What REALLY happened to iconic tool brands Porter Cable, Delta, Craftsman

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★SOME OF MY FAVORITE CHEAP TOOLS★

★SOME OF MY FAVORITE HAND TOOLS★

★SOME OF MY FAVORITE POWER TOOLS★

★SOME OF MY FAVORITE OTHER TOOLS★

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[StumpyNubs]

▼EXPAND THIS SECTION FOR IMPORTANT INFO▼

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★SOME OF MY FAVORITE CHEAP TOOLS★

★SOME OF MY FAVORITE HAND TOOLS★

★SOME OF MY FAVORITE POWER TOOLS★

★SOME OF MY FAVORITE OTHER TOOLS★

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[shabazan]

Just to fill in a few blanks.... My maternal grandfather, Bernard Fuller (1907-2003), was the founder and president of 'The Fuller Tool Co." He started making screwdrivers after WW1, and quickly expanded to other hand tools. He was the major supplier of hand tools (screwdrivers, hammers, wrenches, pliers, etc.) to the Craftsman brand. Of course, he also marketed under the Fuller Tool name. Unverified family lore has it that he was selling his tools with a 'Guaranteed Forever' label, and that Sears picked up on it. I still have his $100, 000, 000 sales award from Sears (it's a small shop apron). Check your old Sears hand tools - if it has a BF stamped on it - That's Bernie Fuller - my Poppa!

[ivartillotson]

I gathered up my PC router and belt sander, Delta drill press and scroll saw, and a few hundred pounds of Craftsman mechanic tools and we watched this together. They shed little metallic tears in knowing their families have not been forgotten.

[lazerbeam]

Some quick stories about Craftsman tools. When I was in the AF, I worked part time at Sears, primarily in the tool department. I had a gentleman come in one day with a long Phillips screwdriver. About a 1/3 of the end of the screwdriver was melted off. Apparently, he used it as a welding rod. Yep, we replaced it. Sears sold repair kits for ratchets, and I would often replace the ratcheting gear from our part that we sold. My manager loved me as I saved him a bunch of money. If we replaced the entire ratchet, the manager was charged the cost of the new ratchet against his operating cost. The cost of the repair kit was also charged against him, but it was only a fraction of a ratchet's cost. One day a very old gentleman came in with a ratchet that was completely worn out. He wanted it repaired, but after spending quite a bit of time trying to find the parts an after talking with the old man, we determined that it originally belong to his father and was one of first or second-generation ratchets that Sears sold. Parts were no longer available. We would replace it with one from our current inventory, but he would have to surrender the old ratchet (standard policy). The poor old fellow was in tears. That old ratchet meant the world to him. I talked to the manager and he agreed to let the customer keep his old ratchet and we would give him a new one. Think one could get customer service like that today?

[pertyslick]

The Craftsman decline hit me hard. As a kid Craftsman was the gold standard of American tools. Going to Sears was a great time back then.

[BarryHull]

James, I'm 64, and as a young boy in the 60s and 70s, nothing was more fun than going to Sears with my dad and walking through the Craftsman section. It was amazing! All those beautiful tools precisely placed throughout, shelves brimming, helpful employees.

But, a few years ago walking through that Sears I was overwhelmed with sadness, the shelves were a mess, mostly empty, and the employees were mostly fools just passing time, totally disinterested. Finally the local Sears closed. However, I still have many of those Craftsman tools and every time I use one, I think of my dad. Great memories. And a great video, thumbs up!

[AlanLangford]

Last weekend I met a fellow who has been making signs for around 30 years. I noticed he had a Porter Cable router mounted in his CNC machine. Before I could ask, he says "I have two. I run one until I hear the bearings start to go, send it out to have them repaired, and put the other one in." That's the kind of quality they used to have, right there.

[timgurr]

Great video. My Dad was in construction and swore by Craftsman. After using a Craftsman’s wooden handle hammer for over 30 years one day a “claw” of the hammer broke while pulling a nail. He took it back to Sears (this was in the late 60’s) and they replaced the hammer on the spot (even though the salesman thought Dad should have been happy with the life he got out of the hammer). I am still using a Craftsman hammer that my Dad gave me in my early twenties, over 50 years ago. I don’t use it on a daily basis as my Dad did, but it’s the only hammer I prefer to use. Thanks for sharing the history of these brands. Very interesting.

[Erik_The_Viking]

I have a couple of sets of Craftsman tools from the 70's and 80's when they were made in the USA. Absolutely bullet proof. Porter Cable was THE router company - I had their venerable 690 router from the 80's until recently until I upgraded to a Bosch earlier this year. I remember going to Sears with my grandpa to replace a wrench that broke - the person took care of it on the spot. Just told him to get another one from the rack and he was good to go. I really wish we could bring back the good manufacturing we used to have - I'll be happy to pay for higher quality.

[ranger]

I'm getting old! I've got a whole woodworking shop full of Delta, Porter Cable and Craftsman tools... I still use them all the time, because they work so well. Times, they are a changing. Thanks for the trip down memory lane Stumpy!

[leephil]

When I was in college in the early 70’s at USF one of my professors Dr Wimmert had worked at Delta that made drill presses. He told this story one day. Sears came and wanted Delta to make Craftsman drill presses. They had higher specifications than the current Delta units like better motors, bearings, and most tolerances. Delta agreed to made the better drill presses for Sears because of the volume that Sears contracted for. So the Delta and Craftsman drill presses looked the same, the quality of the Craftsman was better and sold for less than the Delta brand. He said that Sears did this with all the brands they sold like Craftsman, Lady Kenmore and others. Sears did not just relabel but required better specifications.

[lancelot]

This is an intensively emotional video for me. I am a Baby Boomer and grew up at a time when "Made in America" was the standard of the industry: Craftsman, Kodak, Kenmore, RCA Victor, Philco, GE, Electrohome, to name a few... the original Mustang, the Trans-Am races, the hot-rods, the sound barrier, the man on the moon, the wholesome shows on TV... even clothe lines (textiles) being created in the US. We were not perfect but a company name (Porter-Cable for example) meant something, stood for quality, ... How about the IBM PC from 1984 who (along with Apple) created the "Personal Computer Revolution" that shook the world only to be sold to Levono (China) in 2004!!! How times have changed - Sadly enough, when I go to other countries, American brand-names (now Made in China) are now synonymous with cheaply made - they (the foreigners) call us (you and me) the "Wall-Mart people" and it is not a compliment - it is about quantity over quality, keeping up with the Jones, suing one another, self-destroying our own country, loss of what it means/meant to "be an American" and of course being "awooken"! May God help us all! Thank you for this great presentation which is a glimpse of a more wide-spread national disease, Ciao, L (Veteran)

[tiladx]

I've had the same set of Craftsman screwdrivers in my toolbox since I was in Boy Scouts over 30 years ago. They are showing their age, but that's also a sign of the great quality they had. It's a shame what has happened to all these once-great brands.

[kcubs]

My 25 year old Craftsman tape measure broke a month ago. I took it back to Lowes, expecting it to be replaced on the spot. They looked at me dumbfounded. They found a much older manager, that new what I was talking about, and he said it is possible by sending it to craftsman with the the original receipt. The experience was a sad reality trip for me. It was like a six year old being told there wasn't a Santa Claus

[danielwynne]

About 30 years ago (about the time everybody were getting their MBA's) companies run by investment bankers, decided that America doesn't have to produce anything and shipped our manufacturing overseas. Worse yet they shipped our tooling capacity overseas too. So you had a hard time even building a prototype. A good example is Cooper Tools, which bought a bunch of great American tool companies, like Vise-Grip, Crescent and many others and then sold them off, where most are made in China or Taiwan. If you want to know why, wrenches don't seem to fit the bolts anymore, they are rough metric conversions to SAE standards and are smaller than the original patterns. They are not tempered to the same standards and usually have inferior materials.

[johne.powell]

Walking into Sears and browsing the tool aisle was always a treat. I inherited a lot of Craftsman hand tools from my grandfather in the 80s including the infamous puke smelling screwdrivers. These still hang in my workshop with some bearing his engraved initials.

[stevesolbakken]

Back in the 80's I worked with an air freight forwarder. The owner and I made a sales call on a small tool manufacturer in Gastonia, NC that made sockets and socket drivers. We were given a tour of the plant, particularly the stamping and cutting operations. They pointed out a machine in the corner that stamped the brand name on the sockets. While we were there they changed of the stamping die die from Craftsman to SK Tools. They actually had 3 brands they manufactured there. All were the same except for the name on the tool and the retail price point. It was an eye opening experience for sure!

[easycrider]

When I started working in construction as a carpenter over 40 years ago when you saw a guy with Porter Cable tools you were in awe.
As for Craftsman I was a firm believer in their product as was my dad. Unfortunately after multiple thefts over the years my Craftsman collection is all but gone.

[cmichaelhoover]

Back in the early '70s, my brother broke an 18" long 1/2" breaker Craftsman breaker bar. He took it back to the local Sears store and took to the tool manager. The manager went to the appropriate shelf, pickout a new one and reached to my brother, but held on to his end and said: "I' will give you this, but you have to tell me how you broke one." My brother had to admit that had put a 4 foot long pipe on the breaker bar in order to loosen a VW flywheel nut. He got the replacement and a smile. Unfortunately, those days are long gone.

[larryk]

I inherited some of my dad's Craftsman power and hand tools that he bought back in the early 60's. I still have the power planer and belt sander, along with several hand tools that just won't die. Craftsman used to be synonymous with quality. Sadly, that's not the case anymore.