HF tools that suck

[Travelover]

Originally Posted by patrick_g

..............I bought the larger of the two battery testers they sell. It is the 500 amp one. I thought it was DOA right out of the box (instructions were useless) but when I opened it up and figured out how it worked I knew how to use it and it is a darned good battery tester. ..............Pat

I rest my case. Instruction manual that came with it was a prototype, you refined it!

[EddieWalker]

I've had both good and bad luck with DeWalt. They are OK, for light duty use, but seem to wear out fairly quickly on a job. I've also found that there isn't any real consistancy with their tools. Some seem to be worse then others. I still buy them from time to time, but my expectations are always low when I do so. I put them right around Milwakee in quality, reliablity and durability.

The absolute worse product that DeWalt sells are their tips for screw guns. I can't get them to last for more then a few dozen screws. They just strip out and wear away!!! Ritht now I'm using a no name brand called Vulcan that is allot better. I can go most of a day on a tip. Bosch makes good tips too and so did Craftman awhile ago, but not anymore.

My favorites are Makita and Bosch for power tools. I replaced both my 4 1/2 inch grinder and 7 1/4 inch saw that were DeWalt with Makita brands, and the difference is amazing. Smoother, better balance, eaiser to control and just a better fit overall.

Eddie

[patrick_g]

Originally Posted by SnowRidge

I bought an expensive DeWalt bench grinder. It turned out to be absolute garbage, made in China. I could have bought a HF unit for half the price, and it would have been better built.

I have not purchased a single DeWalt or B&D item since.

Thanks for mentioning B&D. B&D 4 1/2 inch angle grinder that I have is absolutely exactly like the one DeWalt I have in every respect EXCEPT color and the sticker. Both are Chinese built to price units. The B&D is maybe 10-12 years old and still running while the dead DeWart (Chinese R-L thing) died last week a couple days after a lesser priced DeWart died. It was the week the DeWart Chop saw died. It was like there was a virus going around.

If I had it to do over I would buy Rigid cordless tools instead of having a shop full of DeWart. At least Rigid has good customer service and a terrific guarantee.

Pat

[Renze]

When reading the topic description, i first thought of a vacuum cleaner

Over here in Holland, we dont have HF but there are outlet stores that sometimes sell the same China made stuff that HF sells too..

I bought an Einhell branded cordless drill last year, for 40 Euro. Used it a couple of times, untill the two speed drive started slipping the gears in low, unless i kept force on the shifter knob.
Couple of months ago i bought a Hitachi cordless drill, in a box with a battery flashlight and two batteries, for about 120 Euro. Its 3 times as expensive, but it included a handy flashlight (you'll never run out of batteries on the flashlight because you have the cordless charger allways plugged in) and i still like it after using it as long as i used the Einhell before it failed.

I do have a chinese drill press, and so far i only had to change the crappy V-belt (shoe lash quality) with an industrial quality one from an automotive store...

[patrick_g]

Renze, I have a HF floor model 16 speed drill press. It is at least 15 and probably closer to 20 years old and going strong on its original two belts. It has an idler pulley for more speeds and so requires two belts.

I have a Delta bench top drill press with continuously variable speed. I have repaired it a couple times and got free parts from Delta since they apparently were aware of the design problem. A week or so ago the 1/2 inch chuck bound up and I paid $47.xx for a replacement. This unit is like new. Had it for 5 years but it has maybe an hour of run time on it at most. It failed during first few minutes of use.

Good performance for the price though since my wife won it as a door prize.

Pat

[SnowRidge]

Originally Posted by patrick_g

Thanks for mentioning B&D. B&D 4 1/2 inch angle grinder that I have is absolutely exactly like the one DeWalt I have in every respect EXCEPT color and the sticker. Both are Chinese built to price units. The B&D is maybe 10-12 years old and still running while the dead DeWart (Chinese R-L thing) died last week a couple days after a lesser priced DeWart died. It was the week the DeWart Chop saw died. It was like there was a virus going around.

If I had it to do over I would buy Rigid cordless tools instead of having a shop full of DeWart. At least Rigid has good customer service and a terrific guarantee.

Pat

I have a whole bunch of Ridgid stuff. We have two sets of their cordless drills (mine and my wife's ). Never had a lick of trouble with any of it.

[Iplayfarmer]

No surprise here, but HF tap and die sets are not worth the space they take up on the shelf. I got the holes tapped that I needed with them, but the tap handle broke of just as I was finishing the second hole.

The taps themselves didn't seem to be too bad, but the handle was cheap pot metal.

[Skyco]

They have at least two grades of taps/dies. The gold colored/titanium nitrided stuff isn't too bad, the regular metal colored stuff stinks...
Same with their drill bits..I've bought several sets of their gold colored/titanium nitrided bits and they've been pretty good. Bought a set on sale that were just black oxide. Actually bent the 1/4" bit when it stuck in a hole, now how do you bend a bit, not just a little but a lot? No heat treating at all, if it was decent it would have snapped off, or not and just kept going.

[Bedlam]

Oh yea on the bending. But these were meant for drilling cheese I think.Now if they were marketed for wood only that would be fine.

[patrick_g]

Originally Posted by Bedlam

Oh yea on the bending. But these were meant for drilling cheese I think.Now if they were marketed for wood only that would be fine.

...and ripened cheeses only, no hard cheese.

If the taps and dies are good and only the handle is bad that is just fine as the $ saved buying the taps and dies will surely buy a good handle. I hate the little cast pot metal handles so I don't use them, opting for owning at least a couple GOOD handles.

Pat