I own hundreds of Craftsman sockets. Metric and SAE, 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" drives, standard length, deep well, 6 and 12 point, etc. I bought them 25 years ago. All made in the US. I think I purchased every type of socket Craftsman made at the time. They’re neatly arranged in three drawers.
About half a dozen sockets are missing. Lost for good. I want to replace them.
I went to the Sears website, but I didn’t see many individual sockets listed. I mostly saw socket sets.
It’s been forever since I’ve been to a Sears store. Not even sure if the ones near me are still open. Even if they are, do they sell individual Craftsman sockets?
My local hardware store carries the same Craftsman sets. Upon inquiring, they can and did special order individual pieces for me. It took a week, but they came through.
Looking at Craftsman’s website under Ratchets & Sockets> Socket & Socket Sets> Open Stock there are some pages of individual sockets. It doesn’t appear you can buy from the site, but when you click on the sockets you’ll see a “Find A Store” button.
My sockets are neatly arranged in a drawer also. Well, not exactly neatly, or arranged, but in a drawer. And they’ve come from any number of socket sets, some are Craftsman, some I have no idea where they came from. There is still a Sears store nearby but I haven’t bothered to go there for a long time but I suppose they still sell the individual sockets, and I suppose if they’re out of a size they’re not restocking it, and while I’m at it I’ll suppose the ones I’m missing are the ones they’ll be out of.
Anyway, as campp indicated, my local True Value hardware store (amazingly not just still in business but thriving) carries Craftsman tools now and if it’s possible for them to get them they would order them for me. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d order a whole set, sell me the individual sockets and put the rest up for sale individually. That’s the kind of thing that keeps their customers coming back, I can only hope they can maintain that kind of service over the long run.
Just last week I couldn’t find my 3/8" ratchet wrench, I have a pretty good idea what happened to it, but not wanting to go rooting through the drawer again to find a 1/2" to 3/8" adapter just to get the spark plug out of the tractor I picked up a Craftsman 3/8" ratchet wrench at the hardware store. I could have bought the store brand for less, I don’t know if the wrench is the same quality as Craftsman used to supply (probably not), but I’m happy to give that store my business just to help them survive the coming hardware apocalypse where only big box stores that don’t restock anything will be the only local source for tools. Or I’ll just find a Snap-On guy who will sell to me directly maybe.
I came in to say this. In fact, that’s the last place I bought some, our local Ace Hardware (I needed a couple of 8mm socks in a .25 inch drive). They had quite an assortment.
Yes, they do. And you should be able to put your zip code in to see what is in stock at your local Sears store. Go to Sears dot com, click tools, then hand tools, then sockets & socket sets. Select the “In Store” tab and put in your zip. Then check “Craftsman” for Brand and sort results by price from low to high. All sorts of individual socket to choose from.
Folks above have nailed my experience. individual replacements are not hard to find, although they’re not real cost effective either. Here’s one fact nobody has mentioned yet.
Over the years the styles have changed subtly. So even a bog-standard 3/8" drive 1/2" size 6- or 12-point socket bought today won’t exactly match the ones you have. Whether that pisses you off more or less than leaving the empty space in your socket set is up to you.
LSLGuy - Proud owner of darn near every socket Craftsman made in the late 1970s. And two mismatched newbies. :snarl:
I want to replace them.