"brianlanning" wrote in message
ups.com...
Gary wrote:
"brianlanning" wrote
Who do you think is building a lot of the tools for Craftsman these days?
Table saws, hand tools? Yup: Ryobi.
I shake my head when I see/hear people babbling that Craftsman is Crappe:
Fact is that "Craftsman" doesn't make tools... They're rebadged Deltas,
B&D,
Ryobis, Bosch, etc., etc......

This is true. Later, I said that I would consider the router that's a
bosch rebadge, but only for a steep discount. Whenever this topic
comes up, I'm reminded of the "alpine" car stereos that were available
in honda civics and accords back in the late 80s/early 90s. They were
alpine in name only. Honda paid for the name, then alpine built them
to honda's standards which were more about economy and warrantees than
sound quality. So when sears rebadges any tool, I have to wonder if
it's really the *exact* same tool just with a red plastic case instead
of a blue one or whatever. The temptation has to be there to put in
cheaper bearings or weaker motors. It's not a bosch after all, right?
It's a craftsman now. But maybe people will assume that it's the same
as the bosch, thereby leaching some brand trust from bosch when it
isn't deserved. So bosch isn't risking anything by making a cheaper
tool for sears. They have plausible deniability. And sears only
stands to gain.

To make matters worse, quality is just a dial that the chinese
factories turn. The saws may all be coming from the same factory, but
they're definitly not built to the same quality. Bearings, paint
thickness, paint job quality, tolerances, whether things are balanced
or not before being put on, de-flashing on the castings. There's a
huge number of steps that can be skipped, corners cut. So not all
brands are created equal, even when coming from the same assembly line.

So it all comes down to trust. Do you trust the store/brand to live up
to an expected level of quality? then do you trust the store to stand
behind the tools when there's a problem?

I would buy a ryobi before a craftsman. Mainly because I wouldn't have
to deal with sears with the ryobi.


Like all predjudices, this supposed hatred of all things Craftsman is
born
in ignorance.

...or maybe experience. And they're changing for the better these days
which makes the situation even cloudier. Since some of the tools are
turing out to be great, while others are still junk. How can you know
which this new tool is?


Wanna say something that makes sense? Say that Sears charges way too much
for most of their Craftsman products, and if you don't wait until they're
on
sale (big time) before you buy, well, you're stupid.
_That_ would be true.

They're charging less than bosch for what looks like the exact same
router. Is bosch charging even more than too much? Is sears charging
the right amount while bosch is too high? Is it even the exact same
router? It's priced where it will sell. It doesn't matter what we
think. So if the price is too high, that means that the craftsman name
still (unjustifiably) carries a premium, possibly from people
remembering them from 30 years ago.

Uh, the regular price from Sears is 219.00, the Coastal Tools price on the
Bosch is 209, and Bosch is including a router guide that's worth about 40
bucks. So Sears is not charging less than Bosch unless you're talking
suggested retail on the Bosch or the sale price on the Sears that is only
good through tomorrow.