dewalt vs craftsman power tools (1 Viewer)

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My opinion is that you buy the tools one at a time, based on what you need. I have and use a lot of power tools and have never found a 'set' that is much good. If you need a reciprocating saw, you will find the Porter Cable Tiger Saw hard to beat. In protable table saws, Bosch is probably the leader. Routers - get a PC or a Bosch. Etc...

My point is that eevry manufacturer does some stuff better than others. If you read the tool reviews in Fine Himebuilding, you will be better informed. Nothing worse than crappy tools.
 
Milwaukee-


I was not aware that there was another tool manufacture out there....
 
I have a Milwaukee circular saw and a Milwaukee 18v cordless 1/2" hammer drill. I have been very impressed with both. The circular saw rocks, lots of power, the only thing is I wish it had a shopvac hole to suck from like the PorterCable ones have, but it's not that big of deal and works great. The drill has been awesome also, drilled way more than you ever should with a corless drill (through 1/2" plate steel over and over) yet other than getting a bit warm (some from the motor and some from my hands) it always has done great. The drill (like any descent one now) has so much torque it's hard to handle, a bit will snag and the drill starts twisting. I almost broke my hand with mine, bit grabbed ripped the drill out of my hand smashing my hand on jagged metal, got several cuts, snapped a brand-new 1/2" drillbit in half, a hell of alot of power for a cordless drill!!

One thing to notice is the Dewalts are 3-speed I think, which is why they list more torque than anyone else, since their's are geared down more. No other brand is 3sp I don't believe...the 3sp would definetly be handy at times. My stepdad has the 18v Dewalt set, and loves it, he's used it for everything.

My uncle who does wood-working for a living swears by Ryobi. Even though they are the absolute cheapest ones you can buy, he gets several years out of a $99 drill and he always says the trigger control on the drill is far better than most...the drill is undoubtedly lower power than some others, but he isn't using it to drill 1/2" steel holes like I was.. :D For more precise work less power definetly could help.
 
I've had alot of Dewalt cordless and got tired of the batteries dyin so fast. At $100 a piece, it adds up fast. Every time I buy one I get the charger with it (it's usually the same price as the battery alone), so now I've got about 10 chargers and only 1 good battery and 1 that's on it's way out.

The newer XR batteries don't seem to be much better.

I've heard good things about the Porter Cables cordless. I only have a few corded tools but they are top quality.
 
I like cordless for it's portablilty, but the quality and longevity of any cordless is less/lower than corded tools. The most useful portable IMO is a drill--simply becuase it can be used as a drill, nut driver, screw driver, wire wheel, etc. When I want to do serious work with a drill, I go to the corded version.

I've used and own(ed) Craftsman, Millwaukee, Porter Cable, Black and Decker, Skill, and Makita. At one time or another, they have all made good quality tools. But they usually go thru a phase where they start to make high-volume crap, and so I move on to another brand.

I currently like Porter Cable and Millwaukee. My PC corded drill is so powerful, you have to be careful not to hang a bit on something or it will swing me around in circles or rip my arm out of it's socket. Bought it right after my Makita broke it's drive shaft and it initially scared the crap out of me.

I agree that you get what you pay for. Buy a cheap tool and the initial expense is low, but you end up replacing it over and over again--plus you have the frustration of using a crappy tool. It's cheaper in the long run to buy a good though expensive tool. And unless you've used good tools, you'll never know how bad the bad ones are.
 
Another vote for Milwaukee tools here.

I've sampled all of the others mentioned, and Panasonic, too. DeWalt was spawned from Black and Decker, which got such a bad rep they had to change their name.

My Milwaukee stuff blows them all away.
 
I have a Milwaukee sawsall that is at least 20 years old and still going strong. You can't beat a Milwaukee hole hog for drilling studs and braking your arm... I just hate to drag out a cord...
 
DeWalt was spawned from Black and Decker, which got such a bad rep they had to change their name.
Click to expand...

Correction, Black and Decker bought DeWalt and combined it with their industrial division, I don't remember a "bad rep" having anything to do with it? A bunch of the contractors around here are switching to Bosch with good results.
 
I ran a small production plant, and did most of my on repair work. Had a Milwaulkee sawzaw, portaband, hammer drill, reg drill, and cordless drill, grinder's. We used other tools, makita, dewalt, craftsman, porter cable etc. Milwaulkee is by far the strongest, longest lasting tool made. They cost more, but so do toyota's.
 
Milwaukee. That said, I have a buttload of Dewalt and if you knew the size of my butt you'd know that means a lot.

Keep in mind when you're looking at Dewalt that they now basically have 2 levels of tools. Cheap s*** and better s***.
 
Dewalt stuff is good and readily avaliable plus interchangeability
of batteries, etc.

As far as drills go.......if you want the best bang for your buck, get
Hilti. I was in the general contracting business for a while and all
of our carpenters used the Hilti cordless drills, screwguns, hammer drills,
etc. Hilti stuff is very durable and powerful. Some guys used DeWalt,
but all would tell you that Ryobi, Crapsman, B&D, and Makita stuff
wouldn't hold up.

You can't run down to Lowes or the Depot and get parts for Hilti, but
you don't usually have to anyway.
 
From some searching i did a while back, seems that Dewalt is now made mostly in Mexico and not as hig quality as they were in the past. Porter-Cable and Delta are now owned by Black and Decker as well, they may take a hit in build quality as a result but you see those brands in more stores now. I have also heard that Home Depot tools are not the same exact tool that you find on the shelves of other stores, usually the model or serial has a "HD" to denote this.

Go with Milwaukee and never worry about it again, we haven't been able to break any of our Milwaukee tools and that speeks volumes for thier durability.

Hilti is the top of the line hands down, no doubt about that but $500 for a cordless drill may get out of a hobbyists rice range fairly quickly. awesome tools for sure though.
 
Milwaukee, Hilti, or Porter Cable (but Black and Decker owns Porter cable now so that may change). Over 20 years of killing tools doing construction and thats about all I will buy now.

I really DONT want to start an arguement, but IMHO Dewalt tools are poor quality. Thats just MY opinion though, other will disagree.

Craftsman power tools just plain suck. Which is funny because every wrench and socket I own is Craftsman.

Also, Rigid is not the Home Depot house brand, they are a long standing manufacturer of pipe fitting tools, pretty much the industry standard, and are now branching out into woodworking and home improvement tools. They may turn out to be very good.
 
Unfortunately almost none of the old tool companies are not what they once were. :mad: only a couple are still US owned. :mad: Milwaukee went down hill when Atlas Copco bought them, we will see how they do with Hong Kong ownership.

http://www.buildingonline.com/news/viewnews.pl?id=3405
 
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I have had a Rigid 18volt for a year now and love it! Best cordless I have ever had and they come with a 20 minute quick charge charger :D
 
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