satchmodog

Indeed. A good tool is a good tool, period. It's why I don't dig brand grandstanding. Every manufacturer excels at something and if you need that best, buy it. I own Porter Cable(old stuff) Milwaukee(new and old) Bosch, Makita, Dewalt, an old Ryobi saw and a fossil of a Craftsman router. Good stuff lasts and performs, why not buy it?

Excellent. I'm going to head out next weekend and give a look at what's out there. I will also give PC another look and actually just bought their oscillating tool.

Oh yeah, forgot earlier. Despite my crapping on Porter cable recently for being a ghost brand and putting out a lot of manure compared to the stuff in their glory days, I did just pick up their oscillating tool. Seemed solid and had nice numbers and a good switch. I also liked the quick change blades.

I'm the same way. I also grew up in the 70s and 80s and remember when shit still lasted. I still expect tools to last a lifetime and won't buy crap.

and you know that cinder block has better tolerances built in. I was kinda fascinated by that place. I almost have a hard time believing people buy their power tools. There are generally better options for roughly the same money from manufacturers who warranty their tools for an entire year. I cannot get over the 90 day warranty thing, especially on the Hercules line. I mean hell, they are charging big boy prices for their Hercules line, but still offering the ridiculous 90 day warranty. I highly doubt anything that's on the Herc line is better than any Rigid or Ryobi tool. Both of which come with pretty nice warranties. But I guess some people let their being a cheapfugger override their ability to use logic and reason. I guess that's why the majority of videos for "miter saw" are for HF saws, with these goobers preening over their tools like a 16 year old who just got their first used Ford Maverick.

Thanks! All good food for thought!

Can you define Holding a Charge? The Makita drill I leave in our garage in the Keys has two batteries and over the past several years they have just croaked. They take a charge just fine and technically, they hold a charge, as long as you define that as a matter of a day before they start losing their juju. I've thrown them back on the charger the next day and 30 minutes later, back to full charge and that's without ever putting them in the drill. If I use them, I'm lucky to drive ten screws before the battery craps itself. I'm going to buy the silly red or pink replacements on Ebay. I'm surely not giving makita any more money for batteries after what this drill cost. So yeah, what's their parameters for holding a charge? A day, an hour, a week? Technically, Lithiums shouldn't really lose their charge just sitting there(at least not in a week or even a month) and I know NiCads do lose charge, but it's also a slow process.

Ah, OK. So basically for what I do with a router, HP doesn't really matter much, then. I am assuming what I have is a 1 HP machine and it has spent decades chewing through pine and oak making sills for windows. Like the job I'm currently on is another example. I milled an edge on a few hundred feet of 1x4 to make baseboard. Most things a lot of you use routers for is beyond my paygrade at this stage of my life. I guess I'll be looking for a router with a few more rpm maybe and a few ounces heavier. I am also curious about the design difference between the routers with the mouse ears like I have vs the ones that are taller and thinner looking. Like I said, my experience with routers is limited to a few things I've done for years and that's it.

I know I just defecated on Porter Cable in the router thread I started, but this was too good a deal to pass up. My Dewalt oscillating tool shat the bed in Florida. I put it through a decade's worth of work in 4 months, and it was already a few years old. I needed a new one, but with all the money I've spent the past few months on tools, I was looking for a deal. The Porter-Cable pce606k was on sale for 80 bucks. I've seen them over 130.00 in the past and 100.00 seems like the going rate lately, but this was too good. They had three left, one was an open box. I looked it over and it appeared to be in new condition, like maybe someone just opened it. I asked if they'd do a discount on it and I was out the door for 64 bucks I wanted a new one and wasn't about to drop 150-200 on another one. I considered stepping over to Satan's Warehouse and grab their 30 dollar Chicago Electric tool, but I'll never buy a power tool with a 90 day warranty, ever. It's too bad, because I did go to HF today to grab some sundries and saw that tool. It's heavy and solid feeling. But to add to my tool purchases I got a 50 foot roll of rubber air hose on clearance for 20 bucks, a 17 piece air accessory kit with all new couplings and M connectors and since someone swiped my bullnose nail pullers in Florida, I got the Pittsburgh tool for 7 bucks. It's every bit as heavy duty as the 40 dollar set that vanished, plus it's got a lifetime warranty Also grabbed a few packs of oscillating blades, 4.5 inch metal cutoff wheels for my angle grinder and got some Bosch crown moulding jigs for my Dewalt 780. Damn dewalt seems to have stopped making their own jigs and they were 30 dollars. The Bosch set is under 20 and fits the Dewalt saw just fine. Total win today I cannot tell if I am happier about the PC saw or the air hose. I just bought an identical Dewalt rubber hose last month for 30 dollars and it had fittings on both ends. The HF hose had no fittings, but I got a quick connect and plenty of other goodies in my 17 piece kit. Also grabbed a new PC 250 16 ga nailer Saturday . I just picked up a second trim job and figured I'd leave one set of guns and a compressor at each house since both are vacant and I come and go as I please.

Hmm, interesting. There's part of me that always liked certain tools to be heavy for vibration and stability. Since I've only really used my old assed Craftsman router, I have no idea what weighs what. To me, the thing seems light, so I'll have to hold a few. I actually wouldn't mind one a tiny bit heavier. I'm also looking for a new table. But that Triton was one I looked at, too. I've heard nothing but great things about their tools from other guys on jobs.

I own a crap ton of Porter cable, from the 738 Tiger saw which has to be 20 years old now, the 352 3x21 belt sander and the 350 orbital palm sander, as well as the 200, 250 and 350 series nail guns. I've had my belt sander and palm sander as well as the tiger saw for 20 years and two of my nail guns are about 15. Now that all being said, I bought newer versions of the 200 brad nailer, 250 16 ga finish nailer and 350 framing nailer and these are not the same tools I bought before. I've seen the same belt sander and even it seems a little cheap. I won't even go into how big of junk their drills and saws have become. Believe me, I am no brand snob, but at one time if it didn't say PC or Milwaukee on it, I ddn't buy it. However, on your recommendation I will give the PC routers a look. I just hate spending money on what's essentially a ghost brand now. But, if they are taking their routers and sanders seriously still, I'll buy them. There's a lot they aren't taking seriously anymore and it makes me truly sad. The horsepower thing is something I am wondering about. I see amp ratings on a lot of routers and some have HP. I am assuming the more HP, the better?

Yeah, I know. I have been using the same router and table since I started my business in 1994. It's a Craftsman, that's really all I know about the thing, other than it was old AF when I got it, as it was my grandfather's. I'm pretty sure we bought it for him as a Christmas gift in the early 80s. That being said, it's cut miles and miles of sill nosings, table and cabinet edges and God knows what else. Today I started a job I bid on last fall, which is routing one edge of 1x4 and basically making an old style baseboard. This house is a mid 1860s farm house in Wisconsin that had another home built over it, so sometime in the past 100 years someone put up winder casing and base that was all hand milled. It's a cool project and getting the pine and the new Zar stain to patch the existing wood was a treat. I break out my router today and the guy tells me "here, try mine, don't use that fossil", and he chuckled. So he breaks out this brand new Rigid router that he bought last year before he decided to hire the job out. Thankfully he wanted to do the test cuts and see what depth and bit we were going to use, so I didn't wind up being the one who ganked his new toy lol He runs one pass with this thing and then goes to shut it off and the switch is broken, so "The Fossil" wound up saving the day and ran an edge on 44-14 foot 1x4 But it got me thinking, the router I have is 6.5 amps and 25, 000 rpm and has a light by the arbor. It's actually double insulated, unlike a lot of the power tools old gramps left behind. Nice silvery looking shock boxes. Ah, the good old days Anyway, this thing isn't going to last forever, so maybe I should go looking at new routers. The one this guy had wasn't your typical mouse ear style, it was tall and lean and that kinda threw me. Is that style easier to use somehow vs the old squatty style? Should I look for more RPM, more amps or any other features? I'd also love a new router table. I'm just not spending Festool money and I am also sorry, but Porter Cable can lick me for what they are asking for some of theirs. It's a damn ghost brand tool now. If this were the PC of old like a few of my tools, I'd not think twice. So throw me some names and such up to 250.00. Also, are there any features I should look for? In my entire life, this has been the only router to ever sit in my meathooks. I know how to use it well, I just don't know jack about them. Crap, the 99 dollar Rigid seemed nice until it died BTW, if anyone here is a tool savant and has a way to date Craftsman tools, my router is a 315.17480. It's by far the least expensive tool I own, it's a homeowner tool and it's probably 42 years old.

See, that's the thing, your Ryobi and Rigid would also probably do just fine for most of the really over the top brand snobs, as well. Most brand snobs aren't even pros, they just like having an all Yellow, Red or Blue garage, all neat and shiny. I think most of us buy the top 4 or 5 brand tool that's either on sale, can swap a battery with another we have or is the highest rated. There is also something to be said for tools just fitting your hand better. An example of this is Dewalt drills, for whatever reason just seem to fit my mits best. Bosch may not have the best angle grinder on earth and is certainly not the cheapest, but I found the Slim model to fit me best. Of course, they discontinued it, so I bought a few reconditioned on Ebay. I'll go to my grave with a Bosch angle grinder

I hear that. My brother spends so much on Makita tools because he insists they are the best and wants one battery platform. Well, some of their tools are not the best and you can find better for far less. I kinda get the battery thing, but honestly in my work truck the extra batteries and chargers for Milwaukee, Dewalt and Makita just don't take up much extra room, if any.

Not sure how much you want to spend, but Makita makes a nice kit with a circular saw, recip saw, driver, drill and a goofy angle drill for about $550. The tools are all top notch.

ohh, I like that

Recently I lent my favorite framer to a friend so he could build his fence and something bad happened. I told him to go in my garage and grab the nailer and a box of nails since I had five cases of nails. When he got home he didn't like my nails because some had some surface rust and patina on them(he grabbed the open box lol) so off to Home Depot he goes and grabs a case of similar looking nails. EXCEPT, they twernt. My gun takes clipped heads and he bought round heads. Back story here is I was 1500 miles away and couldn't go over there and see what went haywire. He just calls and tells me the gun went haywire, there was a loud bang and some parts went flying off. He said he ordered the replacement parts and installed them, but the gun still wouldn't fire. So off he goes and rents a gun, then he buys me a replacement for my 350. It's same model number, but a totally different gun. Damn thing won't even fit in the case. That's how Ghetto PC has become the past several years, half their crap doesn't have cases. So anyway, I get home and he gives me both guns. No biggie, shit happens. He also gave me the nails he bought. Sunday I am looking at the old nailer and there's no visible reason why it shouldn't work, but there's also six nails still in the magazine, so I fish them out and it's a MOFO. Generally, they just slide out, so I'm wondering if the innards are still ganked. Once I pull them out and inspect the nails, I notice that they look odd. They look odd because they are full round heads and that gun always took clipped. Well hell, there;s your problem, son. I fire up the compressor in the garage and throw some proper nails in and voila, she's throwing steel into a 2x4 like a pro. Now here's my issue. PC, because they've turned into a ghost brand have discontinued so may parts and the cushion tip was one of them. He ordered the tip, but it's for a later model of this gun and doesn't fit. I have checked five replacement part sites and no luck finding one. I know I really don't need a tip for framing walls and such, but I do other work with the gun and would like to use something that doesn't gank the project. I guess I could also use the new gun on those surfaces, but if anyone has any ideas about finding tips or a home or aftermarket solution to find or replace PC part 887247, I'll buy you a beer

I have the 2650 or some such number like that impact driver for work. I should buy her that Milwaukee 12 volt. However, she's more partial to Blue and that leaves freakin Makita, Kobalt and Hercules. Sigh, my inner tool nerd says Makita, but my desire not to waste money says Kobalt

I can tell you only from the saw we had that the rails were smooth as glass and flawless. There was no twisting on long cuts and the profile is perfect for a shop wall.

OK, the 32 was for effect lol But really, she had five dead drills and batteries for two more where there is no matching drill. She makes like 3 times the money I make, so I have no idea why she doesn't buy a nice drill. I think she buys things that are cute

The saw we bought in january had zero play in the detentes. I never once used the lock down. One of the submorons on our job used the saw and kept cranking the lockdown so tight that he damaged the entire unit, however. Now the plate doesn't rotate freely. I have an older 10 inch Makita and a DWS 780 and we used this saw. In 25 years I have never had to lock down a detente.

Damn, too bad it's not a recall of the Bosch Slim. I punished that grinder for a decade and it finally shat the bed. I'm sure it could have been repaired, but for how inexpensive they are, not worth it. I cannot believe Bosch discontinued the Slim model. WTF?? A grinder with a thin enough housing to make it super comfortable to use and they shelve it. Just stupid.

I own Milwaukee, Porter Cable( the good stuff before they became a ghost brand) DeWalt, Bosch and makita and love them all. My first sander was a dewalt palm sander which is still running like new, my 14.4 volt 754 drill and my corded 3/8 inch drill. All freakin amazing tools. I also just pushed aside my Makita 10 inch miter for the Dewalt 780 and while the 780 isn't the fine Mercedes benz fit and finish of the big yeller, I can guarantee that hemi of a saw will do things the Makita only dreams of. I'll continue buying these tool brands as long as they keep performing at the highest levels. Even the once mighty PC still makes some killer nail guns and I just added two more. Man, you guys are going to make me blow all that money on that flexvolt saw

really? that's good to hear

I used to be a big Milwaukee guy. I still have my deck screw gun which I would put up against any screw gun ever created on this planet and my Milwaukee circular saw that has to be from 1996. It still runs like new, they both do. Had some turd not lifted my sawzall, I'm sure she'd still be running fine. I walked away from Milwaukee about 10 years ago when their products started circling the bowl, but they have really redeemed themselves the past few years. I actually bought one of their new impact drivers solely because there was a metal nose housing on the thing. I am very impressed by this tool so far. I'd love to hear some reviews of the new sawzalls. I am also a Dewalt user and this flexvolt thing has me intrigued. Seeing I just bought a 780 to retire my old Makita DBMS I wouldn't be averse to getting the Flex volt saw for work and keeping the 780 at home.