I have seen many people refer to 'Craftsman' as 'Crapsman' and when I saw this item
This brand is not seen in Australia, and the US$1900 price tag is a touch too much to take a punt on, so...
Is the 'crapsman' moniker deserved?
Mekon
Sears spent over a 100 years developing the Craftsman brand as a very good, affordable, homeowner, light commercial grade of products.
They have spent the last 20 years destroying that image by offering bottom of the line products.
Sears has been in a state of decline for at least the last 10 years.
(WalMart is eating them alive, IMHO)
Today they are owned by the same guy who owns K-Mart and is known as a liquidator of company assets before he closes them down.
Sears is very rich in property (the store sites) which today is their principle asset.
If I were a betting man, it would not surprise me if Sears went out of business within 10 years, 15 at the most.
Lew
Since you're an Aussie, I'm gonna assume you really don't know and you aren't just trying to start a war. So I'll give you my take on it. I'm sure somebody will disagree. A generation ago, Craftsman made tools fit for a professional. In the last 20 years or so, they transitioned to a few high-end consumer quality goods and a lot of low-end homeowner quality tools fit only for the weekend fixer-upper. They traded off of their reputation for reliabilty while appealing to the gadget lover. These tools are often loaded with gadgets that work poorly or don't add real value. They came out with various Rube Goldberg devices that carry a router to carve spiral table legs and signs and 3-dimensional carvings. Think of them as an expensive toy instead of a serious woodworking machine. They often have bushings in places where quality tools have bearings and plastic in place of metal. Most folks on this side of the pond have had a Craftsman tool or three early in their experience but we have mostly abandoned Craftsman tools by the time we get seriously into woodworking. Personally, I would never sink that much money into anything with their name on it. When Bosch or Porter Cable comes out with a similar machine it may be time to think about it.
DonkeyHody "Even an old blind hog finds an acorn every now and then."
I have a number of Craftsman wrenches which still look new after many years. I have purchased a number of Craftsman products with motors which broke down too soon.
Despite my hestitance about tools with motors, I did purchase the 22144 Hybrid table saw after reading it was made by a decent contractor, Orion, or some similar name. The saw is working well after two years. It does not make me want to purchase any tool with a motor. For example, Sears makes a version of my Bosch 1617EVS router. I am hesitant to buy this since I do not know if they altered any specifications.
My Bosch 1617EVS works very well, except for a well known switch problem and in my older units like mine, oxidation of the magnesium body.
This unit is really the CarveWright with a Sears label. The folks who have purchase from CarveWright appear to like the company and the product.
The CarveWright product is tempting, but it is not a $1900 shopbot. It is a carving system. If this is what you need, then consider this seriously.
Go to the manufacturers site for more information and forum.
I still use some of the Craftsman tools purchased before 1990. After that I had problem with their warranty. It appears that they started to outsource some of the power tool to Ryobi and other lowest bidders. I have two belt sanders and one biscuit cutter. The three of them gave me problems. On the other hand the average buyer does not use his tool as often as the serious wood worker. Most of the time the tools are not used much and are stored on the shelves. In this case Craftsman may be suitable.
The Craftsman name used to be used on a line of pretty good tools. In fact, some of the woodworking tools built during the 50's and 60's were heavy-duty, well made equipment. I run across iron-topped Craftsman table saws in estate sales from time to time and they still get good attention. I own a router and circular saw that was purchased during the mid-70's and they provide good service. My '78 vintage drill press continues to work well. They still produce a pretty good line of hand tools (sockets, drives, ratches), but they are priced at about twice comparable hardware-store items.
Sometime since then they turned their backs on their home-shop customers and started producing (IMHO) junk. During this latter period they also started offering gimmicks instead of good tools. One example is their router-crafter which is a contraption that looks like a lathe and is supposed to allow the user to produce lathe-type turnings with a router (A hot item in the garage-sale circuit for years - many of them on their 4th or
5th rotation). I suspect his carver is another such device.Sears claims to have stepped back into the "serious woodworking" market during the past couple of years with a group of 'heavy-duty' table saws. They even call one of them a cabinet saw. Being the owner of a cabinet saw, it took one peek inside the cabinet to see what was going on - sheet metal added to what is basically a fairly mundane contractor's saw. This machine is a close cousin to the $289 garage saw I purchased years ago and no longer own. The main difference is they want $1,000 for this one.
Don't be tempted. Crapsman is alive and well.
RonB
Once upon a time, Sears sold mechandise that had slightly above average quality for a slightly below average price. They abandoned this practice some time ago.
They have changed all of their lines to be about average (or slightly below average) in quality but for about average (or slightly above average) prices (not just Craftsman). While times may be changing at Sears, they will find that it is lots easier to lose customers than it is to get them back.
Jim
Tough crowd!
Thanks all.
:)
Mekon
Sears and Kmart are now the same company called Sears Holdings. Eddie Lampert is the majority stock holder (i.e ESL Investments). He also controls AutoZone and AutoNation, among other companies.
Lew Hodgett wrote:
Well for better or worse the decision was made for me. It only comes in a
110 volts Australia has 220-240v as standard throughout.Mekon
Doesn't OZ also operate on 50HZ?
Lew
Yes and No.
Yes: The C*man router I was given for Christmas many years ago was unusable. Between the "Random Height Adjustment" and the "Poly-axular Angle Adjustment" features it was less accurate than I was, just a few hours into the WW hobby. By contrast, I used my Delta bench saw for over a year before I upgraded to a Grizzly contractor saw.
No: I have a lot of Craftsman hand tools, screwdrivers and the like, some more than 20 years old. I've never had problems exchanging worn out, lifetime warrantee Craftsman tools. If I hit the Lotto I am gonna buy the
25,000 piece Craftsman tool set. ;-)-- Mark
When Kmart emerged from bankruptcy and issued their new stock, the new stock issue was at $15. My thought was, "nothing has fundamentally changed vis a vis Kmart's market nor competition -- this looks really risky, K-mart's going to be back in bankruptcy soon, and all those people holding the stock will get screwed". The merged company SHLD closed today at $168. Ah well.
OTOH, I called it right when Krispy Kreme looked like the dream stock of the past couple years.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+Mekon wrote: | Thanks all. | | :) | | Mekon
Before you leave, let me encourage you to at least think about building your own machine. It's not as difficult as you might expect.
I just realized that everything in the machine I built (including the stepper motors) runs on 48V (or less) DC - for use in Oz, I'd just change out the step-down transformer...
...hmm, might be able to do something like that with the machine you were looking at.
-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA
WHAT ! ! !
You mean no SnapOn
Lew
25,000 pieces fron Snap On you would need to hit the Lotto twice.
Yep, that sounds about right...
Mekon
Craftsman, like any other manufacturer builds good stuff and bad stuff. Craftsman has it's stinkers and so does every one else. Being a relatively new concept in scale I would be leery of this tool even if it had a better brand name badge on it.
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