ECN Electrical Forum
Discussion Forums for Electricians, Inspectors and Related Professionals

IIRC Bosch owns Skill

Norcal I thought B&T bought Dewalt in the 90's????? Or at least thats when I noticed a decline in thier quality... I could be wrong - I have been before..... According to this guy it was 1960... http://www.owwm.com/MfgIndex/detail.asp?ID=252

Either way I wish it were easier to know who your giving your money....

BUMP!

I give up........I'm going back to using a bit and brace....!

DeWalt just built radial arm saws when B&D bought them, now they quit making them and sold the rights to a company called Wolfe.
I have collected a number of old Delta/Rockwell stationary tools most of them date from the 1930s up into the 70s,you can safely bet that the "Chaiwanese" tools are not going to be around that long.

"Friends dont let friends buy DeWalt."

"Buy quality, buy once."*

Luke
I have a good assortment of power tools and the Makita does seem to hold up to any of them.
I have figured out a set of brushes can bring one back from the dead if you stopped using it as soon as it started making that horrible noise. (before you burn the commutator) Ace has brushes but you will have to find them.
Start near the power tool parts and they will be in a little parts box most employees have never opened

My next door neighbor and good buddy is the materials manager for DeVilbiss in Jackson TN, air compressors and generators, and works closely with the crew at Porter Cable and says that the line of tools made today are 180 degrees different than the "old days". Plastic everything and metal nothing. I have been through the DeVilbiss plant with him and he has offered to take me throught the Porter plant but I don't really want to after I did the DeVilbliss with him. Not knocking their product or anything but I couldn't believe how many different companies they made compressors for and the only differences were paint and decals.

[This message has been edited by gobblerhuntr (edited 02-12-2007).]

I've seen some reviews where Hitachi tools were rated favorably, and my caprenter buddies like Hitachi stuff.

Has anyone tried their cordless drilll?

Just as another perspective on this, Dewalt has been owned by B&D for years and they make nice tools. Recently I have been buying the Dewalt portabands instead of the Milwaukee line; originally for price reasons but after my guys started using them they all prefer the Dewalt over the Milwaukee, and they are $80 less per unit and an even bigger cut if I buy at least 10 units.

As for cordless drills, I buy the cheapest refurb junk I can find, Skill has a nice cordless unit with (2) 18V batteries and it works great as a screw gun. I generally pick these up for about $70 a unit if I buy (20) or more, and they far outlast Dewalt, Bosch, Makita, and Milwaukee, but there is a catch. They reason they outlast the nicer cordless units is they don’t get stolen; if I buy anything nice it wont make 6 months and it is gone, but the Skill cordless units last about 12-15 months before I have to replace them.

The other problem I have is when a really good cordless unit is purchased (Bosch), the tool has so much power that my electricians get lazy and try to use it in lieu of a hole hog, when they really should be using a hole hog, and burn it up. To date I have not had one Skill burn up because they don’t even try to use it for that.

At home I use Makita, because my daughter thinks “the blue ones are pretty”, and I think they work great.

There are nonflamable spray electric cleaners out there that can extend motor life. I became a believer when I saw a guy shoot his 1/2 drill w/ one. He had paper towels on the bench and when the fluid drained on it, it was black. Dirt and carbon build are the enemy. BTW, who makes the drill w/ a rocker switch for forward/reverse switching?? I worked for a guy who had one, and it was great. I want to think it was Hitachi.