Non Chinese power tools anyone?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Cdaniel

Cdaniel

Undocumented Mechanic-I Am Not CDAN
10 Year 15 Year 20 Year
Joined
Sep 29, 2004
Threads
229
Messages
2,659
Location
AZ
Website
zot-art.com
Is there any manufacturer of power tools (angle grinder) that still makes their product somewhere other than China?

A recent hunt through Home Depot and Lowes shows: Dewalt, Milwaukee, Rigid, Makita, Skil, Black & Decker, Porter Cable, Ryobi, Hitachi, All China or Taiwan. With Bosch being the only stand out. (Malaysia)

I want to buy American and I can't. Pathetic.:mad:
 
IR... "assembled in USA" anyway.

Mark...
 
Sadly those days are gone. I remember when I was in the Army at Ft. Bragg N.C. Fayettville had a huge Black & Decker plant back in the early 70's. Went back in 2004 and was told most of the business went to China. If it was a choice of Asia products I would go Maylay because I live in Asia and I have had good results with Malaysian power tools. The Chi-Com crap sucks big time! Freakin Levi's are made in China now, not S.F.:frown: I resently bought a angle grinder made by of all names Lotus of U.S.A. Haa haa That was total B.S. Good luck in your tool quest!:wrench:
 
You got that right. Here in the Philippines the average worker is paid around $6.30 a day and not for 8 hours either I mean a 12 to 14 hour day. One reason why I don't want my wife to work here. Cost more to commute than what she would make. Sad, Sad world at times.
 
You'll find that companies make different grades of the same thing. for example dewalt make a 4" grinder thats about $120, they also make a 4" grinder that is about $600 (here in oz anyway). They pump out massive numbers of cheap crap and trade off the name of the tradesman quality tool, If you want good tools you will have to go to a good tool shop and pay good dollars.
 
BEE-JAY42 said:
You'll find that companies make different grades of the same thing. for example dewalt make a 4" grinder thats about $120, they also make a 4" grinder that is about $600 (here in oz anyway). They pump out massive numbers of cheap crap and trade off the name of the tradesman quality tool, If you want good tools you will have to go to a good tool shop and pay good dollars.
Click to expand...

I'm all for the you get what you pay for theory. Need to find a real tool shop. :hhmm:

And Eddy, Tools and tech go hand in hand.. yes?
 
Sorry, probably hijacked your thread a little bit there. I see after re-reading your post that your after american made tools not just commenting on the quality of cheap chinese crap. If it make you feel any better not only do get a lower price thanks to cheap chinese labour but alot of the companies making big profits from cheap chinese labour are american. So your money sort of just does a big loop through asian back to where it came from.
 
I have a 5" Makita angle grinder that is made in China, absolutely been flogged and still going strong. I also have a drill driver made in China and a drill driver made in Japan (both Makita, both current models) and the Chinese one is actually a better drill.

Otherwise, the $130 (AUD) Bosch grinders are made in Germany. (here in Aus anyway)
 
I like my older Makita tools, took one apart last week,it had bronze gears and was still going fine. However a broke newer one had plastic gears. MIke
 
I've got a couple of Makitas now. Will probably get another when all said and done. Made in China under Japanese supervision.
 
I beat a normal ol makita grinder badly and have for years. MY makita sawzall lasted longer than any tool Ive ever owned.

And YES there is a big ol difference between the craappy dewalt at home depot for $50 and the HEAVY commercial version you will see at the welding supply or bolt house here locally. Expect to pay another $100-150 more tho.


Buy older tools off of CraigsList. I love old aluminum Makita, blac and decker/Suix(?spelling), craftsmen tools. Real bearings and the local tool guy can always fix them.
 
You do realize YOU are the problem?

YOU went to a huge corporate store that buys cheap import shiit in huge quantity to save $.30 more than the little mom and pop tool store or the welding shop guy or the tool truck.

That huge store exists because YOU/CONSUMER wanted cheaper shiit. They figured out how to give you CHEAP SHIIT.

You went to the cheap shiit store looking for cheap shiit, thats the new american way. Those bog ol chain box stores are the walmart of tools/hardware. You dont expect to get some of the farmer next doors prime beef and maine lobster at walmart do ya?

Why didnt you look to a shop owned by a local guy like the welding store? Why didnt you look to the bolt supply guy? Why didnt you step on a tool truck and look for quality tools?

People have asked for shiit for years now complain about how a shiit sammich tastes.
 
Why would I pay 15 times a reasonable price just so my tool guy can ride around in his big old shiny truck all day? Sorry I refuse to pay more than I absolutely must for quality tools. I have had more success with buying tools at pawnshops and ebay than I have ever buying off the truck. Find a friend going to tech school and piggyback off his graduation order. Snap On at half off. The only way to buy it.

The local welding store has to mark things up so much I can't logically afford to buy it there. I order pretty much everything from RAM and it gets here in plenty of time. If I need it local I will buy it, but for the most part local rarely competes. Since the invention of the interwebs, pricing equipment has become more critical. If I don't need personal assistance, then I just assume order what I need based solely on price. If my welding shop was withing 10% of what I could find it online, I would buy from him every time. But the last thing I priced from them was Silicon Bronze TIG rod. For a pound they wanted to charge me 36$ before tax. I could order the same thing from RAM for 9$ a pound. Even with shipping I come out cheaper.

My money is hard to come by why would I want to waste it recklessly? So for a large part price drives the sale in my book. Another thing to remember is most people don't build, repair or work on stuff anymore. I don't even think they teach shop class anymore. People pay a service or buy some Chinese junk. Most of them can't do anything themselves, so why do they need quality tools that last a lifetime. They need something to get a simple task done now. Kinda like the tube bending thread. People want the cheap HF pipe bender and then want to figure out how to make it work with proper tubing. They buy that crap because its cheap. Instead the people making nice benders can't sell a proper bender because people only want cheap junk.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom