[guido]

My first set which I bought 40 years ago was Craftsman. I still own and use them to this day. Even at that time the quality was not on par with the set my father and grandfather had. Today's Craftsman tools pale in comparison.

When I was wrenching professionally I started buying Snap On tools. What I did then and would do again if I had to do it all over was buy used and trade ins from the Snap On truck. My dealer always had tools that retiring mechanics sold back to him at fifty cents on that days price sheet. He sold them to me at that very same price to get them off his truck. Same Snap On quality and guaranty.
I recently sold all my Snap On tools on ebay. The starting bid was set at fifty cents on the current price sheet. I made tidy a profit. Moral of the story... Use your Snap On tools to make your living and when you retire sell them to a young mechanic. He saves money and you still make a profit.

That being said... I recently replaced the shute swivel on my QA36 snow thrower with parts from two HF 1/4 drive universals. Chucking them in a collet to bore out the square drive one was soft as butter and the other destroyed a HS steel drill bit. The second was labeled PRO series. Maybe HF PRO series tools are worth looking into.