walmart power tools opinions

[Eli Sucks]

Anybody have any experience with the walmart brand of power tools "power Max" ? I was thinking of getting a circ saw for $39.99 CDN. Should I just stick with B&D or Skil? thanx Steve W.

[Duane Bozarth]

Including some of the cheap "name brand" stuff Waly-World sells as well...

I haven't actually seen the latest branded stuff of which you speak, but it undoubtedly is the lowest possible cost straight from the Chinese sweat shop... :(

[John‰]                      Â]

Cheap tools are no bargain.

John

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Little difference between any of the cheap brands. They may be OK for the once or twice a year use of a homeowner, but they are not what you will find in the toolbox of a pro. DeWalt, Porter Cable, Milwaukee, etc are far superior.

[willshak]

On 12/28/2004 12:16 PM US(ET), Duane Bozarth took fingers to keys, and=20 typed the following:

My wife bought me a shirt from JC Penney, carrying the St Johns Bay=20 brand. It was a button cuff shirt, but the cuffs had no buttons, only=20 the button hole on the one side. They were made in Turkey.

--=20 Bill

[MUADIB®]

If you're gonna buy it , buy it soon! The Tsunami's and the Earthquake results may drive up prices of even th cheap stuff very soon.

Just a thought for all of us, Things will be going up soon, as Building materials have already gone outta sight lately due to lots of overseas projects that are being ship[ped to.............the water ravaged areas will likely use even more of the resources that are available and many things will be affected pricewise.

Remove "YOURPANTIES" to reply

MUADIB®

one small step for man,..... One giant leap for attorneys.

[toller]

Not true. Homier is substantially worse than any other brand.

[davefr]

Power Max, B&D, Skill, Harbor Freight, Craftsman are all the low end crap. (not much difference among them).

I'd buy the t>Anybody have any experience with the walmart brand of power tools "power >Max" ?

[SJF]

I have a good router and bits which I bought 20 years ago and used once. That was no bargain!

SJF

[Martik]

For occasional homeowner use they are good enough. I have some of these tools that have lasted over 20 years. You don't need to spend $200+ on a saw that is used a few times/year. Make sure it has a carbide tipped blade.

[Phisherman]

[Pop]

The problem with "power max" tools is, you don't know whose tools they actually are. For example, Wm puts out a spec that says "circular saw, 6" blade, runs on 120V and has a cord x' long". Then you, I, or anyone else can offer them our poducsts; whoever's cheapest and has the least law suits pending gets the order if they can supply the quantities on time. Usually they will have at least two, they like three, different companies that can supply the same specced circ. saw. They don'[t even have to look the same! B&D, Skil & Craftsman are all decent equipment and work well for the homeowner. They have "residential" and "commercial" and "industrial" versions sometimes, in order to sell the same basic saw with various peripherals, etc., and usually the industrial versions will last longer, cost more, and be less precise (eg runout, in this case, on the shaft). Contractors don't want precision necessarily: They want Power a la Home Improvement, so the more expensive saws often arent' the best choices, besides being more than you realy need ofr a homeowner. Personally I've used or still use all three of those brands and they've always been good tools. If you know what you're buying, the chinese/japanese/etc. stuff can be good, but you never know up front in my experience. I bought Japanese once, not that most of them aren't already Japanese, because I'd used one a neighbor loaned me, and it worked fantastic. Mine didn't though; went thru two sets of brushes before I trash canned it. The latest Woodworker's journal just ran an article about them, and identified several Asian brands that, for instance, beat the big three for shaft runout. The ten they tested had a max .002" shaft runout while the "big names" went up to .004", one at .009". Doesn't sound like much, but it is meaningful when yuo're also putting a blade with its own runout on the shaft. A blade with say .001" runout will cut terribly on a bad shaft, or especially one that's not well balanced. Don't quote me; I could have those numbers incorrect, but the relationships are right. IFF you know what you're buying and can tell the mfg by looking, Harbor Freight and Homier et al have some very low price tools. But, it's a total crapshoot unless you know what you're looking at. Lately I'm liking B&D again, but if I recall correctly, they're actually Makita. There has been a huge merging activity in tool companies the last few years; no one seems to be the names you know/knew anymore. Skil is another one that's cross-owned; don't recall the rest.

My 2 cents anyway. ymmv of course.

Pop

davefr wrote:

[John Willis]

On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 15:43:47 -0500, "Pop" scribbled this interesting note:

B&D=DeWalt

Skil=Bosch.

-- John Willis (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)

[Roger Shoaf]

What kind of router is it?