[Rhodes22-list] wildlife - try cat or raccoon and then! for Brad, also TOOLS!

[Tootle]

Most likely a house cat, but maybe a young raccoon.

It must be the cat that Brad would not adopt.  I think that his daugter
deserves a cat not tools, however if he must persist:

Tool made by site says, "Home Depot's Husky brand is made by Stanley
Mechanics Tools, a division of the Stanley Works. Husky are also good tools
and have a good lifetime warranty (they'll even replace your broken
Craftsman with an equivalent Husky). 

Until 1994 or so, Stanley also made Sears Craftsman tools. Sears Craftsman
is now made by Danaher Tools. They beat out Stanley on the contract over
price. Danaher also manufactures MatCo Tools, the third largest player in
the Mobile Automotive industry (behind MAC and Snap-On). Odds are, if you
own any Craftsman tools that are older than about five years ago, they were
made by Stanley in plants in Dallas, Texas, Witchita Falls, Texas, and
Sabina, Ohio. 

Stanley also owns MAC Tools and manufactures MAC tools in the same plants.
Now here's the kicker: MAC Tools, Proto Tools (a very expensive industrial
brand), Husky Tools, and, (prior to five or so years ago) Craftsman Tools
are all made from the same forgings in the same plants. Proto is unique
because it goes through addtional testing and certification because it is
used by NASA, the military, and industrial customers (including General
Motors). (Gee Brad, if you want aircraft tools maybe Proto?)

There are three MAJOR players in the USA mechanics tool business: Stanley,
Danaher, and Snap-On. Stanley and Danaher (almost identical in sales revenue
at about $28 billion each) are the biggest followed by Snap-On. Each of
these three manufacture and sell tools under a variety of brands (there are
many other brands that Stanley makes that I haven't even named). The quality
between these three manufacturers is roughly the same. I know its a bit of a
let-down to hear that, but its a simple fact. 

There are a hand full of other minor players (Vermont American, etc) and an
endless list of Taiwanese import tool companies (some of which Stanley own
as well as Danaher to serve the lower end consumer import brands at WalMart,
etc). How do I know all of this? I work for Stanley Mechanics Tools,
specifically with the Proto Industrial brand. I personally do not think that
MAC, MatCo, or Snap-On branded tools are worth the extra markup since they
use the same forgings and manufacturing processes that make Husky and Kobalt
and pre-1994 Craftsman. Where you need to pay attention are things like
ratchets and torque wrenches. There are different specifications of ratchets
and you do pay for the difference. Some mechanics require a finer, more
precise ratcheting mechanism than guys like me who just bang around in the
garage on the weekends. 

By the way, Metwrench is basically considered a "gimick" infomercial tool
brand that is not considered as a serious competitor to Danaher, Snap-On, or
Stanley. Then again, IBM once didn't see Microsoft as a serious force in the
personal computer business. Hmmmm.... 

(Two more brands that I don't know much about is Black & Decker and DeWalt.
About Sept. 2002 I received an email stating that B&D owns DeWalt. Though I
haven't confirmed this yet.) 


-- 
View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/wildlife-tf3620702.html#a10138320
Sent from the Rhodes 22 mailing list archive at Nabble.com.