On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:47:28 GMT, "dadiOH"
wrote:

Tomes wrote:
"dadiOH" :
mm :
Heard on the radio just now -- heard it before too -- that there
was a big influx into Baltimore of workers from West Virginia and
Virginia and Carolina during the war and maybe other times, and
Black and Decker used to rent power tools to the shipyard(s?)
here. ?According to someone quoting Mr. Decker, he noticed --
didn't say exactly when -- that people were taking the tools home
and bringing them back, and he asked them why, and was told "I
can get so much done with these things at home." ?And after that,
Black and Decker started selling the tools through hardware
stores.

sad they cut to junk quality, B&D is known as disposable tools

B&D has various grades of tools as do many other manufacturers. I
have a B&D *industrial* 3/8" drill that has had much use for the
last 20 years. I also have a B&D 7/8 HP router - the antecedant
of the Dewalt 610 - that has been used even more over almost 40
years. I replaced its bearings about 10 years ago.

But that is exactly the point, isn't it. Your excellent stuff is
really old and not the current stuff.

OP said B&G started retailing during "the war" (presumably, WW2) and

Right, the big one, W W 2. I should have said that.

Even if one doesn't like B&D now, my post was meant as a bit of
history about power tools. Apparently they were the first??? to sell
to consumers. Of course if they hadn't done it someone else would
have eventually, but that's true of lots of history.

And I thought the reason was interesting.

Yet, like in lots of groups on lots of topics, every time someone
mentions B&D, someone else has to say how bad they are now. There
are far more people who want cheap tools rather than great ones and
someone is going to make them for them. And someone will make the
great ones. That's called free enterprise and the market system.