I posted this in the tool section or this site

[Arkie]

Sears folding.

Keep a heads up for gear wrench and other tools on sale online and at the store.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2215

[bgsengine]

Yeah Sears is struggling and they even sold Craftsman brand to Stanley tools

[KE4AVB]

I have personally gave up on Sears for any tool. First I could never get to make good on their lifetime warranty ratchets. Finally brought a few Pittsburgh ones.

Last fall I went into their local store with their Craftsman SKU# for a set of 8 pt impact sockets and to have a Blackhawk wrench replaced. The salesman say that never heard of 8 point sockets or nor was they honoring the Blackhawk lifetime warranty although they had brought Blackhawk out.

I don't normally break tools but the wrench open end had broke while trying to remove a pipe plug and I wasn't even using a cheater. Just what I could manage pulling with my arm.

[Arkie]

I have personally gave up on Sears for any tool. First I could never get to make good on their lifetime warranty ratchets. Finally brought a few Pittsburgh ones.

Last fall I went into their local store with their Craftsman SKU# for a set of 8 pt impact sockets and to have a Blackhawk wrench replaced. The salesman say that never heard of 8 point sockets or nor was they honoring the Blackhawk lifetime warranty although they had brought Blackhawk out.

I don't normally break tools but the wrench open end had broke while trying to remove a pipe plug and I wasn't even using a cheater. Just what I could manage pulling with my arm.

Yep, about tool warranty's.

Gearwrench seems to be OK tools if you can buy them on sale at a reasonable price. (and forget about doing a Sears warranty exchange)
Hear is an example. Had to get and keep my Ducks in-line.
When I called Sears outlet to ask their prices which were higher and if they would honor and match the on-line Sears sales prices of the gearwrench tools and confirm they were in stock the guy said yes if I brought in a printed copy of the ON-line prices. I said would it be ok if I showed you the online prices on my phone in person in the store. He said no, I need to print it. I got his name and his working hours, told him my name and told I would be asking for him to take care of the sale as indicated in couple of days. When I went into the store couple days later another salesman wanted to help and I declined and told them to find Blow Joe and all went smooth when Blow Joe handled the sale as he promised looking at my printed on-line sale prices. (then I noticed Blow Joe looked on Sears on-line site on their computer to confirm my printed prices were correct while I casually watched)
Patience!!!!!!!!!! (when dealing with sales persons)

[creia]

Seems like every year Sears is on the list of the 10 stores most likely to go out of business completely by the end of the year. With their latest announcement about closing a lot more stores, it must be getting closer. I'm showing my age by stating how I remember how Sears was the GO-TO place for their "Craftsman" hand tools. That was back in the 1960s and 1970s when they were still USA made. Back then if you broke a tool it was an immediate exchange with no questions asked and no receipt needed. My best Sears tool memory was back in 1969 when my dad and I were doing a brake job on my 1961 VW bug (my first car). The rear brake drum removal required a huge (2.5"socket-metric equivalent) to remove the large hex nut holding it on. We did not have an electric impact tool. After soaking it with penetrant and tapping on it we first tried it with a 24" "cheater" rachet bar- no dice. Then we slipped a 4' length of pipe over the cheater bar for leverage and broke both the cheater bar and the big socket w/o even moving the nut= FIRST trip to Sears for replacements. Then we tried HEATING the large nut with the same setup with same result- no go, = SECOND trip to sears within an hour. We tried again with a 6' length of pipe and heating and it finally came off! AH, those were the days....
Michael

[KE4AVB]

I did something like that with the 5ft plus cheater last year. With a 260 lb guy bouncing on it end finally broke free an ATV axle nut. Of course, I had let the ATV sit back down on the ground after each bounce and that nut was only initial tighten to 151 ftlbs. Real surprised I didn't break anything but fully expected it out those HF breaker bars

So glad I got the Air Cat I am now using that can remove those 300 ftlbs nuts on those Tuff Torq transaxles axles I am working on now. I problem is I not quite brave try press the hub off. I send them off to a shop that has a safety cage on the hydraulic press separate the hub from the axle.

[Arkie]

I did something like that with the 5ft plus cheater last year. With a 260 lb guy bouncing on it end finally broke free an ATV axle nut. Of course, I had let the ATV sit back down on the ground after each bounce and that nut was only initial tighten to 151 ftlbs. Real surprised I didn't break anything but fully expected it out those HF breaker bars

So glad I got the Air Cat I am now using that can remove those 300 ftlbs nuts on those Tuff Torq transaxles axles I am working on now. I problem is I not quite brave try press the hub off. I send them off to a shop that has a safety cage on the hydraulic press separate the hub from the axle.

Safety first: I'm really cautious around bearings and hubs.
I've seen bearing and hubs explode. I've see guys with scars and eyes out due to exploding bearings.
Seen some pieces of a bearing come through a wall at a Napa shop when a guy was pressing off a axle bearing for me and I was waiting in front of store with couple of NAPA guys. The guy that was operating the hydraulic press came running into our room white as a sheet and not a mark on him.
It looked like Buckshot and larger pieces had come through the wall and the noise sounded like a shotgun when it exploded.
All of us were lucky that day. He was not using any safety eq.