https://toolguyd.com/milwaukee-usa-made-hand-tools-2023-upda...
https://toolguyd.com/milwaukee-usa-made-pliers-screwdrivers-... (prices)
I think this says more about how badly Craftsman has shat the bed and less about manufacturing in America.
Apropos Milwaukee: I had one of their circular saws which dropped from a roof that I was working on and I thought for sure it's a goner. Climbed down, not a mark on it, still dead straight. It must have landed very fortunately but still that was quite the drop. and you'd at least expect some impact damage. There was a scratch on it, but that may well have been there from before the drop and it didn't look like anything to do with impact.
Uncle bumblef*ck always does the drop test, because it's quite realistic, especially for tools used on a ladder.
His teardowns are always fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbfNzt0UMGc
I was an avid watcher of him for a few years until he went off the deep-end with covid and backing the canadian caravan. If he's gone back to what he was good at(teardowns of tools with explanations of the materials and manufacturing choices) I might start watching him again
A surprising number of Canucks went down this rabbit hole, effectively losing years of their lives to these two movements and destroying their social networks and familial bonds.
One Canadian I knew cried for hours every day thinking her vaccinated extended family members were going to die. But hey, every date she listed as when I would die due to vaccine has passed and I'm still alive and healthy! So is her family, much of which is estranged from her now :c
Canada built a much tighter COVID vaccination verification and retail enforcement system than the USA. Vertical integration, few gray zones and such made those who opted out feel like the walls were closing in, as your province's health authority knew your vaccine status, restaurant demanded a valid, ID matching government supplied QR Code to allow seating, and the government was willing and able to enforce the law.
Comparatively, COVID restrictions were created state by state in the USA, and it was such a spotty patchwork that many who opted not to vaccinate lived much more normal lives than their counterparts in Canada.
Much like the universal Canadian deployment of tap and pay, present and pay (the credit/debit card never leaves your hand ever at restaurants or stores), PIN entry for all transactions that would require a signature in the USA, Canada is able to move faster and implement more effectively than the USA.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IeYVyhhHY-Y
I really enjoyed how he red circled sub clauses of the sentences he think are important and ignores the rest of the sentence in other videos.
The guy is legitimately impressive at understanding how tools work and the manufacturing put into them, but he’s an asshole when it comes to dealing with society at large
Edit:
Really sells it that he fucks up the tooling on his cnc mill while giving a rant about freedom. This was during his “I can’t actually run a cnc mill yet but am learning how phase” but he was leaning on his previous expertise to sell his opinion on the caravan
I don't know how you can in one sentence refer to it as a "conspiracy theory" then in the next describe a massive in-the-open conspiracy to coerce people to get vaccinated against their will. Which prior to covid would have been considered a gross violation of medical ethics.
Now reports and studies are coming out showing the Canadian govt and many other govts way over reacted to COVID.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/covid-lockdow...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/22/chris-whitty-sci...
I just didn’t enjoy him enough to deal with him going on a giant rant about how covid wasn’t real and the government was suppressing him from his god given right to breathe on us all.
I checked through his YouTube channel now and he seemed to have calmed down but I am not concerned about dropping him again if he goes crazy conspiracy theorist for his YouTube channel income once more. And that’s without counting how many videos he had showing off his basic chicken rearing or fucking around and failing at cnc milling
I guess if you're a more sensitive, tow the line type you may have been put off.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/covid-lockdow...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/22/chris-whitty-sci...
Your articles aren’t convincing me anymore that these were crazies. The second article for instance isn’t scientists saying lock downs weren’t needed but that it wasn’t scientists, and that committee of medical scientists in particular, role to be making wide sweeping changes to society. A completely reasonable position that doesn’t change whether or not lockdowns were needed
Thats called the democratic process.
Case in point: I still have a DeWalt drill from 2009's that is still on its original set of batteries. But a hammerdrill I bought for a renovation in 2015 died after moderate use just outside of the warranty and after taking it apart I realized this wasn't an accident but just crappy manufacturing. The mechanism was so delicate it should have never been greenlit and the materials used were sub-standard.
Mine went under in Sandy. Still works. I once accidentally ran my old pipe handled hole hog on 240V for a few seconds. That thing also fell from ceiling height down sideways onto concrete, broke the rear handle, bent the hole saw but it kept working. That is a scary drill.
My only gripe with Milwaukee is their corded power tools were redesigned with more plastic so they discontinued the parts for them. My Magnum needs a new brush holder and my screw gun needs a trigger.
I really want their mag drill but too rich for my blood so I bought an import that is meh but does the job.
That thing will fling you into the next room and break both arms while doing it without even breaking a sweat.
> The danger lies not in the machine itself but in the user's failure to envision the full consequences of the instructions he gives to it.
Another brand I still like after many years is Makita, I've yet to have something made by them break from normal use. DeWalt has lost the plot, they are no longer worth the premium price. And with Bosch it's hit-and-miss you have to do a lot of online reading before making the call on one of their tools. They are very efficient in their use of materials and sometimes they can be too efficient and deliver a tool that isn't up to snuff. But they are always price competitive.
That being said, even the cordless ones have an absurd amount of power. At my work we use them to send a 3-flute, 1 1/4" auger bit about 5 feet straight through Douglas Fir (drilling concealed electrical wiring chutes in columns). I've seen them roll a 10' 8x8 (~150 lbs) across the sawhorses when someone forgot to clamp it before drilling.
The loan described here sucks but seems similar to buying everything on a credit card and as a new tradesperson 19% is probably as good a loan as you’ll get without a credit history.
These tool loans certainly aren't going out to people that have already rolled the bus on a Capital One $300 credit line credit card.
Certainly a good idea to shop around but it’s hard to get a $5000 loan with no credit and no collateral.
What I found odd is that I rarely see these tools for sale used. I expect they’d be valuable, but I guess they just get bought up before hitting eBay or Craigslist.
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Pro
Quinn
Icon
Not everything is “good” but it’ll get the job done.
Where would you go to buy air compressor and accessories at retail but HF? Nobody caries them. I bought excellent standing air compressor at black Friday sale couple years ago!
Obviously one should use a high quality diamond bit for cutting the countertop in the first place, with proper dust control.
Power tools I look elsewhere but for hand tools and cabinets even their low-end stuff is great, or at least good.
That's very contrary to my experience. I have a lot of tools. Most of my hand tools are Craftsman from Sears back when they were around. Nearly all of them are very adequate quality for a non-professional (i.e. used only on weekends, not full time). Sears hasn't been around for a while but I still have all the tools, all work great.
I went through a phase of trying to save money and bought a lot of junk from HF. Nearly all of it was an exercise in frustration and I've thrown it all away in anger. Soft metal, bad tolerances, pure junk. The only HF tool I have left is a cement mixer. It's not great (the belt keeps popping off) but for my limited cement needs it's been tolerable.
TTI does this too: Ryobi (Good), Ridgid (Better), Milwaukee (Best).
Although cost reduction was a huge factor.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/technology/iphones-apple-...
1. Even slightly cheaper labor matters at scale.
2. Lax environmental regulations make materials, disposal, and energy cheaper (which is really just dumping externalities on others).
3. China for one subsidizes its industries. Corporations can’t generally compete with governments, especially big ones with their own sovereign currency.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=iN8xhU6ChRI&pp=ygUSV2t1ayB3aGF0I...
Sorry to burst your bubble. Manufacturing pliers and screwdrivers is a joke when compared to, as an example, manufacturing a cordless drill, battery packs, charger and accessories.
We cannot do ANY of that in the US.
Something like this:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-M12-12V-Lithium-Ion-Co...
Nope. Can't do it.
Not unless you are willing to play $500 for it, or much more.
Let's put it this way: If you take the time to create a detailed list of every component, material and process required to manufacture and deliver that product, you will quickly discover that NONE OF IT is made in the US.
In business terms, the supply chain for the manufacturing of such products is long and very expensive, because it isn't local.
Guess where you'd have to buy all the components from? China.
A corollary is that you cannot make this product for less (or even the same) than what it costs to make it in China. Impossible, even if the factories existed.
While people love to talk about "Buy American" there's a huge gaping hole between those who virtue-signal with bumper-stickers and flags and the much smaller group who actually practice --to the extent possible-- what they preach.
BTW, I have attended trade shows where Chinese OEM manufacturers showcase products they make, including tools. To put it in simple terms, anyone can sign a deal with any of these manufacturers and have a line of quality hand and power tools with their own brand and logo. You go to these conferences and can actually talk to and buy from the very companies who are making tools for the top brands in the US and Europe.
Worth mentioning that one can also go to pharma manufacturing and trade shows in China and discuss bespoke bulk synthesis deals and leave with free sample bags of uncapsuled high grade perscription drugs with a "to US patient on US soil" value of tens of thousands of US dollars.
But a reminder that this didn't happen by accident. Capital went in search of cheap labor, to increase profits. The cheap(er) labor wasn't in the USA.
We let capital do this. We loosened capital flow rules, we loosened profit repatriation rules, we reduced or eliminated tariffs.
That's not to say that Chinese/Asian companies would never have gotten good at doing this on their own. But the situation we are actually is not really a result of their excellence and/or costs - it's because we elected political representatives who allowed the capital class to fuck us over, and so they did.
Now we can say the price reduction wasn't worth it and the bang for buck has actually gotten worse as we've made more things more accessible. That the cost of everything being cheaper is that we have to buy more of it, creating more waste, contributing more to climate change, etc.
But ultimately globalization and the move to manufacturing in China HAS contributed to a huge amount of prosperity world wide as geographies that would've never been able to afford certain devices, tools, or even just entertainment before, have been able to.
In North America, and maybe Europe, the share of worker wages has decreased to the benefit of the elite, but World-wide prosperity has increased DRAMATICALLY in the decades of "globalism" and "neoliberalism"
BILLIONS of people escaped poverty worldwide in exchange for the millions that entered it in the US.
Unfortunately it's not clear what the next step for those billions is. It's certainly not the path that the US and Europe went through for their post-industrial and post-war boom. But what is it instead? It's uncertain and unwritten.
At this point the existential threat to the majority of humanity isn't a lack of clean drinking water, vaccinations, and upward mobility opportunity. It's climate, heat waves, flood, and all the effects that affect everyone across class divides (except the 0.01% in their mountain bunkers)
Yes, we've done a lot to reduce poverty in many parts of the world. There is a (relatively) furious argument going on, however, about the role of capitalist corporations in that process.
In the west, we seem committed to destroying our gains in public health currently. Really incredible times to be living in.
I tend towards the idea that the benefits are often worth having, but that the costs shouldn't be externalised onto the workers in question, and therefore regard corporation tax being used to fund redistribution/welfare programs to be justifiable on a market basis as a pigouvian tax as well as justifiable from basic morality.
That the cost of everything being cheaper is that
we have to buy more of it, creating more waste
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durable_good
Using the economists' definition of "durable goods" I would say that for the most part, quality has improved. Cars last 2-3x longer these days. Computers have been "fast enough" for a while and can last 10+ years. Perhaps professional tools have taken a nosedive but my low-end Ryobi tools last essentially forever with light household weekend usage.
Not a "durable good", but cheap clothing also feels way more reliable. Cheap synthetic or cotton/synthetic blends are now comfortable and breathable (which is a relatively new development) and last pretty much forever.
Some things have gotten anecdotally worse. Everybody says that large household appliances like refrigerators, washers, and dryers have really taken a nosedive in quality and/or repairability. It certainly feels true but, I don't know what the actual numbers might say.
But I don't know, man. Affordable crap from 2023 actually feels better than the affordable crap I remember from 1983 or 1993. It certainly doesn't feel worse.
Throw in a dash of "Learn to code" too.
Maybe one day we can sit down and talk about how shitty it is but not until we stop playing Team Red vs Team Blue
How?
We let capital do this [...]
we elected political representatives who
allowed the capital class to fuck us over
Short-term, "fuck the future" profit making is what capitalism encourages. Executives are judged quarterly and yearly, not rewarded for long-term thinking.
Same with our system of government. Relatively short terms for elected officials and the "endless campaign" have some benefits but essentially rule out any sort of coherent future-focused long-term thinking.
This is what our system was designed to do. Any other kind of behavior is anomalous.
Again, I apologize if I'm interpreting you unfairly. I'm ranting at the system, really.
Judging based on quarterly results is a peculiarly American version of capitalism, and one that has a lot to do with publicly traded companies rather than private ones (which are still capitalist entities in a capitalist system, but subject to quite different incentives and pressures).
I don't think it's accurate to say our "system was designed" to do this sort of thing, if only because 50-90 years, it didn't do this sort of thing. It has mutated and/or the wiggle room within it has been discovered.
Now, capitalism can still be totally wrong or even almost entirely wrong, quite independently of whether "we allowed free capital flow, profit repatriation, no labor movement, etc." is also a terrible long term plan given capitalism.
one that has a lot to do with publicly traded
companies rather than private ones
I can think of a few examples but my perception is that this is rare enough to essentially disregard... but, I could well be wrong.
Even if a private company does such a thing, it would almost always be via some kind of financing, right? Which creates its own sort of short-term pressure even if it's not as psychotically ADHD as the pressure exerted by Wall Street.
I don't think it's accurate to say our "system was designed"
to do this sort of thing,
But it was designed for rapid and almost entirely unfettered economic growth. Given that, what other outcome was possible?
if only because 50-90 years [ago] it didn't do this sort of thing.
Ask the Germans :) Anyway, you issue bonds, instead of stocks. You control the term, the "market" tells you the cost. And its a fixed cost. Or you take out a loan, again with fixed interest. You control the parameters as much as anyone else. Or you issue restricted shares, to convince capital owners willing to make a longer term bet to play with you. They have to be in it for the long haul, since they can't sell the shares based on some 1st, 2nd or 3rd order belief about the company value.
I don't think it was "designed" at all. It evolves subject to various pressures and interests. And since Reagan or slightly before, most of the pressures from citizens (as opposed to customers) have been lifted/ameliorated. Same with pressures from employees. True, we did somewhat increase the pressure from environmental concerns. But at some point, people noticed that extracting value, instead of creating value, was a pathway to riches, and that's where a lot of the big bucks are made these days.
Say people who:
- Are typing on computers that would not exist without capitalism
- Using an an internet that would not exist without capitalism
- Using phones that would not exist without capitalism
- Wearing clothes that would not exist without capitalism
- Living in homes that would not exist without capitalism
- Using furniture that would not exist without capitalism
- Enjoying entertainment that would not exist without capitalism
- Buying food that would not exist without capitalism
- Benefiting from medicine that would not exist without capitalism
- Living lives that would not exist without capitalism
- etc.
No? Well, then, be an example and get rid of all the things you benefit from that came as a result of dirty-filthy capitalism. Be a role model for others. There's a huge difference between talking about virtue and having it. It's easy to not like capitalism while using your laptop while sipping a latte at Starbucks.
You seem to believe that innovation, and perhaps even production, requires a system in which the investment of capital in a limited liability enterprise is disproportionately the beneficiary of profit compared to the investment of labor or IP (that's all the capitalism consists of).
The things you list above are the product of science, art, curiosity, imagination, ambition, empathy, and hope. All of which can exist (and flourish) without or without capitalism.
Perhaps you make the mistake of thinking that capitalism somehow means "free markets" or "entrepeneurial culture". It does not. Those ideas are orthogonal to it, and can exist with it or without it. They can exist with or without worked-owned co-operatives. They can exist with or without state owned enterprises. They can exist with or without publicly traded shared-based ownership.
- You can dislike capitalism but currently have insurmountable obstacles preventing you from moving somewhere else
- You can dislike capitalism but accept that it is currently something like the least-bad economic system
- You can like capitalism in general but criticize it and recognize its inherent flaws
- You can like capitalism in general and criticize a particular implementation of it
Well, then, be an example and get rid of all the
things you benefit from that came as a result of
dirty-filthy capitalism
TTI(Milwaukee, Ryobi, Ridgid) is, IMO, the best at what they do. SBD basically relies on old brand names with a dash of patriotism to exist. Even Chervon(Flex, Skil, Ego) outclasses them these days where they compete.
I tried the new Craftsman V20 kits that came out, and every single tool was problematic. I felt like they were basically just ripping off nostalgic people with garbage old stock. Ryobi and Skil, on the other hand, make stellar tools at a lower cost.