He replaced a majority of his tools with Craftsman. And if you can’t finish the repair on a piece of equipment because of a broken tool, not only does that make you look bad, but the customer is not very happy because his equipment is still down. And he switched from Snap-On to Craftsman tools because when a Snap-On tool broke in the field, he couldn’t get a replacement until the tool truck showed up at the shop. He was a heavy equipment field service technician.
I can claim a tax rebate (which makes the sticker shock a bit easier to bear).Snap-On’s don’t break? My father would laugh in your face as he showed you the ammo box full of broken Snap-On sockets, ratchets, and wrenches so he could get replacements whenever the tool truck showed up.
The tools I took away tonight were about 300USD including 12.5% sales tax. Tonight I started by purchasing the tools I need the most (I'm going to Australia to decomission and part-out some HP V2500 systems this weekend):
I've decided to get fixed drivers with plastic handles instead of the removable-bit drivers as I'd hate to drop a tool-bit into a live production box! I've tried to colour code the drivers for rapid identification. I like the way that the combo packs are the same price as the individual components as this means I can concentrate on getting only the tools that I need. Well, I bit the bullet and started buying Snap-on tools. John-Paul Snap-On representitive 4001 Kidding, i'm kidding, I really don't work for them, I just love their tools. Um, Snap-On, you can send my check to.J/K, I just needed to profess my undieing support for Snap-On tools. They'll tell you that Craftsman has the best warranty and return policy, but other than that their handtools are just too basic in shape and ergonomics.
Craftsman doesn't even place in the top ten if you ask anyone in a trade that requires tools what tools are best. If you are in a profesion where you need the use of tools, whether it be a computer teckh, or an auto-mechanic, I wouldn't use anything other than Snap-On, although Mac and a few others place a close second. For my money, it's worth the extra bit, although I do think they are overpriced and they use their leverage to their advantage, but hey, I would too. As you said, they just fit so perfectly into your hand, and get into spots that most tools can't dream of getting into.
There is definitely a reason people pay the exorbenant amount they do for the Snap-On name, and it's not just the warranty, because Sear's Craftsman warranty is actually better. I've turned more people on to Snap-On tools without meaning to do so, just by letting a co-worker use a certain tool, and them realizing what the fuss was all about. Are there any credible alternatives to Snapon? The Blue-Point stuff looks pretty good, but of course that is also a Snapon brand and doesn't have a lifetime guarantee. around 170USD for a set of eight Torx drivers! Of course I'll never regret buying top quality tools, but I must confess to suffering a little sticker shock tonight e.g. Unfortunately, as you probably know, Snapon is expensive. He didn't even blink when I only took a catalogue and he didn't make a sale over the hour he was around (which is an impressive level of customer service). I invited the local Snapon distributor to come around tonight and he put on an impressive demo of the Snapon range. At the moment I'm doing a heck of a lot of decomissioning work and I need some top quality tools to dismantle and part-out large systems. and I do a moderate amount of work on midrange unix systems (HP 9000, Sun, IBM RS6000 etc). They just felt perfectly right in my hand. I always used generic tools until now, but I recently borrowed some Snapon screwdrivers and I was very impressed with the quality and design. I've decided to build a field service tool-kit using trade-quality tools.