ToolGuyd > Hand Tools > Mechanics' Tools > Craftsman Announces New V-Series Tools
Stuart 53 Comments
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Craftsman has officially announced their new V-Series of professional mechanics tools.
The new Craftsman V-Series ratchets, wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers, and other such tools are said to bedesigned to professional specifications and are also backed by their Full Lifetime Warranty.
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The new tools are said to deliver high-end performance,and aremade to handle the demands of professional level users.
Craftsman says:
We designed this premium line of tools for those who don’t shy away from a frame-off restoration or face demanding conditions at a work site.
Press materials specifically describe the new Craftsman V-Series offerings aspremium tools for automotive and industrial use, and they will likely also appeal to more demanding enthusiasts and DIY users as well.
There are bold claims tied to the new sub-brand:
CRAFTSMAN V-Series professional grade tools ensure you’ll Never Compromise™ when working in the most demanding applications.
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Here are all the V-Series tools included in the initial launch:
- Ratchets
- Hex keys and T-Handles
- Featuring X-Tract Technology for engaging partially rounded fasteners
- Wrenches with I-beam style handles
- Combination wrenches
- Reversible ratcheting wrenches
- Extra-long ratcheting wrenches
- Socket sets
- “Expert-grade 6pt socket geometry”
- Storage rails
- Accessories
- Screwdrivers
- 10X more durable with precision machined tips*
- Soft grips with 2X solvent protection **
- Designed for auto and industrial professionals
* On average when tested versus Craftsman 1/4″ slotted CMHT65059
** Tested on 2X more solvents than required by ASME standard B107.600
Sample Pricing
- 12pc SAE combination wrench set (CMMT87300V): $74.98
- 8pc X-Tract metric hex T-handle set (CMHT26161V): $64.98
- 3/8″ comfort grip ratchet (CMMT86324V): 54.98
- 13pc 1/2″ drive SAE 6pt socket set (CMMT17380V): $64.98
- 13pc SAE X-Tract SAE L-key hex driver set (CMHT26159V): $49.98
We’ve already seen examples of Craftsman’s new V-Series hand tools, and I’ve been very optimistic.
Craftsman V-Series tools will be available at select Craftsman retailers (such as Lowe’s at least online) Fall 2021.
Shop Craftsman Tools at Lowe’s
Read More:
Get Ready for a Massive Craftsman V-Series Hand Tool Launch at Lowe’s
More Craftsman V-Series Tools Look Like Facom Designs
Related posts:
Craftsman Tools USA Factory News Update (July 2021)
53 Comments
Frank
I’m still waiting for the made in the USA craftsman hand tools. I wonder if those plans are scrapped now with this new line… Or at V Series made in the US?
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Stuart
I asked but haven’t received any updates on the USA production yet. As far as I’m aware, those plans have NOT changed other than being delayed.
V-Series tools are not made in the USA, at least not the ones I’ve seen so far.
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Mike B
Come on craftsman everyone had enough of the Chinese tools. We can buy USA made Proto tools for just a few dollars more on Amazon. I will buy Craftsman when they are USA made.
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Jared
USA stuff is coming. It was delayed by Covid. No way did SBD build a factory and then change their mind before any of the tools were released.
I consider this V-Series a bonus premium line of Craftsman – not a replacement for the USA stuff.
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Albert
Mike B, same for me!
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Maps Bam
You can buy tools on Amazon, but there’s a good chance you’ll get Chinese products that are clones of the real thing. Amazon as well as other resellers have been caught doing this.
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Stuart
Sold by 3rd party marketplace sellers or Amazon direct?
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BH
No matter who sells it, if it comes from Amazon, it comes from the same stock. Amazon doesn’t keep vendors products separate.
Stuart
It’s not clear whether they’re talking about products sold by Amazon, fulfilled by Amazon, or 3rd party listings of clones (as opposed to counterfeits).
I’ve seen clone tools as well – imitations of certain products – but they’re only ever offered by 3rd party marketplace sellers.
ChuckR
Ditto…. every time I see Craftsman in tool news i’m like… USA built??? nope.
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Wayne R.
Metric T’s, SAE everything else? That seems weird…
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Stuart
That’s just a sampling from the press kit, presumably for a pricing baseline. There appears to be full symmetry between SAE and metric.
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mattd
I cant really see the draw when they are more expensive than already established brands, for example their “L” keys are more expensive then wera’s, and you can get made in USA Bondhus hex sets for half the price of these craftsman. if you are going Import anyway tekton has some very nice impact sockets with no size skips for less $,. I could absolutely get behind this pricing if they were made in USA but this seems a hard sell for imports.
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IronWood
Exactly what I was thinking. Quality Germany, Taiwan, or USA-made exists at this or lower price points, sooo what’s the appeal? I’m definitely not nostalgic enough about the old Craftsman name to overpay for more imported tools…
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fred
Some good made in Japan brands too like Nepros-KTC and Ko-Ken. – and maybe to a lesser extent Lightool and Tone Tool.
But like many European brands their may be cost pressure to move production to China or Taiwan (which China is increasingly demanding be reunified with the mainland). Many “German” brands also seem to be producing some items in lower-cost European nations like the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary. As examples Metabo batteries from Hungary, Hazet bit drivers from Slovenia, and Czech-made Wera sockets. Many Wiha items are now produced in Vietnam as are some Bosch and Metabo items.
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Stacey Jones
Exactly. This is 100% stupid!
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Jared
Depends what you compare it to. Their hex items with “X-tract” technology appears to be a mild form of Mac RBRT. Compare those prices and tell me there’s no draw. 😛
Plus, presumably these will be on the shelf at Lowes – for those of us who aren’t professional mechanics, this means we don’t need to chase down a truck.
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Joe
Sure, they look nice but my wallet stays closed until there’s some USA made mechanics tools on the shelf.
SB&D is probably going to give the V-Series some time to get settled in, so I’ll assume this means the USA mechanics tools are still a long ways away from being released. 😩
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Steven
Agreed! I was hoping for USA tools but Christmas, but it’s looking very unlikely at this point. I don’t have a use for another import, especially at these price points. I’d rather just buy snap on.
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Harry
I picked up the compact 1/4 drive metric set which is a close copy of the USAG/Facom set. Hopefully the ratchet will smooth out with use because the backdrag is up there in the stratosphere. Non serviceable ratchet, unable to disassemble to lube.
What I really want, is a set of those standard length flex head ratcheting/fixed boxed end wrenches shown in the V series family photo.
I hope you guys holding out for US made Craftsman tools get what you want someday. I have enough of the older US Made craftsman stuff to last me my remaining years and into other people’s years. I also hope that any SBD factories located in the USA can become what the Armstrong and western forge factories once were, a source for private label and house brand USA made tools. Probably won’t happen but, I’m still disappointed at the brands like KD that were killed off to pave the way for Gearwrench’s expansion. The V series isn’t the Craftsman of olde but, there are few items I want.
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fred
For what its worth – a week or so ago I got an email from MisterWorker that they are offering 10% off on Facom, Sathlwille and USAG (maybe other brands too) during October. The promo code is “WORK2021” – and the minimum spend is €150. I’ve bought from them in the past – but recall that shipping may have been pricey.
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Frank
I still have a made in the USA craftsman set. Probably one of the last ones built in the US. I’m holding out to replace it when the new made in the US comes out. I do like the look of the wrenches also, they look premium from the picture. And the sockets with the magnetic holders look great also. Just wish they were build here. I feel like it would have made more sense that the V Series was their made in the US stuff and the other economy line was made in China. I feel like they will confuse consumers if they 1 budget line and 2 premium lines of tools.
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Kent Skinner
Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way.
You don’t get to go from “good/high quality” to “crap” and then to “premium”. Only fools and the ignorant will believe you.
Dear Craftsman, you’ve been a joke for the past 10 years. How about if you focus on making quality tools at a fair price? When you’ve got that figured out again, consider moving upscale.
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Joe
Well said.
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Dominic S
*20 years
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Jared
SBD knows how to make premium tools. They might have some brand rehabilitation work ahead of them, but there’s no reason they can’t do it under the Craftsman label.
Proto ratchets are AWESOME. I’ve got way more than my wife knows about and it still fills me with joy every time I open the drawer. Proto ratchet wrenches – the black coated reversible versions that are made in TAIWAN – also wonderful (there’s some USA-production chrome I-beams if you prefer, I like those too).
Mac RBRT is excellent. The Craftsman “X-Tract Technology” looks similar. If it offers similar performance it seems like a major victory to have that option at Lowes at a significantly lower price.
Foolish and ignorant I may be, but I’m going to buy at least some of this new V-Series when it launches in Canada. Probably start with those X-tract T-handles…
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OhioHead
Hi this is your wife here, I am aware!
I have more purses and shoes then you are aware 😉 😉 & 😜!
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Jared
😱
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OhioHead
Hope you got a chuckle, not your wife!
Kent
I think you missed my point, but OK. I didn’t say they aren’t able to make (rebrand) quality tools. They have *always* had the ability to make and rebrand quality tools, but chose to import garbage instead.
People who aren’t educated about tools (the average consumer) is just figuring out that CMan isn’t your [grand]father’s CMan any more. They dug a *deep* hole all by themselves, and now they need to convince the general public to help dig them out.
I have CMan tools from way back when they were high quality, made in the US. I wonder what I’ll get the next time I warranty a socket. Crap or quality?
Just out of curiosity, why would you buy a CMan branded Proto wrench if you could just buy the Proto? I’d rather have a Proto warranty.
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Jared
Sorry Kent. I thought you were suggesting SBD shouldn’t jump to premium Craftsman tools. I’m not sure what the alternative is then – maybe slowly climbing from crap> tolerable> ok> decent> good> great> top of class?
…but wouldn’t it be helpful for SBD to rehabilitate the brand by releasing high quality tools? 🤷♂️ It might take awhile to catch on, but if the tools are good, that seems like a positive move to me.
For choosing between Craftsman and Proto, I can think of a few reasons why some will prefer Craftsman:
1) available at Lowes, consumers can walk in, hold the tools in person and walk out with their purchase. I like Proto, but I buy it all online. I don’t even know where to find it locally.
2) lots of people have never heard of Proto – not so with Craftsman
3) Warranty – I know you said you would prefer the Proto warranty, but I’ve used Proto’s warranty before – it was crazy slow. Like almost two weeks to get an email returned. I think some might prefer to walk into a Lowes and make an exchange.Reply
Kent Skinner
I think they should do what they want, but there’s a bunch of us who completely lost faith in CMan and aren’t going to buy anything from them till they have un-screwed the pooch.
Good point on availability – I live in the sticks, and Lowes is 45 minutes away. If I need to warranty something from Lowes, it could easily be a month before I’m back in that town (monthly run to Costco and Trader Joe). If Lowes was more convenient to me, I might be more inclined to buy from them.
Stuart
The first new Craftsman tools started rolling out 3-1/2 years ago. Any tools or brand happenings from before SBD’s acquisition of the Craftsman brand from Sears isn’t their fault.
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Jim Felt
The day they announce “Made in the USA” I will once again consider “Craftsman”.
Otherwise eBay, Offer up and random garage sales are my only Craftsman sources.
Sorry to say.Reply
John
Sounds like more of the same made-in-china junk but now with a higher price. It’s kind of like what harbor freight has done, except even harbor freight has a better reputation at this point. All the craftsman tools I’ve bought since the end of sears have been complete and utter junk.
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Joe H
At those prices, unless they were made in USA, which doesn’t appear to be the case, I’d rather buy German, USA, Japan, or Taiwan made tools from other brands for the same price or less. I don’t see any reason not to.
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Dominic S
They can try again when the tools say “MADE IN USA” on the side.
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it’s_jake
I wonder how similar the x-tract is to sera’s hex plus
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Jared
Geez! I know there’s a strong contingent of “USA or bust” when it comes to Craftsman tools, but I didn’t expect the comments would skew that way so strongly.
First, I don’t think the V-Series means anything for USA production. It’s not like SBD built a factory and then thought “Wait! Let’s just rebadge some Facom and call that our premium Craftsman line!”
I tend to be optimistic about new tools. I think these look great. They seem like Facom derivatives for the most part. The X-tract technology looks like a milder form of Mac RBRT. As versions of those tools, the MSRP doesn’t look so offensive to me.
My guess is that, because Covid delayed the factory setup in the USA, Craftsman launched this V-Series based on existing Facom stuff as a stop gap – ensuring they had premium Craftsman tools on the shelves while waiting for the USA stuff.
Can’t we just be happy for new premium tools?
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fred
The businesses that I partnered in for more than 40 years – were never wrench-intensive (if I can coin a phrase) – but we did buy MRO tools for our shops. Most of what we bought came from Williams – with a smattering of Armstrong and Martin thrown in. I don’t recall that anyone of our maintenance guys clamoring for Craftsman based on high quality. My take was that the old Sears Craftsman tools had a reputation for decent quality, good availability (at the local Sears) and a good replacement policy – and being USA-made.
Maybe if these new V-series sell well enough – SBD will think though what the new USA facility should produce. That might mean tools more akin to Proto quality – rather than something more ho-hum.
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MM
I have never looked to Craftsman as a “high quality” tool. For me they were always what made financial sense: good (but not excellent) quality at a good price, and they were easily warranted when needed–in the days before widespread internet mail-order Sears and Sears Hardware stores were everywhere. The fact that many Craftsman tools were made in the USA was a nice bonus. One crappy belt sander soured me on Craftsman power tools.
But nowadays I’m not sure what appeal they have. They have tons of competition at their price point, and you can get made-in-the-USA tools for only slightly more money if that’s important to you. If it’s not I agree with many other posters that you can get better value for money from other brands.
Until proven otherwise I’m going to assume these are commodity grade tools being sold for a premium price riding on the coattails of the Craftsman name but I don’t think they’re offering the same kind of value that Craftsman did 25 or more years ago. Now if these really prove to be some kind of super-high quality that can compete with pro mechanic brands perhaps there is some value there, but that’s a tall order.
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John
The “V” clearly doesn’t doesn’t stand for value.
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Nathan
so I see HF icon tools with a new package. And they are supposedly all made in Taiwan. like the HF icon tools.
but also gear wrench and also Tekton. at least the ratchets and wrenches etc.
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Mike
So are all these Facom rebrands? I mean that’s not a bad thing, just a thing. There’s already a bunch of stuff on the Mac truck that’s rebranded Facom.
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Jared
Seems like everything shares Facom DNA – but there are differences. I’m guessing the tools are made in the same place as the Taiwan-made Facom tools.
The ratchets aren’t the same though. Maybe MAC inspired? They’re not identical to any MAC options I could find though, just share some similarities.
Facom doesn’t have the “X-tract Technology” either.
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Mike J
USA made Craftsman tools get my money. Does anyone from Craftsman get it.
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Joe E.
The general consensus here is that people want the USA made mechanics tools and they’re growing rather impatient.
I can’t imagine why they’ve needed all of this time to get product on the shelves, even with Covid delays.
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TonyT
My take so far: some of the V-stuff looks interesting, such as the Facom-inspired tools and the X-tract, but it’s priced way too high.
For example, the13-piece hex L-keys with X-tract Stuart listed – $50???? That’s more than Wera, and way more than Bondhus. (If a Bondhus set is $20, I might pay up to $25-$30 to give the X-tract tech a try).
I’m trying to decide if this ratcheting screw drivers are gimmicky or interesting:
– You can use it as a normal ratcheting screw driver
– It has a side port so you can use it as a T-handle
– The handle comes apart to give you a stubby handle
– It comes with 6 X-tract bits in addition to standard bits
But at $70, I’m not going to give it a try:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/CRAFTSMAN-CRAFTMAN-V-SERIES-18-PC-RBRT/5005385103Reply
Plain grainy
I bought quite a few Craftsman tools back to 47 years ago. I used to love browsing Sears tool section! The raceways & shelf end caps would be loaded with spectacular holiday specials. And they were good quality with a lifetime warranty.
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Mark
Definitely interested in some hands on feedback of this x-tract tech vs rbrt bits!
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Thom
When I buy Asian tools they are KTC or Ko-Ken… Not Craftsman.
Open the Texas Factory and start shipping product,
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Greg
These new wrenches are made in Taiwan. They are slightly modified versions of the Facom and Mac wrenches. Nothing new here. I imagine these aren’t even really a new production line for SBD, they just modified over production from Facom / Mac and rebranded it for Craftsman.
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James
I understand this desire for USA-made Craftsman tools, but the Craftsman ratchet wrenches drivers, and bits that I bought recently more than fulfilled my expectations. They worked very well for the jobs I had to do. No, none of them were made in USA. Most of the ones I bought were made in Taiwan, with one small set made in China. They all performed very well, with ratchets and sockets that held up to very hard use and drill bits that were very accurate and that did not wear away even when loosening very stubborn screws and allowed me to get the job done easily with very little sweat. Frankly, I don’t think they can get any better if they were made in the USA. They are already very good. It appears that SB&D imposed their own quality control specifications on the overseas plants and probably performed their own QC tests and inspections. They already employ their own engineers, so it makes sense that they would use them to perform these QC jobs to verify that the tools meet their specifications. If they didn’t do this verification, they would be putting the Craftsman brand at risk and I don’t think they are that shortsighted. They paid a lot of money for that brand and, to get a good return on that investment, I’m pretty sure that they want to do everything they can to uphold and improve the brand equity.
I’m not old enough to have bought Craftsman tools when they were still made in the USA. Instead, my father bought them and now my brother has his tools. I fondly recall my father using those tools at home and being very happy with them. In his real job, he worked as an industrial machine mechanic at US Steel (USS had their own custom-made and large industrial machines that regularly needed services and repairs) where he used industrial-grade professional tools, but he used Craftsman at home. Yes, the made-in-the-USA Craftsman tools he used were very good but I cannot see the difference in terms of quality between them and what I bought recently.
Craftsman is a brand that has never really been known to be professional grade. They were marketed mainly to home DIYers who just wanted decent quality tools at decent prices to get jobs done in their homes. To that end, I think the current regular Craftsman offerings are more than adequate, despite them not being made in the USA. When I recently bought my Craftsman tools, I got them at a local Lowe’s and noticed that they were out of stock of some Craftsman tool sets. So based on this unscientific and anecdotal observation, my impression is that there are still plenty of folks out there that are still buying that brand, despite a heavy bias in this comment section against tools that are not made in USA. If those folks who bought Craftsman were not happy with the tools, I’m pretty sure the spreading of bad word-of-mouth will cause Lowe’s and SB&D to lose tons of money on that brand.
Regarding a statement by someone in this comment section that SB&D is building a new manufacturing plant in the US, I believe they are doing that as a strategic move to reduce reliance on overseas plants, to avoid being caught up in trade wars (tariffs and sanctions) and other conflicts between the US and China, not necessarily to improve the quality of their products. This is a trend that other companies are considering as well, after seeing the disruptions in worldwide supply chains during Covid.
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