Tools: Cheap and disposable vs. the best you can find/afford?

[Bob Salomon]

Bingo. Both Milwaukee and DeWalt are now disposable tool lines, in other words, rarely repairable and outsouced. Black & Decker commercial division ended around the 70's. DeWalt was originally a radial arm saw brand. DeWalt was purchased by B&D, and B&D by Stanley. All junk now, intended for big box distribution. Ironically, even Stanley once had a pro power tool division based in S.Carolina. It was purchased by Bosch, then moved to the Atlanta area. That's where Bosch's classic routers actually came from. Now they're all Taiwanese or Malaysian imports of so-so quality. But there's a big Makita plant too in the same suburb of Atlanta still making routers in the US, albeit just big noisy ones. I prefer big quiet ones, in other words, German.

That Makita plant is huge and 2 miles from our home!

[Drew Wiley]

Interesting. The fellow I trained as my sorta replacement toured the Makita plant a couple weeks ago. I visited the store remodel about a week ago, still in progress and not open to the public yet. About 200 linear feet of Festool alone, not to mention the backup warehousing. I don't know how much will go to commercial Bosch and Makita, plus air tools, but quite a bit no doubt. Milwaukee was booted, except for accessories, and DeWalt booted long before. That whole Stanley empire is technically a Cayman Is Corp and not US at all, even though they don't have a single employee there! A big tax avoidance scam.

[6x6TLL]

I have a 3 meter high stack of Festool gear I've slowly bought over the years from my European rep. It will all outlast me, easily, and is a pleasure to use each and every time.

[Roger Thoms]

Always like the TV show How It’s Made. Nice episode on the combination square.

https://youtu.be/Wh4Pbntn0Yw

Roger

[Tin Can]

Starrett videos are informative I have watched factory tours recently.

I also use many of their tools.

The video could have included the very nice storage packaging usually included. Which varies from wood boxes to slim cases.

Used my Starett Dial Caliber hours ago with Bloodhoundbob!