Stanley ruins another tool firm

[longlandy]

Bought a spare dewalt 4 1/2 grinder today. Choose a dewalt one as my other has so far survived nearly ten years of pro use.

New grinder overheats in ten minutes, on further investigation is says on the id tag underneath germany in small letters made in prc!!.

Local Mac dealer pops in to try and sell me junk and he proudly explains "we" as in stanley have bought dewalt and have moved bulk production to china" and probably lowered specs me thinks.

How long will this carry on for , its going to be impossible to buy anything any good.

[Retroanaconda]

A shame, all the Dewalt stuff I've used is pretty good, although most of it is quite old....

Stanley have somewhat lost their edge over time it seems, didn't know they'd acquired Dewalt though

At least they left their old factory in Sheffield for me to play airsoft games in

[longlandy]

I think stanley management believe its all about branding and quality is not a issue like designer clothes,the list of quality tool manufacturers destroyed by stanley is getting quite long

[Mark]

I had thought that Black and Decker owned DeWalt, and had done for some time - turns out Stanley = B&D.

Personally, having discussed it with a number of trade suppliers, I would go with Makita. One supplier I talked to said they sell loads of DeWalt, because that's what people want (when they see it on the telly) but they only ever hire out Makita... says it all really.

[Ally V8]

I used to do warranty work for a large diesel manufacturer,there was a plant hire place in Llanwern steelworks I used to go to.They only hired out Makita powertools,made me think they must be good to put up with the harsh conditions and non-caring users.Since then I've only bought Makita - brilliant stuff.

Snap on are another company more interested in branding than quality,lots of their stuff is nothing like it used to be....

[longlandy]

I aggree my dewalt stuff is old(cordless mainly) the new stuff really isnt pro,my heavy stuff is makita old hitachi hilti etc.Snap on make ratchets in china now.

What makes me angry, they are doing this out of greed snap on are still charging top top money for western made goods so they can keep it made in the us not knock it out in china and still charge blood.

[rusty_wingnut]

Dewalt was always a pile of, I used to work selling tools and nearly every single tool we had on return was Dewalt. Makita everytime.

[nick w]

been using makita for 10 years now as an electrical contractor brilliant stuff cheep and easy to repair the other very good manufacturer is matabo were given them by my old employer proper bullet proof stuff yet a little unknown

[wib]

been using makita for 10 years now as an electrical contractor brilliant stuff cheep and easy to repair the other very good manufacturer is matabo were given them by my old employer proper bullet proof stuff yet a little unknown

[/quot im a joiner and been using makita for 13 years and they are the tools to invest in realiablity second to non . as nick said mettabo are good stuff german built say no more?

[Mo Murphy]

When I was at Vauxhall, on the vans, all the trim shop cordless hand tools were Makita. In use 23 hours a day, good on batteries and very reliable.

Mo

[Les Henson]

I have 4 x DeWalt angle grinders that I bought about a year ago. I'm impressed with them, but they do get very hot. I knew they were owned by B&D, but didn't know that Stanley had stepped in and ruined the brand.

I had a Makita jigsaw a few years ago and it was total rubbish.

Les.

[longlandy]

There is no argueing over old makita stuff,probably the only real industrial tools still available,how long have they got,believe it or not ryobi were once high quality jap tools, hard to believe I know.

But the list of tools ruined by stanley is getting long.Mac ,vicegrip,dewalt,britool,facom is still ok for now, go on the mac van it looks like QD's

[Ruuman]

Dewalt have really got bad in the last few years, I won't be buying anymore of there stuff. I do really like the keyless chucks on them though

[RichardAllen]

Dewalt have really got bad in the last few years, I won't be buying anymore of there stuff. I do really like the keyless chucks on them though

No one has mentioned Bosch yet. My experience with them has been good, but only for home use.

Regards

Richard

[McS Junior]

No one has mentioned Bosch yet. My experience with them has been good, but only for home use.

We use Bosch Blue grinders in the workshop and they get abused, badly. So far they're the only brand to last more then one car build, current lifespan is about 12 months

Ross

[integerspin]

Best grinder I have had was a Flex, lasted a lot longer[in use] than any other grinder

I have had without question. But you pay for it, they cost several times what a Bosch cost.

I had a couple of Bosch grinders, one[not used as the Flex] lasted almost 20 years!

The Flex lasted as long but got used a lot more.

[matt bristol]

All ou rchippies on site swear by Makita, we have some Hilti and quite a lot of hitachi stuff which has lasted fairly well too.

[standard eight]

I have worked both sides of the counter selling and using and in my opinion you need horses for courses, Metabo make the best of nearly everything, not as true as it was but still some strength in it. Hitachi make the best chop saws C9U and C7U have been made for years, my Dad was a chippy and he swore by them. Makita make OK kit, and Bosch make good drills their GBH drills are superb. Dewalt, I would touch with a long stinky stick, I used to sell the stuff and we would return more than fifty percent of the kit we sold.

If money is no object then Fein or Festo, you're bank manager will be crying himself gently to sleep but you'll never have to replace it. They make some interesting tools as well with beautifully though out features. The Fein battery drills used to have two battery positions to allow access in tight spaces. Great kit.

[Scruffyhippo]

I only have Makita and Hitachi is the better for the trade, but thats my opinion got some Bosch and has lasted, gave up on Dewalt many moons ago.

[yalan]

I recon its all a fuss about nothing.

A decade or two ago dewalt was a professionals brand. Bought from pro shops. Their product range was focussed and expensive. Their tools did what the pros expected.

Some time ago Handy Andy ruined it all. Dewalt was on TV and everyone wanted one - but they couldn't afford the £300 odd quid a decent one costed. Management spotted a 'diversification' opportunity and dtarted designing cheap bottom of the range tat that homeowners wouldn't identify as rubbish. They got sold in Robert Dyas et al in big numbers. The brand then started making more & more cheaper tools.

The good ones are still available but they cost a big chunk. IMHO the good ones still perform as well as they did all those years ago.

With regard manufacture in PRC - again IMHO its all a bit irrelevant. You can move a production line anywhere in the world and get identical quality. Its just that labour costings vary. Some of the worlds best / most technically advanced products are made in China. But its also the place to get rubber dog poo manufactured if thats your thing. With Chinese manufacture, you get what you pay for. I'd rather have a well made Chinese spanner in my hand than a badly made British one.

And regarding Makita - yes, lots of good tools in the past and indeed present. But they too are diversifying. Not seen the £99 18v (NiCAD) Makita drill sets in B&Q? We've got some at work and yes they do drill holes fairly well, but if the bit snags, the whole casing twists and opens up slightly. But the're cheap & cheerful.

Long and short of it all - You get what you pay for!

[beerbellykelly]

i flat out wont use any anything made in china-they need to stick to what they know.

and it comes in foil boxes.

we can thank accountants and the health and safety nanny,s for upsurge of far eastern economies.

[Soylent Green]

.....i think those words "you get what you pay for!" may apply if you know what your buying in the first place! just take a look inside of any good garage and tell me do you see cheap sh*t tools? YES you may find the odd carp bit used for carp jobs! but thats it, many years ago i got the chance to buy a full tool kit from the good old USA, Craftsman was the company! that was around 18 years or so ago and still the set looks & works great to this day! i would have rather bought British but it was hard to match cost/quality and even to this day its just as hard to find a British tool maker that can stand up to anything the yanks or the japs or even any non-UK company can make? SAD! but now the UK market is full of cheap sh*t

[Range Rover Blues]

I've had my Bosch grinder for nearly 20 years, sadly it sounds like if I need another it won't be anywhere near as good. Likewise a lot of my tools are very old (some were my dad's) and a lot of them british, made here in Sheffield.

I don't agree that tools made in PRC are as good as those made in Europe, they still don't have the materials technology and their steel isn't as good. I know this from friends in the trade, some of whom are having to deal with customers who thought they'd bought quality british made tooling only to find it broke. That's on cutting tools as much as spanners, I have a mate who was a developement guy at Clarkson Hydra when they still made stuff in the Uk. Likewise SKF/Dorma don't make very much here anymore, they closed 2 factories and opened a new customer centre near the science technolgy park that is home to Boeing. Likewise Stanley (an american company) and record have closed factories and scaled down their Uk operations.

Moore and Wright are still here though.

[Lord Azrael]

I must admit I wasn't aware of DeWalt going so far downhill. The majority of items we seem to buy nowadays seems to be made in PRC, which quite frankly is shocking. I will not now buy anything that comes from there as most of the items I've unwittingly bought over the years that have been have fallen apart pretty fast! I always carefully check the labels on items now, point of fact when I was in Halfords the other day eyeing up a new battery charger I looked at their own brand Diesel/High Power unit - Made in China....However, there was a nice big boxed unit below with the big logo stating Made In Germany...guess which I bought!

If I had the choice of most products I'd buy British, except there's so few British products available now..if only the government would make it favourable to companies to produce items here, employ a British workforce, make our country strong again...nah, not likely I suppose

As a Tool Store manager working with the RAF I certainly get to see a wide range of tools come through from all manner of manufacturers and I would say the ones that really have stood the test of time in gruelling aircraft maintenance from temp differences of +50 to -20 and some very over enthusiastic technicians who don't care about the tools as they're not theirs, Snap On have been the best closely followed by King Dick. On a persoanl note I also like the Halfords professional range, although I dread to think where they're made(?)

[Jeff Young]

Milwaukee still make some good stuff, although they're not much-seen on this side of the pond.

I've had good luck with Bosch blue stuff. I also have some of their green stuff, which I view as somewhat throw-away, but I've sometimes been surprised at its longevity.

My biggest problem is that I live in a very small market (Ireland), and it's rather difficult sometimes to see the stuff in person before buying. I recently had to get a new timing light -- the only stuff I could find in the stores was pure rubbish. But it's rather hard to separate the rubbish from the decent on the internet. Even brands like SnapOn and Starrett are a carp-shoot these days.

Jeff.