I don't know - I'm stubborn. In one of the other posts someone suggested a Triton. It looks great. I bet the Hitachi is great, but what about durability/longevity? I know Porter-Cable has been around for decades. I've got it in my head that certain tools should be of a certain brand i.e.:
Router: Porter-Cable Belt Sander: Porter-Cable Drill: DeWalt or Milwaulkee Recriprocating Saw: Milwaukee Circular Saw: Skil Band Saw: Delta
I d> Mark;
Yeah - I know what you mean. Here are mine:
Router: Porter-Cable Belt Sander: Porter-Cable Drill: Milwaulkee Recriprocating Saw: Milwaukee (absolutely) Circular Saw: Porter-Cable Band Saw: Laguna Table Saw: Delta or Powermatic
Wow, I got more hits than misses. I'm in the market for a router and my uncle (pro woodworker) recommended the Porter-Cable with the dual fixed/plunge bases.
Belt Sander: Skil -- piece of crap Drill: DeWalt -- love it, but I bought the really nice one Recip. Saw: Milwaukee -- love it; i can saw through a Buick with it Circular Saw: Skil -- the first power tool I ever bought Band Saw: Craftsman -- not very good, but works well enough for most of my projects
--Jay
Right. How much I spend on a tool depends on how much I anticipate using it. I am a hobbyist woodworker, so the economics work out to how much I'm willing to spend on my hobby.
I bought the Skil belt sander basically for a single project, and wanted to spend as little as possible. The screw for adjusting the roller skew fell out a few years ago and I haven't found a suitable replacement. So the belt walks all over. The pressure plate needs adjustment because when I place the tool on a flat surface, the rollers bite more deeply than the plate. (This may be related to the missing adjustment screw.) So maybe it's unfair to judge a tool based on its performance in a degraded condition, and maybe it's foolish of me to use it in that condition and expect good performance.
I've used hand drills from Black & Decker and DeWalt. We use DeWalt cordless in our assembly area at work (rack mounted cluster supercomputers) and they seem to hold up. My cordless DeWalt worked for three years or so. The chuck disintegrated and the gearbox developed a hoarse gravelly sound. I can't really cuss the tool, however, because I think having dropped it into my salt-water aquarium had something to do with its eventual demise. And probably with the subsequent demise of the fish. :-)
I have a corded DeWalt drill, which I use for heavy duty stuff like doorknob holes. I described my current DeWalt cordless in the thread about whether we save or throw out the carrying cases. I don't remember the model number, but I paid about $300 for it. I love the three speed settings and the torque clutch. I use the guy for light-duty drilling (high-speed setting) and for all my power screwdriving. I like the sensitive torque clutch because I do a lot of machine assembly where you *really* want to avoid stripping the screw heads. A long Phillips bit and a torque setting of 1 or
2 is perfect for putting printed circuit boards into prototype housings.I got a cordless B&D from a place where I used to work. They laid off our entire field office, so in spite we drew straws for who got to walk out with the substantial tool collection. I won. Except that the B&D is a gutless piece of crap.
I bought the reciprocating saw because I'm in the slow process of remodeling my 1940s era house. The guys who did my windows used a Milwaukee to saw through the old steel window frames. I asked him how he liked the tool and he said, "I wouldn't [expletive] pick up another [expletive] saw." Just recently I had to saw some appliances free from a makeshift frame that the previous owner had built around them. The Milwaukee went through 2x4s like butter. And after kicking the mangled frame debris free, I noticed the thing had cut through a couple of 16d nails like butter. God, I [expletive] love that saw.
| Wow, a circular saw was your first power tool - damn, it was | like my 3rd.
It was the first one I *bought*. I think I was 20 or so and just getting away from dad's tool collection.
My dad and his father in law built the house in which I did most of my growing up. My dad designed it and his f-in-l was the general contractor (which he had done professionally for decades using mostly stuff he bought at Sears). A lot of my early experience was using tools leftover from that project. For years there was an unused table saw in our basement. I was told the motor was shot or the shaft was bent or something. Nowadays I'm kicking myself for not having brought it back to life. We gave it away to someone who, unlike me at the time, knew its value.
But I found myself doing a lot of carpentry at the time, and a circular saw was the most useful tool on my budget. If all you do is cut materials and nail them in place, a circular saw is a good thing to have.
Several years ago I bought a series of shop tools -- a small band saw, a small drill press, and a small radial arm saw -- with the idea of getting more serious. They're all Craftsman. Why? Because Sears was close and because I still had my grandfather's unequivocal praise of that tool line ringing in my ears. This was a guy who knew every trick to building everything from cabinets to office buildings. He had -- at some point -- done every phase of the work from mining the iron ore and coal to logging to refining the steel to sawyering to cutting dovetails with a pocketknife to mixing his own dyes.
My frustration with these tools in recent years is due, I think, to their not being of exceptionally high quality to begin with. But it's also a result of my inattention to keeping them adjusted and maintained.
--Jay
See, I'm more stubborn because I'll spend the money regardless of how much I expect to use it. I guess I feel safer with the best tool sitting on a shelf than a mediocre one I use all the time.
I've never done any major demo work so I don't have a recip saw yet, but that would be the next handheld tool after a router and it will definitely be a Milwaukee.
I'm not a fan of cordless tools because I don't use them every day so I'm not likely to keep them charged and they won't be ready when I need them.
I'll make a mental note to not put my power tools in salt water. :P
Did you see this site in one of the other threads?
Mark
Jay W> | I learned a long time ago that you get what you pay for.
I'm not keen on the idea of putting electronics in a rotary tool. I'm afraid of what the magnetic field from the rotation might do to the electronic components.
PC borrowed (read stole) ideas from Triton? How embarrassing for PC... :(
Mark
Sprog wrote:
Right. It depends on your personal perception of value. Since most power tools are simply variations on the theme of whirling sharp metal blades attached to powerful motors, having one presumably built to the highest standards of safety and reliability would be a good thing. You don't necessary want to hold a Fisher-Price router in your hands.
| I'm not a fan of cordless tools because I don't use them | every day so I'm not likely to keep them charged and they | won't be ready when I need them.
I have spare batts for all my tools. There's the batt in the tool and at least one that's charged and ready in the toolchest. When a batt goes flat, it goes right into the charger. I've never had a problem with getting caught without batteries, but that's because I take precautions.
If you do most of your work at a bench, you probably don't need cordless tools. But in addition to bench work I also do carpentry-type work where you walk around a lot and climb up and down ladders. Being rid of that cord is priceless under those circumstances.
| I'll make a mental note to not put my power tools in salt | water. :P
Yep. Good safety tip.
| Did you see this site in one of the other threads? |
I did. I skimmed it, bookmarked it, and I'll be reading it carefully before I go shopping.
--Jay
Not embarrassing for PC, they just recognize good ideas and quality when they see them
:-)
Mark Dailey wrote:
Mark Dailey wrote in news:EStzb.7398$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr30.news.prodigy.com:
Actually Triton took ideas from just about every other router manufacturer and combined them. How embarrassing for Triton. Triton holds no patents that I know of, they combined features of other routers and suggestions from router users. PC borrowed (read stole) is a bunch of bullshit. Hank
If the Hitachi's were good enough for Bob and Rick, they're good nuff for me !
The main thing with me and rechargeable tools is that I don't use them often enough to make a habit of keeping a battery charged. That plus the batteries would probably degrade and no longer be made by the manufacturer and I would have to discard a 'like new' tool because the batteries are dead dead. I can definitely appreciate the utility of rechargeable tools - I just don't have as much use for them as other people. Also, rechargeable tools are useful when building a structure from the ground up before wiring has been run... ;)
I was just suggesting that it was embarassing for P-C because a new guy had better ideas. It was just a joke.
The Hitachi is a cool green color, too.
I'm sure there are plenty of routers that are as good as P-C and some that may be better, but I just trust the durability of P-C because they've been around so long...
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