Went by HD and checked out the BT3100 and while doing so a guy who works there was telling me that Rigid and Ryobi are made by the same company, and that Dewalt and Black & Decker are the same also. No idea if he's full of it or not. I suspect if true that Rigid & Ryobi are still seperate companies but probably owned by the same parent company - same for Dewalt & Black/Decker.
Not sure about Rigid/Ryobi, but I do know that Dewalt and Black and Decker are of the same company. The machine shop that I work for does work for the local B&D plant. Basically what I have seen is that the Dewalt tools are of a little higher grade than the B&D, but they probably share a lot of parts also. In spite of the poor reputation of past, I have never had any problems with the B&D tools that I have. Built an entire house with a $30 Circular saw, and am still using it, and that was all but 20 years ago.
Believe me, there's a difference between consumer level tools 20 years ago and consumer level tools today. You buy a B&D saw today and you get consumer level, period. You will NOT be using it in 20 years if you build an entire house with it.
Ridgid/Ryobi: Ryobi's parent company is making Ridgid power tools, except for the vacuums, for HD. This has nothing to do with the original Ridgid line (mostly plumbing tools, still owned by Emerson Tool). I am almost momentarily expecting Emerson to announce another brand of tool, using many of the same castings. But maybe not. I have NO inisde information, it just strikes me that there are plants idle, and plans idle, and castings ready for use, while the market seems to continue to expand. It may well be that Emerson can no longer manufacture tools in the U.S. because of costs.
New guys on the block: Palmgren. Actually, an old brand, being brought back. Check out
Charlie Self
"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal." Alexander Hamilton
Ridgid (Home Depot) and Craftsman (Sears) have both contracted the company that makes Ryobi tools to also build their tools using the specifications that they (Ridgid/HD and Sears/Craftsman) provide.
Don't know about the DeWalt/B&D situation, but the Bosch company also makes the tools that are sold under the Skil brand name.
Home Depot contracted Ryobi to make the cordless Ridgid tools. The better corded tools are Metabo, and I believe the stationary tools are still Emerson. Ryobi and Emerson have also made lots of Sears tools and a host of other lower-end brands. And Ryobi owns Homelite now.
B&D bought DeWalt (maker of huge and heavy radial arm saws) about 30 years ago. About ten years ago they repositioned the DeWalt name to market industrial portable tools because no one would buy them under the B&D name, no matter how good they were. B&D also bought ELU ($$ Euro brand) and folded them into the mix. DeWalt compressors are actually Emgos, by the way.
Bosch and Skil are also partners now. Skil quality went up, Bosch went down. The Bosch saws are Skils, the Skil drills have a certain Bosch design.
And then there's MIlwaukee and AEG, GM and Saab, Ford, Mazda, and Jaguar...
Nice and simple, huh?
GTO(John)
"Ron S." wandered in from the void and babbled something like:
I own several B&D tools that were made in the 60's and 70's. They have seen heavy use and still function well. Drills, Circular saw, Jigsaw, Sander. They were not top of the line then, but compared to what is available now - they are Mercedes.
Then I inherited several 1-2 year old tools from SWMBO's ex-husband. B&D drill, jigsaw, and a Skil (non-worm drive) circular saw. They are all three utter garbage. The B&D drill is especially disappointing. Bad chuck, electronic speed control with a mind of it's own, and a peculiar design that makes drilling a straight hole impossible.
I even have a 70's era Crapsman drill that cuts through landscape timbers like butter. All metal construction. Can't buy stuff like that anymore - especially at Sears.
Ahhh, the good old days... :-|
Greg
What, Mercedes aren't ritzy enough for ya?
Bah, not that I care, really. I'd have to be a multi-millionaire before I would consider paying that much for something that just isn't necessary.
Silvan wandered in from the void and babbled something like:
Perhaps an automobile analogy was misplaced... The point was, compared to what they build and sell now as consumer level tools, the older tools were tanks - Long lasting and reliable.
As for buying a Mercedes, I don't own one, but used to work on them. At one time, they were rather austere but durable. Most owners bought them, not for fancy gimmicks, but for reliability & resale value - an investment. They retained a higher resale value than most anything. Compared to both tools or a Front Wheel Drive *anything* made today...
Nope. Ryobi's parent company makes the stationary tools, too. Emerson still makes the shop vacs.
Yeah, and Emglos are really good.
I recently got a Bosch 4912 SCMS: if that's going down in quality, I'll take more.
And it will likely get worse. Bosch now owns RotoZip.
Charlie Self
"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal." Alexander Hamilton
That would be my guess. My brother works for a different division of Emerson. His division makes precision electronic measuring devices for use in factories and industry. He told me that much of their engineering is being outsourced to India, and the manufacturing has been moved to Mexico.
Emerson is making money by liscensing the Ridgid name to HD, and they don't have to actually make anything or take any risk. That's a pretty sweet deal.
David
remove the key to email me.
That's why the phrase "Crap is King!" echoes through my head whenever I walk through a Wal-Mart. The average retailer now caters to consumers who want it cheap, as they'll throw it out tomorrow after their kid's 15 second attention span loses interest.
The bike shop I work at decided to bring in all-metal pedal cars this Christmas. These things sell for $160-180, depending upon the model. We can't assemble them fast enough. The people who are buying them have never set foot in a bicycle shop before, so as a side benefit we're exposing new people to our bicycles, strollers, Yakima and Thule racks, etc... The shop is located next door to a major clothing store on my town's Main St., and these people see them in the front windows.
Barry
This brings up an interesting point.
My father had a 5-series BMW for a while, my inlaws had a Jaguar. Both cars required typical tune-ups in the $700 range on a regular basis. If people _really_ followed the manual recommendations on a typical Toyota, some tune-ups also might end up that expensive, but most people don't follow the manual exactly, they drive it until it breaks.
I always wondered how long the typical Honda or Toyota would last if you followed the same maintenance schedule as BMW, Mercedes, or other typical european cars.
Barry
B a r r y B u r k e J r . wandered in from the void and babbled something like:
Well, the Jags had Lucas, Prince of Darkness electricals, and a poor resale value for some reason. Warping intake manifolds on some models as well. Sexy cars, but a bit trouble prone, exclusive of the quantity of maintenance.
The Hondas blow head gaskets on a regular basis - aluminum heads and graphite coated head gaskets only take so many heating/cooling cycles before they fail. Seems to be a common thing on ALL front wheel drive cars. If not overheated, however, 100,000 miles is not unheard of.
The 5 and 7 series BMWs were good cars, albeit pricey.
I've seen plenty of older Volvo's hit the 1/2 million mile mark.
But as for the "How long would the typical *new* car last" question...
I have a Toyota Supra with over 300,000 miles and a Peugeot with over
500,000 miles. Have owned an Oldsmobile with a Rocket 350 V8 that lasted 300,000 miles - but was destroyed when hit from the rear, so I can't say how long it *could* have lasted. These were all older cars, however, and I haven't seen anything in the showrooms lately that holds much promise of lasting beyond 100K miles. My last aquisitions were a '94 V6 Ford Thunderbird - I'm not too impressed with it's longevity factor - and a Canadian built Mercury Marque which shows slightly more promise, with certain mods to the 4R70W transmission to decrease slippage (soft shifting) and increase it's pathetic life span.Things just aren't what they used to be...
Greg
IIRC, Skil/Bosch bought out Dremel a couple years back. IMHO Dremel went way down hill after they were acquired by Emerson perhaps a decade or more ago.
Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!
Paddle cars? You mean like the thing I used to have when I was a kid? Big honking huge ass piece of metal shaped like a miniature car, with pedals inside and working steering?
If figured those things were relegated to history a long time ago. Especially after they introduced Power Wheels.
One and the same!
Barry
You mostly sell them to nostalgic 30- and 40-somethings whose children really want Power Wheels, right? :)
Probably!
Barry
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