Eugene wrote:
J. Clarke wrote:
Eugene wrote:
J. Clarke wrote:
Eugene wrote:
Herb Robinson wrote:
I too believe Craftsman tools often get an unfair knock. My first
table saw was a Craftsman and it served me well for many years as I
was learning my woodworking skills -- particularly after I added a
Biesemeyer home shop
fence to it. I believe if you start out with these moderately priced
tools, once you are ready to upgrade, you have a much better idea of
what you want/need.
I have used crapsman tools for a few years but after replacing the
first one with a real tool I was then kind of mad at myself for
wasting the money on the craftsman when I could have spent a bit more
on better tools and saved a few pieces of wood and some frustration
when the tools didn't perform as well as they should.
In the short term the cheaper craftsman tools look like a good deal
but looking at the long term, I've had to replace each one so I'm out
both the
money of the good tool and the money spent on the craftsman. The cost
of a couple craftsman tools that had to be replaced was enough to buy
something better in the first place.
Of course its not just craftsman, I have a worthless Black and Decker
jigsaw and threw away and old skil circular saw a few years ago
because I bought
cheap. But I have learned that buying cheaper tools doesn't save any
$
because you have to re-buy them again. I have bought my father three
different cordless drills over the last few years and still have and
use
and abuse my 9.6V Makita from 1995. So when he needed another
cordless drill (4th one now) I picked up a Makita and now instead of
buying a new drill every couple years I buy him something else to go
along with the one he has because it actually lasts more than a couple
years. My point is if you don't start with the cheap stuff then you
don't need to upgrade as soon.
While what you say about cheap tools is in general true, it is true of
all
brands of cheap tool and not only of Craftsman. And there are many
high quality tools sold under the Craftsman brand at prices similar to
those charged for the same tool under the manufacturer's brand.
Very true, however is the newbie going to be able to tell which
crasftman tools are good?
He looks for the "Craftsman Professional" or "Craftsman Industrial"
label.
The craftsman router I had was labeled a professional but was anything
but.
So who made it?
Thats one of the marketing reasons of a brand, if it
meets
or exceeds your expectations then it gets known as a good brand. If 9
out of 10 of the brands products are junk then that hurts the brand name
over all even if they happen to make a good product every now and then.
There are plenty of other brands that may make a good tool or two but
allow
their line to have so many bad ones that you would never know it. I
have a worthless black and decker jigsaw sitting in my garage because
their name once stood for quality but no longer does.
When did their name stand for quality? It was considered to be crap when
I was a kid and and that was going on half a century ago.
My father still has and uses a corded B&D drill that he bought 30 years
ago, and upgraded the chuck to 1/2" from 3/8" and even has some bigher
than 1/2"
bits that he turned the shank down on to fit in the 1/2" chuck. Drills
holes in old truck frames when they turn them into hay wagons and that
drill still runs fine.
He's lucky.
--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)
|