how good are mac tools

[derwen1959]

I am thinking of buying some new tools eg spanners, torque wrench and screwdrivers and i am looking towards mac tools will i be making a good investment

 

[Destroked 450]

Mac tools are considered to be of the same quality and price as Snap-On and normally are only sold off of trucks.
No Mac tool trucks in this area any more so if one of my old Mac tools break I'm sol.

 

[GreenAcres]

We have mac and snap on stop regularly at our shop and I have quite a bit of both brands. I have been buying more mac lately because of the lower price to snap on and comparable quality between the two. If you have a good tool truck and sales person in the area you wont be disappointed.

 

[David Snipes]

I have several and I think they are the best made hand tools around. They are pricey.

 

[JDEM]

I bought a lot of Mac tools in the 80s. Many of the specialty tools were cruder then Snap On but most everything was just as rugged. I still have my Mac 1/2" drive torque wrench I bought around 1979 and it has been fine.

I was a John Deere mechanic for a long time. Needed a lot of open-end off-set angle wrenches from 3/8" up to 2". I bought one by one but wound up with all sizes in Snap On and Mac. Snap are certainly nicer to use with slightly different angles and are thinner. Also with things like Lady Slippers? Again I have all sizes and hands down, the Snap On are better engineered.
I also often got specialty wrenches from Snap On that Mac did not offer. Like the off-set 9/16" wrench to take off Deere starters and injection pumps. That all said, many tools from Mac have been fine. That is - except their 3/4" drive sockets. I have broken more of them then my cheap Harbor Freight sockets.

 

[John T]

I've had good luck with them myself and consider them, to answer your question, YES a good investment. I've also got a lot of Craftsman (older mostly) but few Snap On.

John T

 

[gab]

Mac is right up there with Snap On but if you use them both everyday you'll reach for a Snap On/ just better fit/finish/design for certain applications.

 

[JDEM]

Exactly what my experience has been.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Mac used to be there own outfit. They are now owned by Stanley I believe like Proto is. The Mac tools I have have been fine.

 

[504]

I have a different view than the others. If I buy high dollar stuff anymore(old retired mechanic)I buy only Snap On,the reason, is there is always a SN dealer. The Mac dealers seem to come and go around here,the same with Cornwell and Matco. BTW, I like all of there tools.

 

[jr1983]

If you use them hard Mac and snapon are only worth the money if you have consistently good dealer support. I haveboth and agree with most of what has been said. That said iI only buy snapon because Mac has been inconsistent. I also don't like the feel of their ratchets but that's personal.

 

[Texasmark1]

I have a Mac rollaround with top. Don't know where it fits in their lineup. Slides on drawers, not ball bearing which I prefer and are on my newer HF boxes. Nothing special about either.

 

[kevinthefixer]

Anytime you buy Mac, Snap-On, any of those, somewhere around half the price of the tool goes to pay for the dealer's truck. That is not a bad thing, as long as the dealer and truck stay around. I usually buy these from my Mac dealer because he's a nice guy, he's been around for 10 or 15 years, and he's really good about warranty issues. Craftsman stuff is nearly as good, half the price, same warranty (lifetime) if your Sears is more convenient. And if it's still there.

 

[Determined]

I have plenty of Mac tools in my boxes and quality wise they are very good.

I have run off 3 Mac tool truck drivers from the shop over the years and care not to try dealing with a fourth.

 

[Goose]

Tool trucks drove me nuts when I was in service management. Your department would be humming along, customers amusing themselves in the waiting area, etc. Then a Mac or Snap On tool truck would drive up and the entire service department would shut down for a half hour. I finally made an unbreakable rule: no more than two men at a time and not over ten minutes. And my techs knew I meant it.

 

[the tractor vet]

I got my first Mac tools in 1963 when the owner of the company i worked for gave me my own company truck and my boss and i built the bed for it along with the one company welder . The owner called the Mac guy on a Saturday morning and told him to come to the shop . when he walked in the owner a gruff old fart pull the tool catalog out from under old Homer's arm and threw it on the shop desk and said i want one of everything in this book and do you have OTC STUFF and old homer said yes i can get it but i did not bring the book with me . . He ordered in all the pullers and even our first track pin press with hyd. porta powers up to 100 tom and all the special pullers for Cat , I H , A C and Euclid . The only thing i did not get was the Mac ratchets as non of us like them , my boss had S&K and i got S&K and the other three guys that had company trucks used Wright's . The main shop had a mix of everybodys tools of the time Wright, Snap ON , Armstrong Cornwell, Proto S&K Bonney , Craftsman , Pencraft and Wizzard . My new truck was a mix of and Operators truck with fuel and oil and grease and a PTO driven Hobart welder and a Gardner Denver air compressor that could run two 90 Lb jack hammers when needed or air wrenches or the prota power pump. . My own tools were mostly Craftsman or wizzard at that time but i could use my company tools when ever i needed something i did not have .this was great while i worked for them . Now i have a mix of Mac snap On A few Cornwell and Craftman and a couple matco that have not broken and OTC stuff.