Tool brand of choice

[deer_shooter]

I have a mix of ryobi, Milwaukee, porter cable and dewalt for power tools. The only power tools I've had fail was a craftsman sawzall that lasted just over a year so the warranty was no good and a porter cable angle grinder that lasted a dozen years or so. As things slowly need replaced I replacing them with Milwaukee.

 

[nwihunter]

The company I work for supplies us with all Bosch cordless tools and i really don’t have any complaints about them. I’ve used quite a few of their power tools and they hold up well to daily use. The only other brand I have some experience with is Makita and I like their stuff as well, I just haven’t used it as much as the Bosch. Milwaukee tools seem to be pretty solid too and are the choice of most of the electrical contractors we work with but I don’t have a lot of experience with them either. We never really see any Craftsman, Rigid, or Ryobi used at all. They probably work fine but I don’t know how they would hold up to the daily use that we would put them through.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Ryobi is definitely low end. They have a tendency to farm their tool manufacturing out to other outfits.

Rigid is hard to beat. They have very good customer service according to my brother, the professional cabinet maker. I picked up a good Rigid contractor (portable) table saw eleven years ago after cutting off part of my thumb on a cheap contraption. Someone did me the favor of stealing my cheap Craftsman power saw from the garage last year. Replaced it with a used Rigid from the pawnshop ($70 and only lightly used). That is a quality tool! I now have my dad's old Shopsmith multi tool and find it is useful for some specialty work. I use a 5" velcro sanding disk to trim skulls for clients' cap mounts. Works great because I can straddle the machine while working and use the table as a rest for heavy moose racks. Also worked great as a horizontal drill press to drill holes for sights on my rifle barrel. I built a jig to hold the receiver/barrel in place and clamped it to the fence on the table. Then just run the drill in the prescribed depth marked in white on the drill. Worked slick! Shopsmith is back in business I see. Need to order a few things that went missing during one of Mom's garage sales. Keep your eyes open because these can often be had very cheap. Most guys now prefer a whole shop full of stuff over a single multitool. Why? A year after I finally retreived Dad's Shopsmith, my brother picked up a replacement at a local business where previous owners left it behind after renovations. The new owners gave it to him!

 

[Deleted member 38069]

Ryobi is definitely low end. They have a tendency to farm their tool manufacturing out to other outfits.

Rigid is hard to beat. They have very good customer service according to my brother, the professional cabinet maker. I picked up a good Rigid contractor (portable) table saw eleven years ago after cutting off part of my thumb on a cheap contraption. Someone did me the favor of stealing my cheap Craftsman power saw from the garage last year. Replaced it with a used Rigid from the pawnshop ($70 and only lightly used). That is a quality tool! I now have my dad's old Shopsmith multi tool and find it is useful for some specialty work. I use a 5" velcro sanding disk to trim skulls for clients' cap mounts. Works great because I can straddle the machine while working and use the table as a rest for heavy moose racks. Also worked great as a horizontal drill press to drill holes for sights on my rifle barrel. I built a jig to hold the receiver/barslick! Place and clamped it to the fence on the table. Then just run the drill in the prescribed depth marked in white on the drill. Worked slick! Shopsmith is back in business I see. Need to order a few things that went missing during one of Mom's garage sales. Keep your eyes open because these can often be had very cheap. Most guys now prefer a whole shop full of stuff over a single multitool. Why? A year after I finally retreived Dad's Shopsmith, my brother picked up a replacement at a local business where previous owners left it behind after renovations. The new owners gave it to him!

I bet you don’t like Twitter, OH.

 

[Ben Lamb]

I bet you don’t like Twitter, OH.

Twitter < Harbor Freight.

 

[Deleted member 38069]

Twitter < Harbor Freight.

I was referring to the 200 character limit but yes, I prefer HF to Twitter.

 

[OntarioHunter]

I bet you don’t like Twitter, OH.

Okay, point taken. To compress: Shopsmith is not on the list but they are built tough and have multiple use for those with limited space. And not terribly popular any longer so used ones can often be had for a song. There, is that better?

 

[Ben Lamb]

I was referring to the 200 character limit but yes, I prefer HF to Twitter.

I once bought a harbor freight mallet.

it lasted 4 whacks before it shattered. Still better than twitter.

 

[Redmt]

Not a fair or complete comparison. I have at least one of everything in a lot of different brands because some brands make a better tool than another. I actually have a surplus of a lot of power tools, saws, drills, etc. If you PM me a list of some of the things your looking for, you can have them for the shipping.

 

[Deleted member 38069]

I once bought a harbor freight mallet.

it lasted 4 whacks before it shattered. Still better than twitter.

If you keep that in the back of your head while shopping at HF, you can find a surprisingly reliable item 1/10 times.

 

[Ben Lamb]

If you keep that in the back of your head while shopping at HF, you can find a surprisingly reliable item 1/10 times.

The 4x36/6" belt sander I got has been worth the $65 though. It's been great in the work shop, for grind to fit pads, taking glaze off of pottery & ruining a few pieces of wood that I was a little too aggressive on.

Everything else has been crap, so I think that 10% rule is pretty strong.

 

[rwc101]

I bought a leaf blower at Harbor Freight. It sucked.

 

[JEL]

Out at the farm we went all Dewalt cordless including drills, impact drivers, chain saw, circular saw, reciprocating saw and angle grinder.

 

[MarvB]

Makita then Dewalt guy here!

 

[Ben Lamb]

Some good comparisons on battery life:

 

[Huntkook]

Some good comparisons on battery life:

 

[LuketheDog]

All my primary use battery tools are Makita, but I have various Bosch and Dewalt stuff too.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

I think the home performance tools at 18-20 volts are perfect for 99% of the applications that a homeowner will use. For the very limited times I'd need 80 volts to power a concrete hammer, I'd rather go rent one instead of buy one.

Also: Kubota

Ace hardware is my best friend for that. Any time I need to bring out the hammer drill, I just rent it from them. No point in buying one when that's a tool that you need quality from to actually get into the concrete, especially for half inch and larger holes

 

[Deleted member 38069]

Ace hardware is my best friend for that. Any time I need to bring out the hammer drill, I just rent it from them. No point in buying one when that's a tool that you need quality from to actually get into the concrete, especially for half inch and larger holes

Unless it doubles as an ice auger drill! Well worth it compared to the ice auger competition.

 

[PrairieHunter]

I still have the old style 18v dewalt. I have 2 batteries that are more than 10 years old and still working. But now you can't buy the batteries from dewalt so chinese knockoffs on ebay. I can't change as I have like 15 different tools and it would cost a lot to replace.