Why are expensive hand tools better than cheaper ones?

[skylark]

I've said it before probably enough times half of y'all have heard it, I think the only brand new Snap-On tool I've ever bought off the truck was a Pozi-Driv screwdriver. I have a bunch of Snappy stuff including 2 large roll boxes and a top box, didn't pay even 1/4 of truck price for them. Buy used.

Richard

I've purchased quite a bit through ebay, Craigslist and Farcebook. I just look for ones without owners marks.

 

[Erik the Awful]

The friggen cornwell guy... You guys just dont really understand how tough it is when you have a mini mansion and a boat payment and all the kids are in college.

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MAC TOOLS Distributor’s Wives Share Stories of Deception, Hardship - Unhappy Franchisee

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I've warned many younger guys I know that the money isn't in "owning your own business", it's in selling garbage to the guy who wants to own his own business. "Enabling" entrepreneurship is it's own industry now, and it's mostly just about stealing someone else's hard work and dreams.

 

[someotherguy]

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MAC TOOLS Distributor’s Wives Share Stories of Deception, Hardship - Unhappy Franchisee

MAC Tools distributors are sold the idea that the MAC Tools franchise is their path to the American Dream: a

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I've warned many younger guys I know that the money isn't in "owning your own business", it's in selling garbage to the guy who wants to own his own business. "Enabling" entrepreneurship is it's own industry now, and it's mostly just about stealing someone else's hard work and dreams.

HEAR, HEAR! Everyone wants "their" cut of your blood and sweat; a whole industry has popped up around these angles to chisel in on your efforts.

Richard

 

[thinger2]

No doubt one of the many different models of Sun distributor machines; a unit that spins the distributor with connections to a strobe light to indicate each "spark". There are various gauges--Tach, Dwell, Vacuum (and a vacuum pump for testing the vacuum advance) and an ohmmeter for testing points resistance.

The strobe shows against a degree wheel, you can verify cylinder-to-cylinder spark variation.

The "Hot-rod" usefulness is in verifying the centrifugal and vacuum advance curves as a function of distributor RPM or vacuum level.

They were in use with better shops (and schools) in the '40s, '50s, '60s, and began to die-out in the '70s, even before cars got distributorless ignitions. Electronic ignitions made distributors so "trouble-free" that no one bothered to pull them out for testing. My high-school auto mechanics class had a Sun, the Sun I bought came from a Vo-Tech (High school?) in Utah.

I had a very compact Allen distributor machine; sat on a table-top--about the size of a typical stereo receiver, but taller to support a Chevy distributor. Damaged in a garage fire. I bought a full-fledged Sun unit to replace the Allen. The Sun machines are physically larger than my old Allen; and mostly they're parked on a dedicated cabinet that holds various supplies--a magnetic-pickup amplifier for electonic ignitions, fresh sets of points, various distributor tools, an adapter for Flathead Ford distributors, and perhaps a rack of eight spark plugs for verifying the actual sparks made by the distributor (kind of a teaching tool for students, not really useful otherwise.) My Sun is usable, but kinda wounded--the strobe is no longer bright and stable. No doubt the electronics that power the strobe need some lovin'.

Photos of various Sun models, shamelessly stolen from the internet:

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And they are pretty rare these days.
And worth pretty good money.
Not so much for the function but for the "look"
That Sun if converted to be a lighted display piece.
I wouldnt take anything under 1500 bucks for it.
And it would sell in a week.
My wife is an antiques broker.
She says its 3 grand and take 2 for it.
Because you will spend 500 bucks making it safe.
What I havent told her is that if I ever find one like that Im gonna keep it.
That is just my kind of a thing.
All kinds of cool **** passes through our hands on its way to be sold.
But I will ankle bite like a little rat dog to keep that.

 

[AuroraGirl]

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wack

 

[thinger2]

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MAC TOOLS Distributor’s Wives Share Stories of Deception, Hardship - Unhappy Franchisee

MAC Tools distributors are sold the idea that the MAC Tools franchise is their path to the American Dream: a

www.unhappyfranchisee.com

I've warned many younger guys I know that the money isn't in "owning your own business", it's in selling garbage to the guy who wants to own his own business. "Enabling" entrepreneurship is it's own industry now, and it's mostly just about stealing someone else's hard work and dreams.

Yes. I see it every damn day.
Young guys just getting started are so deep in debt from the tool hookers and the need a new truck hookers that they cant possibly survive.
They have sold this whole "I gotta look professional" idea.
And the old farts push that on them.
Somehow we older guys really ****** up and lost our way.
We accepted the corporate beatdown as some kind of a badge of courage.
And they did brother. Back in the 80's
The old ***** beat us down.
we ******* hate them too .
We just all ran out and lived that crazy 90s life and got pregnant.
And had kids with no frigging idea about how to do that
Its like some kind of an old fable for little kids?
And nobody, not a ******* one of us.
None of us were so damn feeble and weak that we need somebody else to make us feel better.
You are incharge of yourself.
Dont let another man brand you by wearing his name on your back

 

[thinger2]

Sounds like you are still holding a grudge about the frame. Tool companies provide a service, people are free to buy what they want, the aren't sheep that follow the leader. Some people are terribly inefficient and don't mind the cheap tools. Reminds me of the Harbor Freight paint gun buyers that say the guns are as good as a SATA or Iwata. First , they me be good at their skill level. Second, do they really think the real painters are that dumb that they pay $800-1200 per gun if they weren't actually much better? Not everything is a conspiracy.

Ive never bought a thing off of the tool trucks bud.
nothing
A grudge about the frame?
What?
What?
Are you a tool truck guy?
Heres how it happens, young people try to get into the trade and old farts tell them that they are pumpkins unless they have all of the Snap On or Mac bling.
So they go ass deep in debt and end up with a 300 buck a week or more payment to the tool truck.
And they have kids to pay for and you **** on them because they just arent up to your standards.
And they blow out of the trades with 50 grand of tools that they cant sell for 2 grand.
And a bunch of friggen hats.
And that makes you happy?

 

[454cid]

Because you will spend 500 bucks making it safe.

I don't understand, why does it take $500 to make it safe, and what is safe/unsafe about it?

 

[Erik the Awful]

I was fortunate that I was raised thrifty, and the guys I worked with at the dealership were pretty big on not spending money stupidly. I bought some stuff off the tool trucks, but what I bought was usually very worth it.

 

[thinger2]

I don't understand, why does it take $500 to make it safe, and what is safe/unsafe about it?

I should have explained that a whole lot better.
You are on average, all things taken in to comsideration.
As a.union crew, you are worth 500 bucks per hour.
But most of that you will never see.
You get a wee little tiny part of that.
And you get to die while you try.
Its a bit tough to explain .
We are in the middle of a long concrete strike.
Us management people are supposed to be all fired up and hold fast.
That aint working.
I am so appalled about what we have allowed to happen to us.
Look in the mirror folks
Look in the ******* mirror.
We have become clowns in our own ******* circus
And just go get the shot for ***** sake
Have some balls.