff in the center. Lovely
finish on the exterior, looked like a good wrench, but something was
very wrong with either the basic material used or the heat cycle during
forging, maybe both.

I've had no name impact sockets round out in the 1/2 inch drive square a
few times, using an older medium sized Craftman impact wrench on 90 PSI.

Bent a few cheapie wrenches with arm strenth only, sprung a couple of no
name open end wrenches, broke a jaw off of a somewhereistan open end
wrench once, had screwdriver shanks twist or break, seen no name chinese
drill bits split along the web or dull during the first cut (with lube,
correct speed) on mild steel. Had a few Chinese and Indian end mills
try to convert themselved to ball end mills by shedding the cutting tips
in 1018 now and then.

Other than these sorts of things I've no real problems to report :-)

With all that said, I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the import
stuff as well. Some of the U.S. made stuff isn't so hot these days
either though...

Cheers,
Stan