Eric Anderson writes:

I know you have been around long enough for this. I think tools--at least
the better ones--have been getting better and are more affordable. The
price you pay for a shop of better tools today is less, in terms of what
your paycheck will buy, than it was 30 years ago. The 12v Dewalt drill I
bought in June of 1993 cost $159 which is about what I would pay for a
BETTER grandson of that 12 volt drill today over 11 years later. My
craftsman wood lathe cost about $300 in 1973 and the same one (probably off
the same tooling but better components) was selling at Home Depot for $300
before it went on closeout this year for $199!!!

Yes. The powered tools have dropped. IIRC, I paid about $20 for a single speed
non-reversing, ungrounded, aluminum cased drill back around '56 or '57. It was
a wonder then, but a POS, and dangerous, by today's standards.

An equivalent drill today might run $25-35, but will add a variable speed
reversing feature, and quite possibly a hand operated chuck, with grounding and
a plastic case. That plastic case may not sound like much, but the first time
you drill into a live wire in a wall, you'll appreciate it.

Tools may not be dropping like the computers, but they are sure a good value
today. Twenty or 30 years ago I would not have given the Porter Cables or
Milwaukees a second look, because they were out of my price range. That is
not true today and not even true for people my kid's age.

There is a lot of complaining going on about cheap tools these days. That's
generally easily corrected. Avoid the cheap tools. As you note, today's costly
tools are much cheaper than the costly tools of 30 or so years ago, and are
generally better engineered. And today's costly tools, checked for inflation,
don't appear to cost quite so much after all.

Given time, even the cheesy stuff improves. I can remember my first view of a
Jet tool, a couple decades or so ago. There is almost no comparison with
today's Jet tools in terms of quality. The same is true of Grizzly and a couple
of others. Today's tools are far better than those from 20 years ago. Part of
that is simple development. Part is a learning process on the part of the
distributors who deal with the actual overseas factories. Part of it is a
learning process at those factories. And, so far, most of it is a benefit to
the tool user.



Charlie Self
"Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity
has made them good." H. L. Mencken