OT: Battery Operated Yard Tools - Recommendations? (2024 Update)

[Leon]

Every once in a blue moon a brand will be shipped to the wrong store by mistake.

I have seen Craftsman tool boxes at HD.

[krw]

How do they sell them? What for? They're obviously not in their sales system.

[Scott Lurndal]

Craftsman is completely separate from Sears (what's left of it) and craftsman branded tools are sold by Lowe's, Ace, Atwoods, Amazon and Blair's Farm & Fleet.

[Leon]

It is very easy to add them to inventory, just like any other new product.

[Leon]

And,,,,, In many cases a brand name product is not actually manufactured by that brand.

The actual manufacturer builds for multiple different retailers with different brand names. The Craftsman tool boxes, I saw at HD many years ago, were identical to the HD Husky boxes except for the label on the box, and or color.

Many Craftsman power tools were made by DeWalt and that list goes on.

Even Fein builds a tool for Festool.

It would be interesting to see just what Craftsman actually manufacturers or it may be just a company having products made to their specs with their name on the product.

IIRC Kenmore did not build appliances. For a very long time Whirlpool built Kenmore appliances. And in the later years 4 or 5 different appliance manufacturers built appliances for Sears with the Kenmore name.

[DerbyDad03]

My favorite situation was the old AMC cars. They would design a model and then source parts from wherever they could get them. Sometimes they'd use multiple suppliers within the same model year.

I had 1966 Rambler Ambassador 990. I needed a starter. When to my local parts store they asked me which of the 3 GM starters that AMC used that year did I have?

I ended up having to pull my starter and bring it in so they could match up the bolt pattern. That means that whatever the starter bolted to was also different across the 990 line that year and maybe even the flywheel.

[Leon]

That is nothing unique. GM and FORD had interchangeable manual transmissions for many years. That was in 1970. Borg Warner built the transmission for both. Even today the 10 speed automatic transmission used by both was a joint effort.

It is surprising how many parts are outsourced that the automobile companies don't build.

Think Tenaka air bags.

Many turbo chargers are outsourced from Banks, fuel filters made by Racor.

Remember Hurst shifters?

FWIW AMC bought Buick's V6 way back when and then GM started using that V6 again in 1975.

Same with Ford and even on their engines. They had a 351 Cleveland and

351 Windsor, two totally different engines of the same displacement built in the same year. The Cleveland engine was the desired one.

[krw]

Isn't Fein owned by Festool?

As you hint, Craftsman makes nothing. Never has, AFAIK.

There are only a few appliance manufacturers.

Maytag owns Jenn-Air, Maytag, Amana, Roper, and KitchenAid

Electrolux makes Frigidare, Tappan, and a few others

Haier (Chinese): GE, Hotpoint, Profile, and probably a few more

[Leon]

Perhaps, I have not heard or seen that yet. But Festool does own SawStop.

IIRC Samsung now builds GE and probably GE Profile too.

[Brian Welch]

wrt Sears, the key to the manufacturer usually lies in the first 3 digits of the item's model number...

[hubops]

another eg. Sears Kenmore sewing machines :

20 = Greist 117 = White Sewing Machine Co. 119 = Unknown 120 = New Process Division of Chrysler Corp. 148 = Soryu ( Japan ) 153 = Riccar 158 = Maruzen / Jaguar 340 = Necchi 385 = Janome 516 = Gritzner Kaiser (W. Germany)

John T.

[Puckdropper]

Leon <lcb11211@swbelldotnet> wrote in news: [e-mail]:

*snip*

*snip*

Noticed a Ford had the same set of wheels as our Toyota, just the little logo in the middle had been replaced.

One fellow I was talking to years ago put it this way: If someone makes a part that does exactly what we need, why should we go through all the trouble of making our own when we can just buy theirs?

Puckdropper

[Leon]

Well normally it is less expensive to manufacture a part, if you are a manufacturer, than to buy from some one else.

[DerbyDad03]

I went to Lowes and dropped the big bucks on the 56V Ego blower rated at 180mph. I haven't compared it to my 180mph corded blower yet since it's been raining for days.

However, the shopping experience was certainly more friendly.

As I noted above, the Ryobi at HD was locked in a cage and I was escorted to the cashier by the person who had the combo to open the "safe".

At Lowes, they don't lock up their blowers, but they do put a motion sensing puck on it. Taking it off the shelf, putting it on a cart, bouncing the lumber cart around the store causes it to emit a series of beeps. Slightly annoying, but certainly better than the perp walk to the cashier station at HD. And I can continue shopping even after I've selected the blower without having to retrieve it later. And I didn't have to wait around for the keeper of the combo to make her way to the garden center.

Granted, I am comparing an HD and Lowes that are located in very different neighborhoods, if you catch my drift. The next time I'm in a HD in a comparable neighborhood to the Lowes I shopped at, I'll have to see if the lock down policy is HD wide or store specific.

I hope to compare the Ego 56V to my Ridgid corded blower in the next day or two. I will say that the battery and therefore the charger for the 56V are *massive* compared to my 18V Ridgid and 24V B&D sets. The Ego charger itself has a frigging cooling fan in it! Whirrrrrrr until the battery is fully charged.

[knuttle]

Intermixing of auto brands is nothing new. 55 years ago my father in law worked for the GM Fisher body plant in Columbus Ohio. It was called a BOP plant, as Buick, Olds and Pontiac were manufactured on the same line. It was not unusual to see a Buick, Olds then a Pontiac moving down the line one behind the other.

My friend had a 62 Pontiac and I had a 62 Chevy Impala. Many of the non branding parts were the same. Basic door panel, he panels under the dash, etc.

[DerbyDad03]

Intermixing of auto brands isn't new, but where it gets to be a pain is when they intermix different brands within the same model year, making it difficult to figure out whose part you have in your specific vehicle.

It's easier now with VIN-searchable databases, but back in the pre-internet days, determining which part you needed might be based on bolt pattern, etc.

[krw]

I don't think that's true. Setting up a new manufacturing line isn't cheap. Neither is engineering.

[Leon]

LOL. When I worked for an Olds dealer we got a Pontmobile in.

It was an Oldsmobile with a Pontiac interior.

[Leon]

And if you think that is bad, we were constantly sending mechanics back into our shop to measure drum size to get him the proper size brake shoe. Then was the master cylinder a Delco or Bendix? Transmission filter, sure which transmission?

Yes, catalogs that were 36" across.

[Leon]

If you are manufacturing the part continuously, you don't want some one else doing it.

If it is something that you don not normally manufacture, then yes buy it from some one else.