On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 14:06:57 -0500,
wrote:

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 21:15:35 -0800, "Harold & Susan Vordos"
wrote:


wrote in message
. ..
snip----
Well, there are Craftsman power tools, and there are craftsman power
tools. Their cheap stuff is pretty well crap. An example is circular
saws. They currently have 4 consumer grade saws, and one professional.
The pro is every bit as good as the Makita 5007nb or Dewalt dw368

Same with the belt sander. 3 consumers, and 1 professional.

The cheap Makita stuff is every bit as bad as the Craftsman low end
stuff. Cheap Bosch stuff too.

You are most likely right.

I think, for the most part, the home shop types tend to use their tools in a
rather light fashion. Certainly not continually, like a guy does that works
with his tools daily on the job. It is for that reason that when I buy a
tool that will get little to no use, I head for HF. If I'm going to get
inferior quality, I fully intend to pay a price in keeping with the quality.
If it serves my purpose for the job at hand, I'm pleased.

I also purchased a ½" Hitachi hammer drill while working on the castle. I
used it exclusively for drilling concrete, so it got little use. About the
third time I used it, perhaps ten days after warranty had expired, the
trigger switch died. Took it to an authorized repair station where I was
told "tough luck" and had to pay for a new one, which promptly died again.
Tough luck I was told yet again, so I never repaired the damned thing and
have never again purchased anything made by Hitachi, nor do I say anything
complimentary about them. The switch was obviously not suited to the
application. All I did was use it as it was intended to be used.
Incidentally, the failure was in the variable speed. The drill continued to
run, just on or off. It did that until about a month ago, when it quit
completely.

Any advice regards buying a new hammer drill that may not get much use? HF?
Can't afford, nor can I justify, a good one, like Hilti, which would be my
first choice if I worked with it daily.

Harold

Do what I do when looking for tools I don't use enough to warrant
buying brand new high quality stuff. I buy used.
My Rockwell 7 1/4" saw (I called it a delta last post - I was wrong -
it is a Rockwell) cost me $5 at a garage sale with a cracked miter
shoe. The part cost me $8 and change from the repair depot ($279 saw
new)

The 8 1/4" Milwaulkee cost me $25 with a broken depth adjuster shoe -
which cost me $8 or so from the depot.
My Milwaulkee Sawzall I got free with a broken pitman drive. The
repair depot in Windsor told my brother-in-law it wasn't worth fixing
and the part was not available so he gave it to me. I bought the
required parts for the newer model saw (3 parts instead of just one,
to be able to use the now available, stronger parts) for $35. I should
replace the switch sometime - it is a bit touchy the last year or so.

I bought my Myford Super 7 (about $8500 US new) for $1500 Canadian and
but $200 Canadian worth of crossfeed screws and nuts in it.

My Beaver 8" table saw cost me $40 (the good old style cast base unit)
and I put about $10 worth of bearings into it.

My 6" jointer planer I got for nothing with a bad drive pulley and
worn shaft (where the pulley had run loose for too long). I reduced
the shaft size with my hand grinder and installed a smaller bore
pulley. Paid to have the knives re-ground.

Large community swap meets or as our British cousins call them..boot
sales (?) are good places to pick up good used tools at often times
very good prices.

Gunner



Come shed a tear for Michael Moore-
Though he smirked and lied like a two-bit whore
George Bush has just won another four.
Poor, sad little Michael Moore

Diogenes