"Sonny" wrote in message
...
Trying to finish the shop roof and my Craftsman saw quit. Searched for
comparison studies and found this:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home...n-test#slide-1

The Craftsman, they noted, is what I have, 1 yr old. I assume, either the
switch quit or the brushes are bad. Can't remove the brushes without lots
of other disassembly. Took the switch apart and parts flew all over....
don't know how to replace them. I hate when a tool quits in the middle of
a job, especially one that is not very old. I'm ****ed, having spent an
hour+ troubleshooting it, when I could have bought a new one and be back
working within that wasted time. *And, as they noted, this Craftsman is
heavy, making it very uncomfortable.

The Bosch CS20 was Pop. Mechanics top choice. Sears has them on sale for
$99. They are regularly $150. I hope it's as good as they say, I'm going
get one. At that price, I might get two.

Know what you mean about Craftsman tools. My wife insists on giving me
craftsman gift cards for my birthday and Christmas. I suppose this is an
improvement. She used to go out and buy crap for me that I would never use.
After most tools she bought me were returned, except for one, she figured
out that I should just buy the tools myself. And that one exception is
something she lost the receipt for. And it was something I saw on TV and
laughed at making it clear that I would never buy something like that. So,
what does she do. She ran out and bought it for me! (A battery operated
tape measure.)

I have tried on numerous occasions to come up with an alternative approach,
but she grew up with craftsman and she wants to stick to that. Which is
ironic. She grew up with Singer sewing machines. Back in the day, they
were good quality. Now she won't go near a Singer. But Craftsman is still
OK in her book.

As for their tools, I have actually done Ok with them. Except for a drill I
got recently. I had to do some fence repairs and this drill lost several
driver bits (lousy chuck) and the driver did not work at all. I took it
back and they gave me a new one. It has worked just fine, a remarkable
improvement over the last one.

A couple days ago, I had to rip some old boards. I wanted to adjust the
base of my Craftsman circular saw to make it safer. I could not get the
lever free to adjust the saw. So I did a work around to get the job done
before dark. After getting the job done, I looked at it closely. I tried a
number of times to free up that little adjustment lever. Finally, I got a
giant screwdriver and inserted it underneath the lever. I then gave it a
big push and it broke free. Apparently it got all gummed up and it did not
move well. So I sprayed it with wd-40 and worked it until it moved freely.
I wiped it all down and took some fine oil and rubbed and dripped it into
anything that could possible freeze up.

I love my honey. I just wish she did not have a Craftsman tool fetish. I
get by. Most of the tools do just fine. I would never want to make my
living with these tools though.