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

[Brad Haslett]

Great info!  I've read bits and pieces of that but not all of it in one
place.  We'll come back to tools in a moment.

Cats!  I always had cats as a kid and did as an adult until the move to
Memphis.  I brought my favorite kitten from the latest litter before I sold
the 'cat ranch' and she ran away.  Last year, a girl came into the Memphis
Center for Peace and Prosperity (RP Tracks Bar & Grill) with a sad story
about how her neighbor called from jail and said he wouldn't be home for
awhile and would she please find a home for his cat.  I took the cat home,
just to shut her up as much as anything else.  Fan took one look at the cat
and said "not no, but hell no!"  At least that's what I think she said.  It
was in Mandarin and at a high pitch.  It could have been, "looks tasty,
we'll have him for dinner!"  Just kidding.  My oldest son was in town and he
said , "my mom would love that cat".  She was out of the country in Honduras
on a nursing volunteer mission and had lost her cat of ten plus years a few
months earlier.  When she returned, Spencer informed her that she had a new
cat.  She said, "I was thinking on the flight home about getting another
cat."  That cat is fat as a pig and spoiled rotten. Happy ending.

Now back to tools.  I thought I wanted Snap On for the snob appeal and envy
it would create with my hangar neighbors.  Even used they are overpriced.
Husky and Kobalt are starting to look really good.  SK tools look like a
good value as well but buying them is not as convenient as driving to the
local 'big box' store. I recently purchased a commercial work cart that was
available from several sources, but Sears internet sales had the best
price.  Even that transaction turned out to be a PITA.  I hate Sears!
Craftsman are good tools though and that is what I used as an apprentice A&P
mechanic when I worked for Wilbur and Orville.

Any more suggestions?

Brad

On 4/23/07, Tootle <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> 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.
>
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