Old Grip Driver ratcheting screwdriver

Hello everyone,

I am just about to start another battery box project and I searched frantically and finally found my old Craftsman Grip Driver ratcheting screwdriver.  This is hands down my favorite screwdriver ever.  At about halfway up the shaft, the handle can bend about 45 degrees, nicely fitting the palm of your hand.  I find that when I use this, I can easily turn even difficult screws with little trouble.  I have had this for about 30 years and while it was great when I was in my mid twenties, I have a bit of arthritis now that makes turning a regular screwdriver rather painful.  Fortunately, the Grip Driver is a breeze.  

This was an old Craftsman tool back in the 90s before Sears lost its footing and all but dissolved as a company.  They had a few unique tool designs then that I really liked and this was my favorite.  Fortunately it is still available at this site HERE:

https://www.harryepstein.com/products/craftsman-professional-grip-driver?srsltid=AfmBOopw_rezJvjcJlyf20G5mqCeTjX_9b9jB-LKJq7WYkKJI9sVlPrM



Eric

The original Craftsman tools were excellent quality. More recently I've seen the name on all sorts of gear that is obviously cheap offshore stuff. Heads up.

I do agree, I have noticed the same thing.
This one, surprisingly appears to be made in Germany.

Douglas, Thomas,

I wholeheartedly agree about the quality of the old Craftsman tools.  They were my hands down go-to tools.  It’s too bad that they took a hit as Sears tanked.  On the upshot, Craftsman is now being sold through Lowe’s.  Now I don’t really know if the quality is still there.  For the moment, if we assume that it is not, what other tool brand out there offers the kind of old-Craftsman quality at their price?


And as a note about this particular screwdriver:

Back in 2004 when I moved to my present house, one object we left behind to retrieve later was a swing set.  This was a wooden one that I made myself and I overbuilt it.  Come moving day for the swing set, my father and I set out with a few tools and his cordless drill.  He had some pretty bad arthritis so the plan was for him to use the drill and I would use the special screwdriver.  My father set the drill into one screw and realized that he had put in a completely drained battery!  This really complicated things.

So it turns out that I had packed another, regular Philips screwdriver.  I handed the special screwdriver over to my father and I set about unscrewing dozens of 3” drywall screws with just a screwdriver (these screws were all for reinforcement, not primary attachment).  

Pretty quickly it became obvious just how useful that Grip Driver was.  My father, with his arthritic easily outpaced my much younger hand with no arthritis but handicapped only by an ordinary screwdriver driving out 3” screws!  By the time we were done, I bet that my father had taken out twice or more screws than I did.  And his hands were fine!  My wrists ached and my fingers didn’t want to unclench from the vise-grip they had been in.

I remain a true believer I. This screwdriver.

Eric

I remember hearing Snap-on was good quality. I know when I was looking for new hand tools, they were WAAAY out of my price range, so I just started looking for my tools in resale shops, flea markets/swaps, estate sales, and yard/tag/garage sales. Cheaper AND better quality than almost any of the new stuff.

I will occasionally even find power tools, that way.

Carla,

Absolutely, Snap-On is the gold standard for hand tools—and the tools cost as though they are made of gold!

Snap-On is one of those brands that I would never even conceive, owing to their extensive price.  My neighbor that I have written so much is a retired mechanic and he has a spectacular collection of Snap-On tools as they are typically marketed to mechanics.  And I have used them and they are—tools.  They seem no different than my old Craftsman equivalents and I have no idea what justifies the extreme price,


Good points Carla

Eric

I shop the junk stores for old tools… including Craftsman.   My experience has been that older Craftsman hand  tools are good. The powered tools … not so much.

Hi John,

Yeah, I lived my old Craftsman hand tools.  But I differ with you a bit on the power tools.

Back in the mid-90s when I was in my mid-20s, I added my first three power tools to my collection, all Craftsman.  My first was a circular saw, the second a corded 3/8 inch drill and my third a cordless drill.

The circular saw was and still is excellent.  The drill has always been very good and one day when I was in a hardware store, I picked up a DeWalt and noticed that the case was identical to my Craftsman except yellow.  And I mean this case had some very specific details that were apparently unique to Craftsman and Dewalt.  I suspect that some third party made both.

The cordless drill was a 13.8V 3/8 inch drill that came with a charger, two batteries and a blow-molded case.  That drill was great for all sorts of projects around the house, built three homecoming parade floats and two decks.  I did eventually need to repack the batteries--twice, but the drill itself is perfectly fine today.  About the only reason that that cordless drill is out to pasture is that it is a physically large drill but only a 3/8 in. chuck and the battery chemistry can’t easily be swapped to lithium ion.  

So for that time in the 90s, I did really like Craftsman tools, but that was 30 years ago.

Eric