Dewalt's apparently cheaper line...head's up

[Dl5treez]

Some of you may already know this, but for those who don't it's pretty good info to have at hand when shopping for the yellow stuff.



Dewalt tools are made by the same company who builds Black & Decker power tools. B&D has their cheapy line and their Professional line, which dollar for dollar aren't too bad in the grand scheme of things, but the Dewalt brand is the premium and has stronger construction.



However..... Every so often Dewalt tools will come up on sale at various retailers for huge discounts.



An Example:



Industrial Supply House A will have Dewalt 18V cordless drills for $269.



Industrial Supply House B will have Dewalt 18V cordless drills for $179.



Same model number, same everything... . or so it appears from the outside.



You buy the drill from Supply House B and it works great for about a year, then goes to crap right after the warranty runs out. You, like most tool freaks, decide to take it apart yourself to see what's wrong---after all you downloaded the parts catalog from dewalt.com just after buying the drill, so you're confident you can fix it.



So you disassemble the drill.



What's this?



PLASTIC GEARS?!?!?!?!?!!!!



PLASTIC!!! IN A DEWALT?????



BUT THE PARTS BOOK SAYS THEY'RE STEEL!!!



So a call is made to Dewalt to discuss this issue.



"Oh my. " Dewalt says, "They must've mistakenly used the Black & Decker internal parts inside the Dewalt drill. Must've been a mistake on the assembly line, we'll get you the correct parts out ASAP. "



So far this has happened to 3 of the 5 Dewalt corded tools and 5 of the 8 Dewalt 18V cordless tools we have here at work, in the last 6 months!!!



Each tool was bought from a low-bid industrial supply house (Fastenal) for almost too-good-to-be-true prices.



Each time Dewalt/B&D has stated something along the lines of "this must've been a manufacturing mistake" yet at the same time our vendor is stating that Dewalt will offer to unload a huge amount of tools to places like Fastenal, Grainger, Home Depot, etc for prices that rival their low-end Black & Decker line.



According to our vendor, Fastenal, this is an issue that has begun to pop up in the last year or so, and only on the tools purchased for large discounts off their regular wholesale prices.



I'm not blaming Fastenal for this as they aren't the manufacturer of the tools, but as a Dewalt user/owner at home and in the workplace I wanted to put this out to you folks as a Caveat Emptor for those looking at Dewalt power tools.



Dan-

 

[rbattelle]

The "story" I heard about the creation of Dewalt goes something like this:



Black & Decker, having once been a high-quality tool company, sees its quality take a dive (presumably from moving manufacturing overseas and cost cutting measures). As a result, contractors and other professionals stop buying anything with the name Black & Decker on it.



In an effort to get back the lost professional business, they acquire a company called "Dewalt". They're careful to keep it very quiet (at least at first) that Dewalt is actually a division of B&D. I assume they apply stricter quality control to the Dewalt line. The ploy works - contractors and professionals move into Dewalt tools, most of them not realizing they're actually buying B&D tools.



Does anyone know if any of that is even remotely true? There is a company history at this site. . The interesting thing is that it never once mentions a power tool (as in drill or saw or anything that B&D makes) other than the radial arm saw until 1992. I believe 1989 is right about the time B&D acquired them. Also interesting that B&D is never once mentioned in the history, but we know they own Dewalt.



My father had many B&D tools that he acquired prior to 1980 that still work very well today! But these days I generally consider their power tools to be very "gimicky", with flashy features that are really quite unnecessary and (worse) make for an unreliable tool for heavy use. Perhaps this perception is wrong?



If B&D is intentionally starting to cut corners with the Dewalt name, that's not going to be good for them.



-Ryan

 

[mberry]

You're absolutely correct Ryan, especially your last sentence. I believe it was in the early 90's that B&D bought DeWalt. I was working at Home Depot at the time or I would never have known. I like DeWalt tools, but their quality does seem to have gone downhill the last couple of years.

 

[Dl5treez]

It appears that's the case. The Dewalt tools I personally own have given me great service--it's only been since the ones at work started puking that I found out about the possibility of cheap internals.



Dewalt's website mentions nothing of Black & Decker, but Black & Decker's corporate site, www.bdk.com lists Dewalt as:



"Introduced in 1992, DEWALT is firmly committed to being the best in the business - a commitment to being number one that extends to everything we do, from product design and engineering to manufacturing and service. DEWALT people are spending time with tool users, listening to needs and concerns, discovering new and better ways to get the job done. With an ISO 9001 certification, comes the knowledge that DEWALT's processes and procedures meet stringent quality requirements. DEWALT tools and accessories are the finest in the industry, all engineered to provide years of reliable, heavy-duty performance, and backed by unmatched customer service and support. "

http://www.bdk.com/careers/career_opportunities_dewalt.htm





I guess it's time to change the color of my power tools...

 

[Bill Lins]

Thanks for the warning.

 

[Alphacowboy]

watchout, B&D also just reciently purchased Porter-Cable. So hopefully they dont cut corners with thier products, my Dads been using PC routers for ever, and they are damn good machines, I just hop B&D dont f-it up.



Personally, I have written off all cordless tools but the Ridgid stuff. Yes, its contracted out by Ryobi, BUT, they dont use the same parts (i know the guy who repairs them and does warranty work) I beat the living the crap out of this stuff, and they keep going. Only problem I had was with the triggers wearing out, and he said that was a problem with the earlier models like mine anyway.

 

[RyanB]

Now that the name that Porter Cable pops up..... Delta was also bought out by Porter-Cable 1 1/2 years ago so that now means that B&D owns Delta.



As far as Dewalt goes I bought a 12v years ago when I started into Cabinet Making and I will never buy one again. I am a firm believe in Makita... . not sure how many times its fallen off the ladder onto the concrete floor and has lived! and the #1 reason why I like the Makita... it stands up on its own and has a nice handel!!!!!!!!



The only Dewalt piece i own now is a Bisquite jointer but that is made by the plate jointer king... ELU.



I have lately been buying quite a few Ridged tools and they are holding up to my abuse just fine and they are a little cheaper than the others.



Ryan

 

[nickleinonen]

I am a firm believe in Makita

as am i. my pop has been using them for years [still uses the 7. 2 cordless stuff daily] and i usually as a kid got all the broken drills from him. i stripped most of them for fun and every one had steel gears in them and bronze bushings. very well built internals for a 7. 2v cordless drill

 

[Hohn]

Well, the only DeWalt piece I have is a 12" double-bevel miter saw (I think the DW706).



It's a great unit. It better be for $350 for a miter saw



I like the fact that it's INdirect drive-- it has a belt that drives the blade, and the motor is mounted farther back on the arm. That means it will cut a much bigger piece (more throat depth), and the blade vibrates very little, giving glass-smooth cuts with no splintering.



The indirect drive is the ONLY reason I bought this particular saw, as I'm no fan of DeWalt necessarily. However, there were simply no other indirect-drive miter saws available OTHER than this one at any of the local home supply places. When only one thing meets your needs, it makes the decision easy



I've used a lot of DeWalt stuff, both old and new. The older stuff was far superior. They were heavier and more durable.



For the money, you can do much better than DeWalt. I LOVE my Milwaukee stuff for a top-end, American made, nothing-is-better type power tool (I have 3 reds-- a router, a drill, and the biggest Sawzall made)



But on a more practical basis, I feel like Hitachi is a real gem-- very glad that Lowe's started carrying them. Hitachis have held up better than I ever thought they would. For example, we were cutting the ramps off of a 25ft low-boy trailer using cutoff wheels in 4. 5" grinders. After burning up TWO milwaukees (Milwaukees!) on one ramp, we decided to go get a cheaper "throwaway" Hitachi for the other ramp.



The Hitachi sliced off the ramp, ran cool doing it, and is STILL going strong!! After that experience, I bought a Hitachi 4. 5" grinder for myself. It's a great unit. You can swap out the brushes in about 10 seconds. I'll probably never need to, but it's nice to know you have the option.



So when I went Circ Saw shopping, I decided to try the $99 Hitachi in lieu of the $139 Milwaukee Tilt-Lok that I wanted to badly.



The Hitachi has been a great Circ saw. It doesn't have a blade brake, but it's smooth, powerful, reasonably light, and VERY well balanced. It's especially nice in light of the fact that the Milwaukee was 40% more.



I don't presently own any Makitas, but I've always liked the ones I have used (my gramps has nothing but Mak and old Crapsman)





I'd encourage you to check out a Hitachi if a Milwaukee isn't in the Budget. I'd CERTAINLY take one over a DeWalt!!



jmo

 

[drrhoades]

I have the Milwaukee Tilt-Lok circular saw and it is one great machine.

 

[MBreyer]

Interesting you mention the Milwaukee circ saws. The 140 saws arn't electric braakes, you have to buy the 180$$ saw. I have 2 of the 140 saws sitting, & only use the pricy one; had a guy take the tip of his finger off w/ a saw, that made my decision.



I love the feel of Milwaukee and Makita.



However, I've recently been impressed with the Hitachi & Ridgid tools. Namely, their air framing guns. got one of each, and they out preform my Senco, which had beat out anyhting I had put IT up against.



Anyways, there's my 2 cents.

Please feel free to post love for Crapsmans, I promise not to flame ya! LOL





~Matt

 

[rbattelle]

I like the fact that it's INdirect drive-- it has a belt that drives the blade, and the motor is mounted farther back on the arm.

Interesting... I bought a Delta 36-255L (12" compound miter) specifically because I didn't want indirect drive! I figured direct drive would be less maintenance-intensive since there's no gear train.



-Ryan

 

[Hohn]

Perhaps, but how much maintenance is there on a saw like this? I doubt I'll have to touch it (other than blade swaps) in 10 years!





Imo, the tradeoff was worth it. The cutting performance doesn't lie.

 

[Ron Bissett]

Dewalt's is cheaper now

I received a drill120 V cord ,Key less , I thought wow now I got just what I Need . Now after about one hundred use later the chuck will not hold the drill to the point it will come loose ,if used on steel . So much for Dewalt's quality control . Total on drilling time about two hours tops. Ron Bissett in Metro Louisville KY

 

[DieselMinded]

I work @ Bayer Polymers and I make the Material that Dewalt uses and Makita Uses .



Dewalt has no strengthing fibers and there Specs are wide open as long as the color is good there pretty happy ... as for Makita ... . Watch out VEry Strict and it includes a fiberGlass loading @ approx 15% so its very,,, very strong there also right on with the specs if it just barly fails any test ... like Impact, Melt , Glass , VST's , Color they wont take it PERIOD.



Both are made of Polycarbonite witch is the best choice for its application . Tho... . our nylon products are physically stonger ,,Still ... . one drop of a drill made of Nylon (dureathan) and it would shatter ... ... It strange but the diffrent types of Polymers definatly have there places .



And Makita are dead on on what they want !



I have a Dewalt ,,,12V JUNK ... . only had it for 1 year and both batterys wont even take charge ,,, dads 5 yr old makita is still kicking major rear.



I have a Dewalt Saw ..... JUNK the cut grove is so wide its almost imposible to make a perfect cut with out filling your eyes full of saw dust... . dads makita has a small grove and you just line it up cut it done ,,,, perfect.



Sadly I chose to stock up on dewalts ... BIG MISTAKE Im Paying for it now !



DM