Good Tool Brands

[ihocky2]

Just kind of curious as to who makes quality power tools at resonable prices these days. I know for the longest time you wanted to go with Craftsman. But I know those days are long gone.I have seen people talking about Delta and have seen them at Lowes and their prices were good. How does Ryobi stand up. I know DeWalt and Makita are good for hand power tools, but can carry a hefty price tag, but sometimes is worth it.

[Southpa]

Craftsman still makes good tools, depends on what you are looking for. I have good experience with various cordless drills. Stay away from Black & Decker in that area, however I wouldn't hesitate to buy a B & D Skilsaw. I noticed that Canadian Tire is marketing tools under the name "Jobmate". I had to laugh when I walked into the store one day and saw a HUGE stack of Jobmate detail sanders selling for $9.99 Cdn, kinda makes me wonder how they make any money, volume sales I guess. I bought one anyway.

I try to avoid buying tools that have plastic adjustment parts, guides etc. They are bound to break or strip sooner or later and its a pain in the butt to find replacements. It seems to be a very wasteful, throw-away world we live in where a lot of manufacturers are more interested in selling more tools rather than making something that is built to last a lifetime. I miss the good ol' days. But the basic rule of thumb still applies for most anything where price and quality is concerned. If you buy cheap, you get cheap.

Edited May 2, 2006 by Southpa

[Mattia]

Buy the best you can afford; Bosch's blue tools (they have green hobby tools and blue pro tools over here) are very good, Porter Cable's always a solid bet in the US, DeWalt is good, and if you're a millionaire, go ahead and buy yourself some Festool stuff.

Black and Decker's stuff has gone downhill quite quickly, and I'm none too impressed by Ryobi, from what little I've seen.

Buying cheap tools, if you're dedicated to building more than one guitar, is a good way to waste money in the long-run; you WILL buy more and better quality tools at a later date. I'm very glad I started with a good quality Bosch plunge, which has since been supplemented by a PC 690 and a PC 310, very much worth the cash. If I buy another plunge router (maybe one day...), it'll probably either be another Bosch, or a Festool if I can find a good deal on a second hand one.

[ihocky2]

For now I am lucky to have access to several routers so I do not have to buy one for my self YET. I have heard a lot of good things about Porter Cable though. I am mainly interested in bench top type power tools. Drill press, band saw, planer, joiner and such. I know with a drill press you want to make sure the spindle is tight and does not have too bad of runout. All I know is that if or when I get a bandsaw I will need at least a 14" to be able to resaw with. Beyond that I don't know much what to look for in them. Planers and joiners I like the idea of, but it seems that it would be a tool I would not uses a whole lot. It sounds like they like to tear out figured wood, so I may just as well stick with hand planes and sawing to rough size. Also with table saws, is there anything I should look for in them.

[Mattia]

Ah, see, that changes things around a little. Bandsaws, well, I hear good things about the latest Grizzly saws, although MiniMax and Laguna seem to be the real leaders of the pack (rebadged imported Italian bandsaws). If you can afford it, or want to build it, a thickness sander seems far more useful than a planer, if you have to select just one. I'll be building one of them soon-ish, and sticking to my handplanes for planing and jointing. I do wish I had a better drill press, that could actually reach to the bridge studs for guitars, but the cheap one I've got works fine for basic stuff (some drum sanding, drilling tuner holes and the like).

A table saw would be nice, but I suspect I'll go a lot further and get more use out of the bandsaw(s) I'll be buying. I'd love to have a table saw for some stuff, like powered fret slotting, but that's pretty much it.

[j. pierce]

I'm looking at getting a new router - a have an old Skil 1.5HP plunge that's held up real well, but it's developed a wierd habit of not locking perfectly straight, (like the spring on one leg is too strong or something) and I can't figure it out. (More than really being not straight, it just makes setting it in the table a little odd, because you have the height exact, and then it slides down a hair after you've locked the adjustment and released the bottom of the router.)

It's great for some jobs, but I'd like something with adjustable speeds and something I could use the larger diameter shaft bits in. (Almost half of that reason is because I want to use a 2" bit in a neck jig like Myka's in the tutorials.) Although I'm a bit scared of using large bits. Of course, I'm sure I'd probably need to replace my tiny Craftsman router table although I like being able to throw the hole rig into my trunk when I go to my parents to work on things.

I'm thinking of getting a Porter Cable, but there's so many models, I'm confused. Anyone have any particular suggestions?

Also, I see a lot of their routers have both plunge and fixed bases - if you have a plunge base, why would you use a fixed base? I'm sure if I had one, I'd see immediatly why it's beneficial, but I'm missing it right now.

[sumphead]

There are tons of opinions on tools and you will get answes that vary greatly. So, here's another one:

The General rule of thumb that you get what you pay for is true for the most part though I think there is a lot of overpriced junk as well. When it comes to Delta I am under the opinion that there are two types of products; the good with a price tag and the cheap/cheaply made. I have a Delta X5 unisaw tablesaw that I would sell off one of the kids to keep. 52" Biesy fence and I dropped a router (porter cable) in the end of the extention. I also have a Delta 10" miter saw that the wife bought as a gift a few years back because it had the Delta logo. I think it was around $100 new and it definately isn't top shelf.

Porter Cable was aquired by Delta and are still all quilty as far as I know. And I have also heard rumer that Some of the Craftsman Pro grade/series of power tools are contracted out to both Delta and Bosch.

Bosch is quality IMO as well, though I have never owned one.

Can't say much about Ryobi as there is no HD near me and that seems to be the house brand anymore, but I have heard a few good things about thier contractor table saws.

Hitachi has become a favorite of mine lately too. Well priced quility stuff.

HTH,

R-