DeWalt survey

[Steve Eure]

I too started out with Craftsman hand tools back in the early 70's. They were a good value. The problem with the power tools is lack of customer support. They may run a tool line for 3-4 years and then discontinue it, and there goes the parts support for that tool. It is annoying for me to buy something from them and then cannot find replacement parts after a few years. That is the reason I stay away from their power tools.

[Terry Therneau]

Let me just note that in the 60s and 70s (when I was growing up on the farm) Craftsman hand tools were the go-to brand if you wanted quality. When the hay crop needs to come in you need to fix a break NOW and can't afford cheap tools. I'm still using those Craftsman sockets and rachets. But they have not been what they once were for quite some time now.

[Phillip Gregory]

I don't believe Craftsman was ever a manufacturer of anything. They just negotiated with various tool companies to produce items to their price point and specs. Over the years they have sold Dewalt, Porter Cable, Rikon and many other brands under the Craftsman name. Most people getting started with tools unless they had friends family in the know started life with Craftsman branded items and quickly moved to better quality tools later in life. I did. Craftsman was the only tool brand name I knew until I started attending woodworking shows and reading magazines.

Correct. The first three digits of the model number of a Craftsman power tool denote the manufacturer, most often it's 103.* which is Emerson Electric. DeVilbiss made most of their air compressors, Atlas made many of their older drill presses, Parks made their thickness planers (back when they still sold them), and a host of other manufacturers actually including DeWalt made a few things for Sears.

When I was growing up, Sears was the place most people got all of their tools. You could get a few hand tools of often mediocre quality at a hardware store, you could pay twice as much as you would for a Craftsman power tool for a Delta power tool, and there was the Harbor Freight catalog if you needed a hand tool that was really cheap. But there was a Sears store in almost every town and nobody ever mentioned anything more expensive than Delta's equipment (such as Powermatic), any industrial-grade equipment, or any equipment from Europe.