On Mon, 11 Nov 2013 19:02:25 -0800, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:28:41 -0800, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Mon, 11 Nov 2013 22:20:30 +0000 (UTC), Cydrome Leader
wrote:

Jim Stewart wrote:
mike wrote:
Lowes has a sale on Kobalt tools.
For $6 you can get a screwdriver kit that
has torx bits down to size 4. And they're smaller shank,
so the bit holder has smaller diameter and will fit down
the deep hole in the plastic of some devices to access the
screw head.
No brainer...except.
Are they any good.
The bits are shiny silver. My experience has been that the
shiny silver bits are much softer than the dull black ones.

They're guaranteed for life, but that's no help if you've
just stripped the head of that #4 Torx screw holding together
the $300 gizmo you're trying to repair.

So, is there any correlation between shiny silver surface and
softness for screwdriver bits? In the store, how do you tell
what's tough and what's not?

They don't know how to spell "cobalt".

That should tell you something...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobalt_(tools)


"Kobalt is a line of tools owned by the American home improvement
chain Lowe's as their house brand for both Lowe's in North America and
their joint venture Masters Home Improvement in Australia.

Lowe's and manufacturing partner J.H. Williams launched Kobalt in
1998,[1] with the intention of competing against rival retailers Sears
and The Home Depot and their respective Craftsman and Husky tool
brands.[2] Since 2003, Kobalt hand tools have largely been made by the
Danaher Corporation.[3][4] Previously made in the USA, initially by
Snap-on's JH Williams brand, Kobalt sockets and wrenches are now made
in Taiwan, while pliers and other tools are made in China."

Danaher still makes most of NAPA's stuff. I couldn't replace my 1/4"
screwdriver-like socket driver (with rear 1/4" female socket) through
Crapsman and they finally gave me some bucks and I found the item at
NAPA.

POS without socket:
http://www.sears.com/craftsman-6-in-...p-00943393000P

Well-built NAPA driver: (not the one I received)
http://www.napaonline.com/catalog/ca...277_0006395328


So the early ones were made by a good company...now they are made in
Taiwan and China.

I'd be willing to bet that the Taiwanese wrenches and sockets were
pretty darned well made. It's the Chinese stuff you have to worry
about nowadays. I think some were made with melted rebar... But HF's
lifetime-warranted Pittsburgh lines have been really nice in my
experience. With the exception of the small, super-cheap 1/4 and 3/8"
set going for under ten bucks. (Those are likely rebar remelts.) I
have no idea why HF gave them the Pittsburgh name. You can see that
they're horribly made, and that's bad.

Most of HF low end stuff is now made in India. Just a heads up.

I wonder if he wanted to learn that?

Probably not.

g


Wiha....good tools.

_If_ you're rich enough to afford them. $$$$

If all you need is (1) for an important task....you buy a Good One..
And you can buy a set cheap enough if you hunt around. Even a good
used set of Wiha/SnapOn etc etc is better than a new set from a
discount house for $6 for 10. Hell..Ive got an unopened package of
Home Despot Torx drivers in the electronics shop. Its hanging unopened
on the wall in case I bust one of the Harbor Freight ones. And I
bought it on sale for $3.95 2 yrs ago after the Christmas sales were
over. They were clearing stock. But if I have to take something
delicate and quality apart...out comes the Wiha.

If you are buying a claw hammer...its hard to **** up even if buying a
cheap one. Ive not seen a broken claw Chicom hammer in 15 yrs.

Its delicate stuff that requires good material selection, good heat
treating and quality manufacturing that is in question here. I
managed to bust a HF box end wrench not long ago. 5/8" and it took a
4' cheater pipe to do it. Then I found out the ****er was left
handed...sigh. But HF replaced it, no questions asked.

Gunner


--
Liberals want everyone to think like them.
Conservatives want everyone to think.

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