A hammer, a screwdriver, and a wrench, in my drawer. Might be another piece or two here or there come oh a pair of pliers, and your scissors count? There was a time I bought Craftsman in my relationship split up and she got the tools and by that point Craftsman was sucking unlike the way they used to and I just bought what I needed what I needed it.
“Life gone not quite as imagined”
I went through a period of massive tool buying mostly the new gens of battery-powered and some other things. Now sorting through stuff going, wait, when did I buy this, and why?
In my garage with lots of stuff (not cars) I re-discovered a Lowes stainless steel tool chest never used yet and with protective cover on it. The plan was to re-organize my existing tools that were in 2 semi-rusty Craftsman chests. Well the plan never happened. Well, in the intervening days/years I realized my days of crawling under cars to do my own maintenance are mostly past.
In my younger days I traveled in a truck camper and somehow had enough tools with me to change a water pump in Gunnison Colorado. Only thing I needed help with was pressing the fan onto the shaft;.the dealer said they couldn’t do it officially but tip the guys $10 and they’ll help ya. Those were the days….
@pmarin
I don’t even change my own lightbulbs anymore. It’s included in my rent (Unless it’s a lamp) and they are getting the nice adjustable ones and will adjust it however you like it.
Last thing I used a tool for?
ponders.
oh, those oatmeal jars? are just the right size to fit in the garbage disposal, LOL. I had to get a pair of needle nose (Oh another tool) to get it out. (Yeah, I put a strainer in before setting it in the sink now, lesson learned after the second time, lol)
@Cerridwyn on the long needle-nose thing, there are some “compound leverage” pliers about a foot long. We found some in the cheap tools bin at Tractor Supply. They are pretty cool and I’ve used exactly for the purpose you mention.
My tools sit in a shoebox that should tell you all you need to know lol but I do know how to use them. I just have a boyfriend that does construction and wants perfection so he can do it.
@jouest@Star2236 The BF “I had been wondering what kind of shoes made metallic clanging sounds and weighed 10 pounds? Just figured you weren’t quite ready to reveal your kinky side yet.”
I’ve never found a tool I didn’t want to have, but have certainly come across plenty that I can’t afford. I suspect something similar has probably been said about ex wives.
I subscribe to the philosophy of better to have and not need than the alternate scenario, which unfortunately seems to occur more frequently on the darkest, stormiest nights with situations of the utmost urgency.
I have been a professional automotive tech. (I was one of the earliest ASE-certified Masters, for that matter.) My tool collection is extensive, and would require at least a two-ton truck to transport. And yet, I still buy new toys. Shiny new toys. Toys that do things. Most recently, a good induction heater to employ in persuading naughty fasteners to play nice when I need to undo them. (They loosens up or we turns the electrons-hose on them again, and makes them all bright shiny orange-hot and sparkly, oh yes.) ([slightly demonic chuckle])
@Limewater@werehatrack I have a feeling the speed to mini nuclear furnace activation might be directly proportional to the likelihood of scraped, smashed or broken knuckles.
@kuoh@Limewater It’s situational. A nut that’s corroded on an exhaust flange stud down away from the engine is likely to get heated as the second step if it doesn’t budge with a six-point wrench. If it’s a nut-and-bolt, I’m likely to go straight to the angle grinder and just replace the fastener. I have employed the “weld on a nut” technique for extraction of a broken bolt a couple of times, and I will note that this technique works a lot better now that wirefeed welders are affordable and common. It was a lot more of a challenge with a stick welder.
I would say I’m like my cabinet laser. If I’m all dialed in, I can make super cool shit happen. If I’m not, I’m louder than I should be and potentially setting life on fire.
Several years ago my dad got me a nice DeWalt cordless drill. That kind of put me on a path.
Because batteries.
I now have the drill, grinder, reciprocating saw, chain saw, shop vac, circular saw, leaf blower, weed whacker, and likely something else or two that I’m forgetting in the moment. But I did 3D print some undershelf battery mounts and one for my drill so I can find stuff quickly. I do like Milwaukee stuff… I have a corded flush cut saw from them, but I think I’m on team DeWalt at this point as switching up my cordless game would be way too expensive.
@capnjb@jouest If you decide to get hyperserious with half-inch impact wrench capability, I can definitely attest to the effectiveness of the DeWalt DCF961. Mine has yet to encounter an automotive or light truck lug nut that it could not remove.
@jouest@werehatrack I really don’t have much use for an impact wrench, but I also like to have all the things, you know… just in case I’ll put that in my pile of future bad decisions I need to make
edit - there are too many enablers on this forum I’m looking at you @narfcake
@werehatrack If we lived closer, I would have challenged you to remove some rusted frozen lug nuts a while back. I tried everything I could think of: penetrating lubes, 1/2 inch rattle gun, cheater handle extension on my socket wrench, heat with a torch, etc. No luck. I finally burned them off with the cutting torch. Now I can’t get the goddamn brake drum off to replace the burnt lugs. I think this project was not meant to be.
@macromeh That sounds like a brake drum that may have to be removed via the application of a precision fractionating hand sledge. (Sometimes called a BFH.)
@werehatrack You’re probably right. I don’t really need to preserve any of the brake hardware anyway - it is a trailer I made from the back half of a 1976 Ford Courier pickup that my wife had from before we got together. I pull it behind my tractor and it never leaves the property. Worked fine until it got a flat tire.
@macromeh If you’ve got an angle grinder, applying that to the task might reduce the hazard of unintentionally smashed bits. Or just use the torch to split the drum, no worries.
@macromeh@sillyheathen@werehatrack To be honest, I do love the randomness of this place where we can go from batteries to brake drums and no one blinks an eye
@capnjb@macromeh@sillyheathen OBTW, have you seen the trailer for the Spaceballs sequel? “After forty years, we asked ‘What do the fans want?’ But instead we’re making this movie.”
@tinamarie1974 on the topic of high-torque impact wrenches there is a well-rated Ryobi 1/2. I bought one because I often travel with Ryobi stuff in my truck. Only one model is the strong one, but at times it was on sale and with bonus free battery. I can tell you it weighs quite a bit but have not put it to the test yet. You don’t want the light or medium grade of any brand.
@pmarin The big Ryobi is really good, and is a close competitor to many of the highly-rated ones of a few years back from Milwaukee and such. More powerful ones have cropped up since, but that Ryobi is a damn good unit, and will usually do the job. If it won’t, you’re gonna need a bigger cheater pipe.
As I’ve mentioned before I tend to be a bit of a Ryobi fanboy. Virtually all of my tools in the woodworking shop are lime green. I bought into the Ryobi ecosystem years ago when they were basically the only company that didn’t change the battery format every couple of years. I have 25-year-old tools that still use exactly the same battery format which has now progressed from NiCad to lithium.
Drill(s)
Reciprocating saw(s)
Circular saw
Oscillating saw
Spiral cut saw
Fan
Work light
Brad nailer
(and probably a few others I can’t think of off hand)
Plus my 40v stuff for the yard
Chainsaw(s)
Pole saw
Trimmer
Leaf blower
Hedge trimmer(s)
I even have a couple of tools that I have adapters for so I can use my Ryobi batteries to power some DeWalt and Makita things I was gifted or inherited in other ways.
(I will admit I have been cheating on my Ryobi obsession with some “alphabet soup branded” Chinese stock for small garden hand tools (like pruners and mini-chainsaws) since I started getting things “free” from vine. Thankfully they all use the same battery format).
As for storage, I have a fairly large 15x30 wood shop which is home to a table saw and planer as well as a good size workbench. My biggest problem is that I would tend to work until the last possible minute then gather up my tools and chuck them on top of the workbench in order to be able to come inside and take a shower and go to work in the afternoon. Over the last few months I have finally managed to get things sorted and reorganized, creating shelving and drawers so things are where they “belong”. I’ve used the label maker to label the outside of drawers, and have been happy with how easy it is to find things when they’re where they belong!
Who would have thunk?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@chienfou If the terminals look like this:
/image Makita 18V battery top side
… with two long slots for the +/- towards the sides, a shorter slot for temperature, and no yellow charging connector in the middle but instead a barrel jack, then it’s LXT-style.
fun fact: there’s an extremely arcane legal battle over the ownership of that BDSM symbol, so if your job requires you to navigate such things it can be a little prickly and not prickly in a consensual pain sort of way.
@Kyeh it’s always tempting but there will run another next month. There is no “yearly” Ryobi days.
I need to get some shit done lol. So many tools never used. Projects planned. It’s a trap to see something on sale and think I could use it for this… If you aren’t ready to do it.
Because I grew up with dad using craftsman when that meant something. And when I bought my first “set” of mechanics sockets they were still made in USA I have a lot of craftsman stuff before sears died. No complaints. The new stuff I’m not motivated to buy.
Power tools… I decided on rigid cause LSA… but I don’t really use them much… And they could deliver a much better selection. They just don’t. So… Meh.
Ryobi I have an adapter for just cause they make cool stuff. The issue with Ryobi is you can’t adapt their battery to anything.
@unksol Way back in the 70’s, I rebuilt the engine of my sister’s car (she paid for the parts and pro machining and I did the rest of the labor for free). As a perk, she bought a nice Craftsmen tool set for me (sockets, ratchets, wrenches, etc. with a sturdy metal case). I’ve used the hell out of those tools for 50 years and still have most of them.
@unksol Recently, Stanley has added some Good Stuff to the Craftsman line, and the overall quality looks decent. Testing channels have had mixed reviews, but Craftsman is never at the bottom of the rankings and often comes in well above average. I’ve only picked up a small number of things since Stanley bought them, because at this point I already have a majority of what’s in the Craftsman line, albeit spread across many brands from Snap-On to Pittsburgh.
@werehatrack I’m not sure it got the correct one but there is a ttc where crastman overdrive stomped.
I already have USA wrenches and not that problem often. But I thought about it.
I also strongly dislike going to Lowe’s… I liked Sears tool department. Not really sure about the restof the store. If I was dragged along I usually got away with "“I’ll be over here when you guys are done”
@jouest@werehatrack I feel like time is slipping a lot lately. Just so much chaos… Backlog of stuff to do. The incoming garbage… Say your going to do something then an entire month is gone
@jouest@macromeh@werehatrack lol 40 in 3 months. Was up and down the ladder putting in Mom’s ceiling fan. And some other stuff. And I don’t love the way the bracket is sitting against the ceiling. It’s on like a 45 degree angle which made it meh but also a 1980s pancake box. And I got most of the wobble out… But some screws are not correct… Was making a swish noise in can hear but she can’t…
That resulted in my being sore. To an excessive amount lol. Then if I’m ever going to date anyone… Like get on an app and meet someone lol. IDK. 40 feels old. We had a joke party for my mom when we were kids. Over the hill etc
@macromeh@unksol@werehatrack also 40 and generally don’t get sore from things. I did drink too much and challenge my equally middle aged brother to an uphill footrace in the middle of the night, and THAT left me hurting.
@macromeh@unksol The Sears execs who decided to offshore Craftsman tools was the greatest boon to Harbor Freight. Though Craftsman tools cost double or triple that of Pittsburgh, they were still within a DIYer’s budget, were better quality, and made in the USA. In their quest for profits, though, Sears offshored them to the same country and quality definitely went down. Chrome finishes weren’t as good, wrenches didn’t hold up as well, ratchets stopped ratcheting – sure, they were replacef, but the quality was definitely a lower than before. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh offers the same walk-in-and-we’ll-replace-it lifetime warranty too, but at half to a third of the price. Now the customers are looking at “why should I pay that much more for Craftsman when they’re imported anyway?”
@macromeh@narfcake that’s not quite the situation I ran into. I think I’ve only ever exchanged one ratchet… But being able to just walk into Sears and go “this broke” and they would just… Pull something off the shelf and hand it to you. Was dope.
I didn’t think harbor freight did that on Pittsburg? Also their icon is better.
Its hard to break tools. If I’m putting a pipe on it/jumping on the end… Well I’m not going to claim warranty on that. I know what I did.
@macromeh@unksol Lifetime on Pittsburgh too. Many years back, I broke a breaker bar. Walked in, they replaced it without hesitation. Then that one broke too. Store didn’t have that exact one that time, but the clerk said to “just grab the closest sized one” – and so I ended up with the nicer Pittsburgh Pro that has survived plenty of use with a cheater bar.
A hammer, a screwdriver, and a wrench, in my drawer. Might be another piece or two here or there come oh a pair of pliers, and your scissors count? There was a time I bought Craftsman in my relationship split up and she got the tools and by that point Craftsman was sucking unlike the way they used to and I just bought what I needed what I needed it.
“Life gone not quite as imagined”
I went through a period of massive tool buying mostly the new gens of battery-powered and some other things. Now sorting through stuff going, wait, when did I buy this, and why?
In my garage with lots of stuff (not cars) I re-discovered a Lowes stainless steel tool chest never used yet and with protective cover on it. The plan was to re-organize my existing tools that were in 2 semi-rusty Craftsman chests. Well the plan never happened. Well, in the intervening days/years I realized my days of crawling under cars to do my own maintenance are mostly past.
In my younger days I traveled in a truck camper and somehow had enough tools with me to change a water pump in Gunnison Colorado. Only thing I needed help with was pressing the fan onto the shaft;.the dealer said they couldn’t do it officially but tip the guys $10 and they’ll help ya. Those were the days….
@pmarin
I don’t even change my own lightbulbs anymore. It’s included in my rent (Unless it’s a lamp) and they are getting the nice adjustable ones and will adjust it however you like it.
Last thing I used a tool for?
ponders.
oh, those oatmeal jars? are just the right size to fit in the garbage disposal, LOL. I had to get a pair of needle nose (Oh another tool) to get it out. (Yeah, I put a strainer in before setting it in the sink now, lesson learned after the second time, lol)
@Cerridwyn @pmarin those jars! I had to remove a garbage disposal to get one out of a drain from below once.
@Cerridwyn on the long needle-nose thing, there are some “compound leverage” pliers about a foot long. We found some in the cheap tools bin at Tractor Supply. They are pretty cool and I’ve used exactly for the purpose you mention.
My tools sit in a shoebox that should tell you all you need to know lol but I do know how to use them. I just have a boyfriend that does construction and wants perfection so he can do it.
@Star2236 “don’t make me get the shoebox out and do this myself…”
@jouest @Star2236 The BF “I had been wondering what kind of shoes made metallic clanging sounds and weighed 10 pounds? Just figured you weren’t quite ready to reveal your kinky side yet.”
KuoH
I’ve never found a tool I didn’t want to have, but have certainly come across plenty that I can’t afford. I suspect something similar has probably been said about ex wives.
I subscribe to the philosophy of better to have and not need than the alternate scenario, which unfortunately seems to occur more frequently on the darkest, stormiest nights with situations of the utmost urgency.
KuoH
I have been a professional automotive tech. (I was one of the earliest ASE-certified Masters, for that matter.) My tool collection is extensive, and would require at least a two-ton truck to transport. And yet, I still buy new toys. Shiny new toys. Toys that do things. Most recently, a good induction heater to employ in persuading naughty fasteners to play nice when I need to undo them. (They loosens up or we turns the electrons-hose on them again, and makes them all bright shiny orange-hot and sparkly, oh yes.) ([slightly demonic chuckle])
@werehatrack
KuoH
@werehatrack Care to share your general stuck fastener procedure? Do you escalate, or go right to the induction heater?
@Limewater @werehatrack I have a feeling the speed to mini nuclear furnace activation might be directly proportional to the likelihood of scraped, smashed or broken knuckles.
KuoH
@kuoh @Limewater It’s situational. A nut that’s corroded on an exhaust flange stud down away from the engine is likely to get heated as the second step if it doesn’t budge with a six-point wrench. If it’s a nut-and-bolt, I’m likely to go straight to the angle grinder and just replace the fastener. I have employed the “weld on a nut” technique for extraction of a broken bolt a couple of times, and I will note that this technique works a lot better now that wirefeed welders are affordable and common. It was a lot more of a challenge with a stick welder.
I would say I’m like my cabinet laser. If I’m all dialed in, I can make super cool shit happen. If I’m not, I’m louder than I should be and potentially setting life on fire.
@sillyheathen My kind of woman. You free this weekend?
@yakkoTDI you can crash the crawfish boil this weekend.
@sillyheathen Yay!
Oh wait, shellfish allergy.
@sillyheathen You know that laser etched goldfish are still frowned upon these days?
@capnjb
@yakkoTDI
@sillyheathen That looks swell!!
@sillyheathen @yakkoTDI It does … or did you mean it would make you swell?
@Kyeh @sillyheathen Yes.
@sillyheathen @yakkoTDI Awwww.
@Kyeh @yakkoTDI
I made you a shellfish free gumbo!
Several years ago my dad got me a nice DeWalt cordless drill. That kind of put me on a path.
Because batteries.
I now have the drill, grinder, reciprocating saw, chain saw, shop vac, circular saw, leaf blower, weed whacker, and likely something else or two that I’m forgetting in the moment. But I did 3D print some undershelf battery mounts and one for my drill so I can find stuff quickly.
I do like Milwaukee stuff… I have a corded flush cut saw from them, but I think I’m on team DeWalt at this point as switching up my cordless game would be way too expensive. 
@capnjb it’s…beautiful
@capnjb @jouest If you decide to get hyperserious with half-inch impact wrench capability, I can definitely attest to the effectiveness of the DeWalt DCF961. Mine has yet to encounter an automotive or light truck lug nut that it could not remove.
@jouest @werehatrack I really don’t have much use for an impact wrench, but I also like to have all the things, you know… just in case
I’ll put that in my pile of future bad decisions I need to make 
edit - there are too many enablers on this forum
I’m looking at you @narfcake
@capnjb love that setup. I may have to apply something like this to my new shop.
@werehatrack If we lived closer, I would have challenged you to remove some rusted frozen lug nuts a while back. I tried everything I could think of: penetrating lubes, 1/2 inch rattle gun, cheater handle extension on my socket wrench, heat with a torch, etc. No luck. I finally burned them off with the cutting torch. Now I can’t get the goddamn brake drum off to replace the burnt lugs. I think this project was not meant to be.
@macromeh That sounds like a brake drum that may have to be removed via the application of a precision fractionating hand sledge. (Sometimes called a BFH.)
@werehatrack You’re probably right. I don’t really need to preserve any of the brake hardware anyway - it is a trailer I made from the back half of a 1976 Ford Courier pickup that my wife had from before we got together. I pull it behind my tractor and it never leaves the property. Worked fine until it got a flat tire.
@macromeh If you’ve got an angle grinder, applying that to the task might reduce the hazard of unintentionally smashed bits. Or just use the torch to split the drum, no worries.
@macromeh @werehatrack Next week on Car Talk…
@capnjb @macromeh @werehatrack I miss that show SO much!
@macromeh @sillyheathen @werehatrack To be honest, I do love the randomness of this place where we can go from batteries to brake drums and no one blinks an eye
Batteries, brake drums, Battlestar Galactica
@capnjb @macromeh @sillyheathen OBTW, have you seen the trailer for the Spaceballs sequel? “After forty years, we asked ‘What do the fans want?’ But instead we’re making this movie.”
The Schwartz Awakens in 2027.
@capnjb
Channeling mediocrebot?
@chienfou More so Dwight Schrute.
And/or Jim being Dwight 
@chienfou https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NCxpsEj5q3E
@capnjb
Awesome
EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!
@capnjb
Way to sneak in an edit!
@chienfou Shush you
My favorite tool at the moment is a tape measure. My second favorite is the credit card I use to pay for the thing I measured.
@heartny Make sure you get the Industrial Grade tape measure… I mean credit card.
@heartny @pmarin That’s the one that can take unlimited measurements right?
KuoH
I’m a Ryobi gal and I have all the standard power tools, plus a couple interesting ones I picked up while doing home improvement.
I also have access to my dads garage of wonders so if I need something I don’t actually have I can borrow from him.
He taught me well
@tinamarie1974 on the topic of high-torque impact wrenches there is a well-rated Ryobi 1/2. I bought one because I often travel with Ryobi stuff in my truck. Only one model is the strong one, but at times it was on sale and with bonus free battery. I can tell you it weighs quite a bit but have not put it to the test yet. You don’t want the light or medium grade of any brand.
@pmarin The big Ryobi is really good, and is a close competitor to many of the highly-rated ones of a few years back from Milwaukee and such. More powerful ones have cropped up since, but that Ryobi is a damn good unit, and will usually do the job. If it won’t, you’re gonna need a bigger cheater pipe.
As I’ve mentioned before I tend to be a bit of a Ryobi fanboy. Virtually all of my tools in the woodworking shop are lime green. I bought into the Ryobi ecosystem years ago when they were basically the only company that didn’t change the battery format every couple of years. I have 25-year-old tools that still use exactly the same battery format which has now progressed from NiCad to lithium.
Drill(s)
Reciprocating saw(s)
Circular saw
Oscillating saw
Spiral cut saw
Fan
Work light
Brad nailer
(and probably a few others I can’t think of off hand)
Plus my 40v stuff for the yard
Chainsaw(s)
Pole saw
Trimmer
Leaf blower
Hedge trimmer(s)
I even have a couple of tools that I have adapters for so I can use my Ryobi batteries to power some DeWalt and Makita things I was gifted or inherited in other ways.
(I will admit I have been cheating on my Ryobi obsession with some “alphabet soup branded” Chinese stock for small garden hand tools (like pruners and mini-chainsaws) since I started getting things “free” from vine. Thankfully they all use the same battery format).
As for storage, I have a fairly large 15x30 wood shop which is home to a table saw and planer as well as a good size workbench. My biggest problem is that I would tend to work until the last possible minute then gather up my tools and chuck them on top of the workbench in order to be able to come inside and take a shower and go to work in the afternoon. Over the last few months I have finally managed to get things sorted and reorganized, creating shelving and drawers so things are where they “belong”. I’ve used the label maker to label the outside of drawers, and have been happy with how easy it is to find things when they’re where they belong!
Who would have thunk?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@chienfou Makita LXT style?
@narfcake
Don’t really know for usre if that is it or not. Don’t have any ‘official’ makita batteries to test it out.
@chienfou If the terminals look like this:
/image Makita 18V battery top side
… with two long slots for the +/- towards the sides, a shorter slot for temperature, and no yellow charging connector in the middle but instead a barrel jack, then it’s LXT-style.
@narfcake
I’ll shoot some pics tomorrow. I am at work (ER) at the moment…
@chienfou Here’s the terminal layout of a Makita-style battery:
These days, I think I am an extension cord.
I’m starting to drag around, but always feel needed. However I am grounded.
@pakopako this feels right.
@pakopako
…and If you aren’t wound up tight you can end up a jumbled mess!
@chienfou … Wound up too tight and you get kinks everywhere
/showme popular kinks
/giphy kinks
@pakopako
@mediocrebot
fun fact: there’s an extremely arcane legal battle over the ownership of that BDSM symbol, so if your job requires you to navigate such things it can be a little prickly and not prickly in a consensual pain sort of way.
(not your meh job, obviously. your other job.)
@jouest @mediocrebot
@jouest @mediocrebot I didn’t even know there was a widely adopted emoji
https://www.emblemproject.sagcs.net/Is.html
@jouest @mediocrebot @pakopako
That’s fine I guess? I do not consent to meaningful communication via hieroglyphics.
Well, speaking of tools, evidently Ryobi Days has been going on for almost a month and I almost missed it!
And I didn’t end up getting anything after all.
@Kyeh it’s always tempting but there will run another next month. There is no “yearly” Ryobi days.
I need to get some shit done lol. So many tools never used. Projects planned. It’s a trap to see something on sale and think I could use it for this… If you aren’t ready to do it.
Because I grew up with dad using craftsman when that meant something. And when I bought my first “set” of mechanics sockets they were still made in USA I have a lot of craftsman stuff before sears died. No complaints. The new stuff I’m not motivated to buy.
Power tools… I decided on rigid cause LSA… but I don’t really use them much… And they could deliver a much better selection. They just don’t. So… Meh.
Ryobi I have an adapter for just cause they make cool stuff. The issue with Ryobi is you can’t adapt their battery to anything.
@unksol Way back in the 70’s, I rebuilt the engine of my sister’s car (she paid for the parts and pro machining and I did the rest of the labor for free). As a perk, she bought a nice Craftsmen tool set for me (sockets, ratchets, wrenches, etc. with a sturdy metal case). I’ve used the hell out of those tools for 50 years and still have most of them.
@macromeh believe it or not they were still made in the USA at least till 2004. Cause that’s when I bought mine. And… That’s 20 years ago. Fuck me
@macromeh @unksol I refuse to believe that 2004 was 20 years ago. does not compute even a little bit.
@unksol Recently, Stanley has added some Good Stuff to the Craftsman line, and the overall quality looks decent. Testing channels have had mixed reviews, but Craftsman is never at the bottom of the rankings and often comes in well above average. I’ve only picked up a small number of things since Stanley bought them, because at this point I already have a majority of what’s in the Craftsman line, albeit spread across many brands from Snap-On to Pittsburgh.
@werehatrack yea I’m not saying their bad now. Just were my go to. Now that everything is off shore… It varies. Have some tekton impact stuff.
/youtube torquetestchannel craftsman overdrive
@jouest
I refuse to believe that 1974 was 50 years ago, it doesn’t seem that long.
@werehatrack I’m not sure it got the correct one but there is a ttc where crastman overdrive stomped.
I already have USA wrenches and not that problem often. But I thought about it.
I also strongly dislike going to Lowe’s… I liked Sears tool department. Not really sure about the restof the store. If I was dragged along I usually got away with "“I’ll be over here when you guys are done”
@jouest @werehatrack I feel like time is slipping a lot lately. Just so much chaos… Backlog of stuff to do. The incoming garbage… Say your going to do something then an entire month is gone
@jouest @unksol @werehatrack Yeah, well I’ve probably got at least 30 years on you. (Hint - it only gets faster/worse.
)
@jouest @macromeh @werehatrack lol 40 in 3 months. Was up and down the ladder putting in Mom’s ceiling fan. And some other stuff. And I don’t love the way the bracket is sitting against the ceiling. It’s on like a 45 degree angle which made it meh but also a 1980s pancake box. And I got most of the wobble out… But some screws are not correct… Was making a swish noise in can hear but she can’t…
That resulted in my being sore. To an excessive amount lol. Then if I’m ever going to date anyone… Like get on an app and meet someone lol. IDK. 40 feels old. We had a joke party for my mom when we were kids. Over the hill etc
@macromeh @unksol @werehatrack also 40 and generally don’t get sore from things. I did drink too much and challenge my equally middle aged brother to an uphill footrace in the middle of the night, and THAT left me hurting.
@jouest @macromeh @werehatrack I may have drank to much after lol. Cause I was just done with that week. And running a sleep deficit
@jouest @werehatrack
What? 1974 was just last week.
@f00l @jouest @werehatrack nah there is a full on tyrant running loose. At least in 1974 I didn’t exist/was not my problem
@jouest @unksol @werehatrack
1974 had a tyrant.
/image Richard Nixon
I think maybe the algorithm for generating presidential tyrants has improved the “rabble rouser” and “alternate facts” engines.
But “orange” still seems to be the preferred skin tone choice.
@f00l @unksol @werehatrack yeah what’s up with us all having to exist during so many problems right now??
@jouest @unksol My eldest child turned 40 last April…
@jouest @macromeh but are they hanging out on meh with the cool people lol
@macromeh @unksol The Sears execs who decided to offshore Craftsman tools was the greatest boon to Harbor Freight. Though Craftsman tools cost double or triple that of Pittsburgh, they were still within a DIYer’s budget, were better quality, and made in the USA. In their quest for profits, though, Sears offshored them to the same country and quality definitely went down. Chrome finishes weren’t as good, wrenches didn’t hold up as well, ratchets stopped ratcheting – sure, they were replacef, but the quality was definitely a lower than before. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh offers the same walk-in-and-we’ll-replace-it lifetime warranty too, but at half to a third of the price. Now the customers are looking at “why should I pay that much more for Craftsman when they’re imported anyway?”
@macromeh @narfcake that’s not quite the situation I ran into. I think I’ve only ever exchanged one ratchet… But being able to just walk into Sears and go “this broke” and they would just… Pull something off the shelf and hand it to you. Was dope.
I didn’t think harbor freight did that on Pittsburg? Also their icon is better.
Its hard to break tools. If I’m putting a pipe on it/jumping on the end… Well I’m not going to claim warranty on that. I know what I did.
@macromeh @unksol Lifetime on Pittsburgh too. Many years back, I broke a breaker bar. Walked in, they replaced it without hesitation. Then that one broke too. Store didn’t have that exact one that time, but the clerk said to “just grab the closest sized one” – and so I ended up with the nicer Pittsburgh Pro that has survived plenty of use with a cheater bar.