Great retro video. My father was a director for the Sun Electric Corporation in Brazil. Sun was acquired by Snap On in 1992. For q short period of time I worked with Snap On tune up equipment and I clear remember that oscilloscope which appears on the video in the garage. Thank you for the good remembrance.
2:44 "Quality certainly doesn't come cheap." It certainly doesn't when the Snap-On name is on it. But other tool companies have been following suit in the past few years.
Love the retro vids, Snap On makes a quality product, however may not be worth the price for many, increased quality from cheaper priced brands that also offer good warranties have hurt them. I love to see a quality made in America product, unfortunately most people especially non pros are on a budget and price matters.
As a weekend warrior/tinkerer, Harbor Freight generally works for me. If I made money off of turning a wrench, I'd consider something better, but if cheap works for the once-in-a-blue-moon job, then it is what it is! And they offer a lifetime warranty on their in-house brands!
I own both snap on and wright wrenches. I have more of a preference to the wright wrenches since they are cheaper, use higher quality steel, are made in the US, have a similar feature to the flank drive plus, and i'm not afraid of ruining the finish.
For mechanics it’s all about the name Snap-On. For weekend warriors it’s about what gets the job done. Name is immaterial if the tool fixes the problem it’s a winner.
I will tell you snap on is not what it used to be. But I have yet to find a flare wrench that will not strip a nut in the worst of places aside from snap on. You know those rack and pinion bastard nuts at 83° south 61° elbow high.
Last week I bought a new 15mm long reach combi spanner to complete my 1980's set and it's rubbish. Shorter than the old 12mm and bulkier than a 19mm. The jaws are so fat they barely fit on a caliper sliding pin which to be honest is what I use a 15mm for 9/10 times. It feels like a cheap tool which wouldn't bother me if it was but it wasn't, it cost half a days wages, crap.
So they brought 5+ off brand wrenches and none of them were the correct size? lol. Sure. I've bought plenty of off brand wrenches in a pinch and they have all been just fine. I know this was made in the 90s. But I never had issues with tools back then either. Snap on is too expensive. I'd rather buy cheap harbor freight tools and more of them than a few wrenches from snap on for the same price. I did that with stanley for years. Never had a problem. Never broke any. Paying too much for tools is for suckers. Or mechanics that can justify the expense.
As a Heavy Duty Truck Mechanic for the last 30 years, I can honestly say Snap On tools are very overrated. Don't get me wrong, they are nice quality tools but they are way too expensive & the driver/ salesman that comes to my shop is brain dead. Most of the time it seems he has no idea what's even on his truck, let alone be smart enough to answer any questions someone may have & is very poor at following thru on getting the tools you want. I know he's probably not typical of all their reps but I'm done with Snap On. I'm tired of being ripped off. These days there are alot of other high quality tools available at sometimes half the price. Snap On's only perk is that they will come to you, that is if you have a good sales representative.
One of my main problems with Snap On is that they _have_ to come to you. If i buy a tool from one of my local shops and it breaks I take it back and they replace it or refund me right there and then. I gave my Snap On rep a torque wrench to repair the the other day, it's gonna take three to four weeks.. I went down the road and bought another. Their warranty doesn't mean shit in that situation.
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Legend says that the mechanic in the beginning is still turning that wrench to this day
He had wrenched himself out of existence before the end.
At 2:37, he just fell over and died (Michael Rosen reference) from wrenching too much lol
Prolly still paying for them too
I still have the same set of “cheap” wrenches I got at Sears like 30 years ago.
That's why they are not overrated as some guys say. Quality has its price.
Great retro video.
My father was a director for the Sun Electric Corporation in Brazil. Sun was acquired by Snap On in 1992. For q short period of time I worked with Snap On tune up equipment and I clear remember that oscilloscope which appears on the video in the garage. Thank you for the good remembrance.
Would really be great if snap on actually stopped by my shop to service our tools after servicing our wallets
The wrenches made in this video are still being paid for at $20/wk
Your lucky if your only paying 20 a week i paid $100 a week for 460 weeks now its just $35 a week
2:44 "Quality certainly doesn't come cheap." It certainly doesn't when the Snap-On name is on it. But other tool companies have been following suit in the past few years.
I always thought Snap-On wrenches were forged in the fires of Mordor
Quality and price doesnt go together at all the time. Seen expensive garbage tools. Seen cheap long lasting tools. Seen expensive good tools
3:04 - eMail address... when CompuServe was still a thing... I did not know that H&R Block owned it 17 years before selling it to AOL.
electronic mail address 😊 ✅🆗🆒🏆
Lol, used to be this way, now outsourced and still expensive.
Love the retro vids, Snap On makes a quality product, however may not be worth the price for many, increased quality from cheaper priced brands that also offer good warranties have hurt them. I love to see a quality made in America product, unfortunately most people especially non pros are on a budget and price matters.
As a weekend warrior/tinkerer, Harbor Freight generally works for me. If I made money off of turning a wrench, I'd consider something better, but if cheap works for the once-in-a-blue-moon job, then it is what it is! And they offer a lifetime warranty on their in-house brands!
I own both snap on and wright wrenches. I have more of a preference to the wright wrenches since they are cheaper, use higher quality steel, are made in the US, have a similar feature to the flank drive plus, and i'm not afraid of ruining the finish.
There are still a few companies making tools like these in the US at pretty affordable prices...Tekton is one that immediately comes to mind
Pat “love fist” Goss! Legendary!
Snap-On is the only tools I've used for over 35 years, as they say......there is a difference!
Back when we still had an industrial base.
Great tools . With sears closing not many choices anymore .
For mechanics it’s all about the name Snap-On. For weekend warriors it’s about what gets the job done. Name is immaterial if the tool fixes the problem it’s a winner.
Snap-On also has a facility in either Lake County IL or Kenosha County WI (not sure exactly what side of the state line)
MotorWeek meets Mister Rogers!!! Remember those Picture Picture films he used to show?
I love every Snap On tool I own all 45k of them including my 10.5k box
Snap On: Gucci for mechanics.
Tools are like KEYS
Look - a Compuserve email address! I wonder if it still works.....
Saw that too!
Ah made in America, don't see that much anymore😒
Here for the comments regarding how expensive Snap On is xD
I will tell you snap on is not what it used to be. But I have yet to find a flare wrench that will not strip a nut in the worst of places aside from snap on. You know those rack and pinion bastard nuts at 83° south 61° elbow high.
Let’s go snap on !!
Well before "How It's Made" came on air through our TVs.
This aired 6 days before I was born.
Awesome
Can I still get a shirt if I mail to that address? xD
Try it and find out. If it doesn't work, you'll get a message saying that it couldn't be delivered.
Made in china is now the name of the game.
When snap-on used to be affordable.
And that will be $14,000.
Rip pat goss
So who makes good tools now? The last strap-on tools I got were made in india????
Last week I bought a new 15mm long reach combi spanner to complete my 1980's set and it's rubbish. Shorter than the old 12mm and bulkier than a 19mm. The jaws are so fat they barely fit on a caliper sliding pin which to be honest is what I use a 15mm for 9/10 times. It feels like a cheap tool which wouldn't bother me if it was but it wasn't, it cost half a days wages, crap.
👍👍👍👍🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷
👍👍👍👍👍🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷🇧🇷
So they brought 5+ off brand wrenches and none of them were the correct size? lol. Sure. I've bought plenty of off brand wrenches in a pinch and they have all been just fine. I know this was made in the 90s. But I never had issues with tools back then either. Snap on is too expensive. I'd rather buy cheap harbor freight tools and more of them than a few wrenches from snap on for the same price. I did that with stanley for years. Never had a problem. Never broke any. Paying too much for tools is for suckers. Or mechanics that can justify the expense.
Why is this video looks so old?
Because it is.
Did you not read the description retro review?
1996, read the description bro
that's what retro means
As a Heavy Duty Truck Mechanic for the last 30 years, I can honestly say Snap On tools are very overrated. Don't get me wrong, they are nice quality tools but they are way too expensive & the driver/ salesman that comes to my shop is brain dead. Most of the time it seems he has no idea what's even on his truck, let alone be smart enough to answer any questions someone may have & is very poor at following thru on getting the tools you want. I know he's probably not typical of all their reps but I'm done with Snap On. I'm tired of being ripped off. These days there are alot of other high quality tools available at sometimes half the price. Snap On's only perk is that they will come to you, that is if you have a good sales representative.
One of my main problems with Snap On is that they _have_ to come to you. If i buy a tool from one of my local shops and it breaks I take it back and they replace it or refund me right there and then. I gave my Snap On rep a torque wrench to repair the the other day, it's gonna take three to four weeks.. I went down the road and bought another. Their warranty doesn't mean shit in that situation.
Snap On Tools overrated
Tools that can last for 30 years or more are not overrated. Read the comment above.