The special screwdriver for opening compact Macs...

The cheapest one I could find back when I first needed one had a 24" shank. So I now have a handy makeshift barbecue skewer as well as a useful tool

here is what i use,

The handel pops open at the end concealing storage for (4) bits

I bought this at a dollar store for a dollar.

I think it was dollar tree.

the 12" bit extension was $3.49 at Lowes

the proper torx bit was included in the handle.

Its the same size torx, a-lot of auto manufactures use to hold in tail lights.

An old trick is also to jam the T15 bit into a BIC pen.

It's time I invest in one of those. I never put the 2 top screws back in Performa 200 or 512kE, although I still have them. It was a big enough pain getting them out, why put them back in? Now I will no reason not too.

Probably run down to Sears later.

An old trick is also to jam the T15 bit into a BIC pen.

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I Like knowing of tricks like this!

You never know, someday you might find your self in a pickle and will have to make do with what you have.

A couple decades or so ago when I first wanted to open a compact Mac I didn't have a long enough screwdriver so I used a dremel tool to cut a slot on the back of a torx bit and hot glued it to a long flat screwdriver. Not pretty but it worked well enough.

MACgyver

lol,

Heck I remember one time I had a set of really cheap dollar stores screw drivers. Took a bastard file to a flat head and it only took about 30 seconds to get something that would fit a T15 torx.

Went and bought the Craftsman and it worked like a champ. Put the screws back in the 512kE and going to with the P200. It is a little tuff to turn because it needs to get all the way to the front of the case, but does the job for $7.

Also, my local Sears Grand wanted $6.99. I guess only Sears.com had it on sale.

Back in the day I filed down the tip of a long flathead screwdriver so it fit the Torx screws. Once removed, I replaced them with ordinary Philips screws that were easier to find tools for.

Now I have a proper long Torx driver but they were not nearly as easy to find in the pre-internet days.

I've had my Craftsman Professional T-15 long-shafter for a decade now and it's never let me down. Most Sears stores do seem to carry them (although it's getting tougher to find some Torx drivers a la carte anymore, namely the smaller ones with the green caps--which are perfect for working on newer laptops).

Another advantage to Craftsman is the lifetime warranty. One of my Torx drivers with a plastic handle and shaft (pretty sure it was a T7) cracked. I took it back to Sears and they swapped it for a new one, free of charge.

As a bonus--many of their products are still made in the USA.

It's one of those brands you just can't go wrong with, right up there with Nicholson files or Wiss shears. If only Stanley would bring some of their manufacturing back to the States!

I was disappointed a couple years ago to find that quite a lot of Craftsman hand tools are now made in China. If the name brand stuff is Chinese, I'll just buy the Chinese stuff at Harbor Freight for a fraction the price. I'll pay a premium for quality US made tools, but I won't pay more just to get the name. A lot of the generic stuff is junk, but some of it is pretty good.

Once in a deal I received the proper long-handled Torx screwdriver which will remain with me until my death, however prior to this I had no issues using a long coathanger wire with one end hammered/filed off to a phillips head, a bend on the other end it worked perfectly opening any B&W Mac.

I was disappointed a couple years ago to find that quite a lot of Craftsman hand tools are now made in China.

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I'm yet to see a Craftsman tool that says "Made in China". But if that is the case, Harbor makes some decent tools. I use one of their "General" branded screw driver sets to open up almost all my Macs.

I've been using a long flat blade screwdriver for years. The blade fits just right in the T15 screws. I think it's an 1/8" one.

RE Craftsman, blech. I love their wrenches, but most everything else is crap these days. Lifetime warranty is worthless if it keeps breaking - oh, and Harbor Freight has lifetime warranty on a lot of their stuff, as does pretty much anywhere else.

Some amazon possibilities:

http://www.amazon.com/Xcelite-XTD15XL-Chromium-Vanadium-Screwdriver/dp/B004UN93J2

http://www.amazon.com/GearWrench-80086-Material-Screwdriver-18-Inch/dp/B001M0O17A

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002T5O5LO

http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-TX15601-Torx-T15-6-Inch/dp/B003VNKOAE

I'm yet to see a Craftsman tool that says "Made in China". But if that is the case, Harbor makes some decent tools. I use one of their "General" branded screw driver sets to open up almost all my Macs.

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Have you been to Sears recently? Last time I went was a couple of years ago, but a good number of wrenches were stamped China. A friend of mine noticed recently that even one of the Snapon tools he has was made in China, and the fit & finish is noticeably inferior to the older US-made one.

Have you been to Sears recently?

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Yes, yesterday.

Just a few things I noticed in my apartment that were made in China:

SHARP LCD TV

SHARP air purifier

Mac Mini

Retina MacBook Pro

2006 MacBook Pro

iPhone 4S

Several ThinkPads

Desk chair

Lots of other things

Some things that were not made in China:

Various SGI workstations (Switzerland)

SGI CRT monitors (Japan)

Rice cooker (Japan)

Panasonic/Sony/Yamaha stereo equipment (Japan)

Various household goods (Japan)

Sun Ultra 24 workstation (United States)

Power Mac G4 (United States)

Wristwatch (East Germany)

Lots of other things

They all seem to be of roughly the same quality (except for the East German watch, but I still love it). I guess "China" isn't so terrible at making things after all, except... wait a minute... China is actually a complex society of over a billion people and countless companies, not a monolithic entity. So much for being able to make blanket judgments about the quality of something (much less something as simple as a hand tool) based on which country it was made in.

I don't rag on Chinese stuff either, plenty of total crap came out of American factories. I love my Harbor Freight tools, for the most part they have been good quality and with a few mods here and there to select power tools - I have some excellent tools that get the job done and are lifetime warranty.

My issue is with stuff that IS actually junk, that is sold by American stores, with American name brands stamped on it, that is identical to the vastly cheaper Chinese model. Who cares what name it has on it, as long as it gets the job done and doesn't break.

There is some good quality stuff that comes out of China, no arguing there. The issue I have is that the quality is so variable that you never know what you're getting, and so many established brands with solid reputations have become nothing more than a name and logo slapped on products of questionable quality produced by an outsourced manufacture. Quality control in general is an issue and brands are virtually meaningless. Some stuff is good and some stuff is complete garbage and it can be very difficult to tell until you have it in your hands. Sometimes you even find something that's very well made, buy another identical one and that one is shoddy.

Also I try to support manufacturing in my own country as well as others that have similar standards on environmental regulations, working conditions and living standards. China is improving, but it has a long way to go. It's possible they will be like Japan, which had a reputation for building cheap junk in the first couple decades after WWII, but rose to produce some of the best quality electronics in the world from the 1970s through the 90s. Sony Trinitron monitors were the gold standard for decades, and the quality of Japanese cars of the era put ours to shame.

Anyway my point is I will pay a premium if I can count on the fact that I'm getting a premium product, but I will not pay a premium for a name slapped on who knows what.

my point is I will pay a premium if I can count on the fact that I'm getting a premium product

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Has Craftsman really ever been a "premium" or "professional" brand in hand-tools? (or anything they make.) I always thought it was aiming at the upper part of low end, or the mid-range at best, like tools for people who like to own tools, but not necessarily for people who are going to make money with them.

It's possible they will be like Japan, which had a reputation for building cheap junk in the first couple decades after WWII, but rose to produce some of the best quality electronics in the world from the 1970s through the 90s. Sony Trinitron monitors were the gold standard for decades, and the quality of Japanese cars of the era put ours to shame.

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It's a good thing Sony ONLY made Trinitrons in Japan...

Following construction of color TV plants, Sony built CRT production sites in Japan, the US, Europe and Asia. With the completion of the Singapore CRT plant in 1992, Sony could ship CRTs for color TVs from all four regions. In the United States, where demand for computer displays is extremely high, Sony set up a comprehensive production line in 1995.

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I'm pretty certain Sony was running those factories and imposing their strict quality control on the products. They weren't slapping the Sony label on the lowest bidding outsourced manufacture of the week, which is the current norm for a lot of goods. Companies tend to view a brand as just that, a brand, consisting of a name, logo and past reputation, which is frequently applied to products made by who knows who, some of which may be great but who knows?

I never claimed they ONLY made them in Japan. Notice though that virtually all of those locations are in first-world nations with relatively high standards of living, health and safety regulations, environmental regulations, etc placing them on a level playing field. I would still argue though that the stuff they made in Japan in the 70s-80s was the best quality stuff they ever made. There was a good reason that Sun, SGI and Apple all used Sony-made monitors with their high end stuff. The reason most manufacturing has moved to China these days is because it's cheap, period. Lower cost of living, fewer regulations, workers can be paid less, worked harder, under poorer conditions, because it's cheaper, and in some (not all, but some) cases you get what you pay for. Lack of regulation, poor quality control, and the eternal quest for cheaper and cheaper goods is the reason we have ended up with so many incidents with high levels of lead and other contaminants in toys and other goods, pet food, etc.

This should probably be moved to the lounge, but I came across an article that does a rather good job IMO of outlining the current problems and some of the underlying causes.

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/alpha-consumer/2009/04/23/explaining-chinas-quality-control-problems

There is some very well made stuff coming from China, but the vast number of sketchy manufactures producing millions of tons of questionable knockoff goods soils the reputation of the rest in that it's hard to trust anything when so much of it falls short.

There's an extremely thin line between xenophobia and racism, and a legitimate discussion about the economic issues affecting a country.

Let's be careful, lest we tread too close to the xenophobia and racism, which is certainly starting to happen here.

It's possible to have a reasonable and even good discussion about the economic issues, even though they sometimes encroach on politics a little bit. However, it doesn't look like that's what's happening here.

This has nothing to do with race, it's a matter of economics and culture, the issues being largely our own doing in the eternal quest for cheaper and cheaper goods. It just so happens that China is the current location we as a nation are exploiting for their cheap labor due to low wages and not having to deal with all the regulations present in more developed nations. Eventually things will mature there and standards will rise, or resources will dwindle and the environmental damage from the rapid uncontrolled industrial development will catch up to them. Having spent my career in the tech industry I see it every day. It's all about doing anything that can be done to shave pennies off the cost of goods in order to maximize quarterly profit. Cost cutting revisions of a product are made, manufactures are pushed for lower and lower bids, each time pushing to make it just a little bit cheaper to build while still projecting an acceptable number of units to last through the warranty period.

I have been using Craftsman tools on and off for years, right now my go to tool kit, is a little $19.99 stanley set I keep under my drives seat.

I remember when Craftsman sockets/ratchets went from saying "Made in USA" to "Made in China"

I'm not going to sit here and say Craftsman has always made fantastic tools either.

What I will say is this, I have some inside information. Everywhere I go, I talk to people.

Here at work, I chat every now and then with the plumbers, to see what they think about stuff.

Not everyone says the same thing, you know what they say about opinions, everyone has one.

Lots of people have some pretty decent things to say about Lowe's tools.

As far as Quality, Price and Availability. Plumbers / Mechanics / Truckers

Personally, My experience with Lowe's has been reasonable.

But sears is a place that use to be " the place " for the working man, not any more, It seems to me, in my opinion.

also pretty much all the plumbers hate Moen and American Standard branded faucets etc, even though it makes them alot of money

due to service calls, they pretty much all say it's garbage.

Plumbers, most all like Delta and any MASCO, Variant, Masco owns delta and many other brands.

Even Their off brand peerless witch is made in China. Is still preferred over Moen/AS, because it is made to Masco's strict specifications.

Tools are alot like guns, They are going to eventually break, but How long will it last before it breaks?

IF you buy a harbor freight belt sander and it burns out half way through your job, Then you really haven't saved

any money shopping there have you? --- Even if you bring it back and they give you another one.