Stay Away From This Product When Sanding...

Seems like I read awhile back that some of the Porter Cable electric models aren't too bad.

 

I'd at least get a 60 gal compressor. Stay away from oil-less. Uprights take up less floorspace. Buy a good used USA made unit, check craigslist.

 

I have never heard anyone complane that thier compressor was too big

 

I like Milwaulkee tools. I have always had Makita, because a friend of mine worked there, but recently started to lean towards Milwaulkee I have a few and definitely have no complaints. I was very disappointed though when I took a close look at one of their 4-1/2" grinders to find out that it was, Guess what?, Made in China.

 

I really think that maybe there should be some kind of message board on here about tool/part recommendations. It should be seperate, like the classifieds. There are so many experts here that I think it would be beneficial for all us rookies to get some quality advice before going to the store and blowing our cash.

 

I'm not going to knock the eletric DA. I have an electric Hitachi DA that has been through hell and back. we use it for fiberglass pool repair and auto body. It stays on for as long as my arms can hang on to it. It has been dropped, thrown, and rained on mulitple times. It still keeps running as good as new. Honestly it sure beats carrying a compressor.

Milwalkee is decent. Dewalt has gone to crap. I like Makita. nothing less than 18V litium/ion. Hitachi is also nice. I will say I am very inmpressed with Ryobi lately. Their products seem to have only gone up in quality.

Oh and yeah, if your gonna run an air DA, your gonna need 80 gallons. and only that will keep up if you have a really nice DA. otherwise yours arms get a break while your compressor catches up.

 

porter-cable makes a bulletproof electric da. i hate air tools. the noise and the juice to run a 220 compresser for a little sander drives me crazy. the cord is way lighter that an air hose, too.

air is great if you've got multiple users and an enormous compressor, otherwise, why go to the expense? if you're painting, though, that's another story...

 

I have been buying Bosch tools lately and like them allot. Not to sure where they actually originate from though...

 

I have mostly air tools but have been picking up a few that are electric. One of them was a 5 inch electric DA. We bought it to refinish the floors in our house. Used it many hours there and have since used it in the shop. Not much on cars but on wood items. Has stood up very well and I don't see why I couldn't use it for auto body work.

It was the el-cheap-o "tool shop" brand that Menards sells because I figured that we would just be using it once. Tough to justify buying a compressor and all if a couple electric tools will get the job done.

Neal

 

Based on the obvious faults of products that Black and Decker puts out, and others like them, what do you hardened fabricatiors think should be done to ressurect these companies reputations? I had no idea that there was such a fall out over poor quality tools, and the strong correlation in people's minds between a product being made in China and the product's inability to work for a long time. I'm asking because in my marketing class we covering things like this and I'm really interested in what you guys think. Thanks.

 

I agree with you on the B&D stuff but i swear by my Dewalt Cordless Drill. I've dropped it a hundred times and the thing never let me down.

 

the main thing is people won't pay for the quality stuff so they discontinue it. a lot of people buy cheap junk then complain when it breaks, I talked to a rep at black and decker a while back, he worked on the VPX project, they put a lot of time into making this a quality product, even as far as a metal check on a cordless drill, and they even put in circuitry to stop the drill before you stripped out the gears, but no one wanted to pay the price for it, so it died in six months, they went right back to their fire crap cheap ass drills, because joe blow things he's going to get a quality drill at a cheap price. the firecrap series before this was so bad, the switches couldn't handle the leverage of being switched from forward to reverse, the switch lever would break off inside of the drill, i took several apart, and i couldn't believe how poorly engineered it was. thats why they have a bad rep. even as cheap as they were, that stuff could have been eassily reengineered so it didn't break.

 

Where is DeWalt made these days? I think they are part of B & D...

 

I remember having a 9.6 volt black and decker hammer drill way back, super tough drill,but they discontinued the batteries for it. i bought the dewalt to replace it,same thing,9.6 volt the dewalt failed within six months.

 

What did you expect for a $39.00 B&D , POS from Hell*Mart !
You get what you pay for from that place !

 

well the vpx series with 14 volts and dual batteries and charger was averaging around a hundred bucks, i nearly bought one at that price,but then they all went on clearance, they say they will support it with parts and batteries, i looked at several 14 volt lithiums ,including the millwaulke and this was actually the best one, of course the law of B&D says any decent product must be gotten rid of as soon as possible.

 

there is a place that I have ordered from for parts for my brunner
they are pretty knowledgable about compressors in general and one of the only parts sources that are reasonable $$$$

www.brunnercompressors.com

btw...I have't had any real mechanical failures just a gasket or 2 which those folks make new ones

 

I have a pretty awesome DeWalt drill that is a plug in, and I would reccomend that to anyone. I just think that it's important for us HAMBer's to make sure that no one is buying junk. Economy sucks too much for someone to blow money, even if it's a $40 sander.