I get a good chuckle out of the guys on this board who scream that they'll never buy a Chinese power tool. Well I got news for you, you better run out to the shop and have a close look at some of your great name branded power tools and see what the fine print on the Id tags say. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
I bought a HF chop saw 10 years ago and used it for a few years, it did the job but I always wished it had a little more power for the big stuff. So I sold it, well sort of gave it away, and bought the best, the big DeWalt. Now my beef with it when I use it is that it blows breakers if you work it just a little hard. I rewired the main outlet on the outside of my shop with 10/2 and 20 amp breaker but if I'm making a long, hard cut it will still pop. And the saw is far from being overworked and stalling. If I take it someplace else to use it it just pisses me off. Anyway one day I was checking the load amp rating on the ID tag and guess what I noticed, hmmm...made in China...those bastards. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif So I start looking at some of the other tools around my shop; Dewalt jigsaw, Dewalt angle grinder, Hitachi drill, Rigid orbital sander, all Made in China! Not surprisingly if you look closely at some of the power tools in HF they are simply knock offs of the big name stuff, probably just a borrowed blueprint or two and change the color of the plastic housing and voila. I have looked many of these tools over closely in the HF store and some of it isn't all that bad, in fact I have bought several of these power tools now and have been surprised. My gut feeling is that if the big coporate tool guys are that greedy that they will outsource the manufacture of their products to a foreign land for their bottom line, then I'll think twice before buying their name again. Two years ago I got into business building retaining walls and needed some tools for cutting and grinding concrete, I didn't want to wreck my "good" tools with concrete and stone dust so I bought one of those $49.95 special chop saws, one of the 1" sds rotory hammer drills, and a couple of the #31309 angle grinders which are identical to my Dewalt. Now I will say I use my tools hard but I don't abuse them and blow the dust out of them once in a while. So far I have worn out two 14" diamond blades on the chop saw, still going strong. SDS hammer drill impresses me every time I use it since it works every bit as well as the Hilti that it is modeled after (I've used them too). I can't say enough for the bits either, I bought an extra set of longer ones for far less than the cost of one Hilti bit! I'm still on my first grinder which is usually running in a cloud of dust that I can hardly see it. So you know what, if they break now, I'll just laugh and go buy another, and I'm not so worried about leaving them around the job site for the fact they might get stolen. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
So my words of advice are, if you need a tool of precision like a table saw, miter saw, planer, jointer, you're probably better off with a good brand name as many of these are still produced in USA and the Chinese ones I've looked at are sometimes sloppy and have a ways to go yet. But for some of the hand tools that would be nice to have even if you only need them once in a while, save yourself some dough. Stay away from the 9.99 "drill master" power tools though, I think these are the ones that guys tell about burning them up the first time you use them. One more note on chop saws, I've learned that it pays to buy better quality chop wheels. The cheap ones tend to glaze on cuts with too much contact area and even in a Dewalt saw they won't cut heavy steel. Always try to set up the cut so the contact with the wheel will be the thinnest dimension. ie. flat bar set up in the vice vertically rather than laying flat.
Sorry for being so long but that's my two cents /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
Steve