Power tools from CHINA............

[Donny Lawson]

I'm not one to buy top of the line power tools so I went out looking at HD and Lowes and just looked on the box and the tools such as DeWalt,PC,Hatachi,Bosch and whatever other ones they had and the box read made in CHINA. So one should be just as good as the next one. Some have a little more extras than others. I know most items are made there but what is made in USA??????????. plus, if it's made in the US it costs 2-3 times more. I think there should be more things made here and keep the price down where regular people can afford them. Hopefully I didn't open a can of worms but where do we draw the line?
Donny

[Peter Pedisich]

Donny, there is a lot you can do. First take a look at some of the made in USA websites that list hundreds of companies that still manufacture in the USA.
Then you can buy from them even when it cost more if you believe it is the right thing to do. Second thing is you should accept stuff made in Canada just as if it were made in the US because they are our neighbors and they are good folks that make good stuff.
And there is a wide range of quality coming from China, as design and engineering count for much, it's not just the manufacturing/assembly that makes for a quality product. Some stuff from China is of excellent build quality - that's the scary part!

[Jonathan Spool]

Funny that no one thinks poorly of purchasing non USA tools when they buy Festool!

[Dan Hintz]

What makes you think/believe that items made in China are automatically the same?

People really need to get away fro this line of thinking...

[Pat Barry]

I would go by the brand name and brand reputation more than by where the product is assembled or made. If its a DeWalt it was designed by DeWalt, not China and it will be a good tool. Made in USA doesn't mean its better in anyway (unfortunately). Times have changed and that's the way the global economy works now.

[Phil Thien]

If its a DeWalt it was designed by DeWalt, not China...

I don't think that is universally true.

I know the former manager of engineering of a large tool manufacturer and much of the design was off-shored, as well. He was laid-off.

[Peter Pedisich]

Funny that no one thinks poorly of purchasing non USA tools when they buy Festool!

I certainly don't. Festool makes excellent products, and often there is no direct USA made equivalent. Buying USA made and USA brands are two very different things. I have no interest in buying a Porter-Cable product made in China, for several personal reasons.
I also completely understand why people don't mind buying from China. The quality of the items has improved markedly in the last 5 years, and it allows people to buy a tool that fits within their budget.
If it is important enough to people to buy products made in US factories where they pay the workers a respectable wage, in good working conditions, building a product engineered to perform and last, and enough of them are willing to pay more for it, understanding it is unreasonable to expect American workers to compete with the wages paid in China, then things may change. I think they are - look at Lie-Nielsen, and Bridge City tools, and Mortise Pal, and EZ Smart...

[Rod Sheridan]

I believe you can buy great stuff made in China, you just need to pay for it, just like any other country.

I buy made in Canada, the USA or the EU equally.

I don't buy Chinese made equipment if I can avoid it due to social and environmental programs (or lack there of).

If Porter Cable or DeWalt are made in China, then I would buy Festool or some other non Chinese brand.

If China developed good environmental and social programs I would then consider them equally with the other countries.

Regards, Rod.

[Rick Fisher]

I just bought some Blue Spruce Chisels, Made in the USA.. They seem to have flawless quality. I can certainly see people's hesitancy to the price, but they should be " lifetime" chisels..

American and Canadian Manufacturing of the Machinery we use seems to have dissapeared more than in Europe. It seems that the Europeans went to manufacturing quality and the North American manufacturers became distributors of Asian Imports..

Buying Festool is IMO a way of buying exceptional quality, and supporting a company that still believes in making things at home, even if home is Germany.. lol.

[Peter Pedisich]

Buying Festool is IMO a way of buying exceptional quality, and supporting a company that still believes in making things at home, even if home is Germany.. lol.

I agree 100%. Festool has made a commitment to the workers and long term health of their own country - I wish DeWalt/PC would do the same!
To be fair to B&D, the new Unisaw is awesome (they got one of the new made in USA ones at work) and seems to be built to last, although I can't know if that's true just by staring at it!

[fred klotz]

As far as Bosch: It seems that they make some tools in China, to be marketed by HD/Lowes. Those stores do the warranty. The same model tool can often be found in a real tool store, made in Switzerland, Germany, USA, warranted by Bosch. You will pay more. You may recall that Bosch tools weren't found in the BORGs for some time.

[Dave MacArthur]

This thread is the same as 50 other threads in the last year, "stuff is made in China, what is made in US, someone should pay for tools made in the US (but not me)". Followed by 500 threads demonstrating that 98% of us will in fact vote with our wallets for lower prices so long as the machine basically functions OK.

Sorry, but it gets old, and the opening post is self-contradicting and in fact self-explanatory:

I'm not one to buy top of the line power tools [...]if it's made in the US it costs 2-3 times more. I think there should be more things made here and keep the price down where regular people can afford them.

There's your answer. It DOES cost 2-3 times more to make in the US, there's no way around it due to various less costly regulations and cheaper labor elsewhere, so "regular people" CAN'T afford them or at least WON'T afford them when something else acceptable is available for half-price, and it's never going to change so long as customers like you and myself are "not one to buy top of the line power tools".

So one should be just as good as the next one

--strange assumption and false, country of origin doesn't == sameness; there are plenty of products made in the US that give a wide range of difference and quality, Ford does not equal GM does not equal domestically built Honda. And about four million other examples so numerous to think of that the assumption is proven specious on first reflection.

where do we draw the line

--WE don't draw the line anywhere. Every consumer draws their own lines. If there is any "we" then it is exposed by market share as an indicator of what the vast majority of "we" are doing. And it would appear that "we" are flocking in droves to decently engineered power tools built in various other countries at costs that allow us to all save a bundle. Furthermore, it looks like "THEY" (company directors and stockholder owners--really "we") draw the line somewhere in Asia also, as most power-tool companies doing business in the US source at least one line of tools in Asia, and there's been zero backlash from the company owners about this--it seems to make them money, which is of course the reason for their existence.

If "you" (whoever you are, not directing this reply to anyone in particular) buy a tool from SawStop, Powermatic, Jet, Grizzly, Delta, Ryobi, DeWalt, Bosch, Rigid, Hitachi, Makita, etc., then you draw the line (in most cases for most tools) somewhere over in Asia also.

So what? Good tools in most cases, and between me and the guy screwing the parts together in Asia is a giant vertical economic supply chain complete with dealers, retailers, floor salespeople, managers, cashiers, janitors, truckers, ship crewman, dock-workers, accountants, marketers, ad-people, shelf-stockers, union leaders, management, CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, IT folks, secretaries etc. etc... ALL making a living off my purchases, and probably 90% of it folks like you and me right here in the old USA. Business and trade and national economies are so vastly more complex than "buy made in USA", that it just always seems naively foolish to me to take a stance on a purchase unless I have some idea of where and to whom all my money is actually going to... If a company is publicly owned and dominantly owned by the US market, then that's where all the profits are going in the end.

Rambling now, exit soap box.

[Bryan Morgan]

This thread is the same as 50 other threads in the last year, "stuff is made in China, what is made in US, someone should pay for tools made in the US (but not me)". Followed by 500 threads demonstrating that 98% of us will in fact vote with our wallets for lower prices so long as the machine basically functions OK.

Sorry, but it gets old,

<snipped for brevity>

You said it! Thanks!

[Rick Fisher]

25 years ago.. I was a teenager.. my dad was a General Contractor.. He had a 2 year old Makita Circular saw.. I remember him saying he paid $159.00 for it .. I went to work for the lumberyard he bought his supplies from.. Circular saws at that time, in Canada, cost more than they do today..

Back then, when he bought a drill or a circ saw, he treated it like it was made of gold. It was an expensive item.. I remember when Bostitch Nailer came on the scene, we retailed them for $600.00 ... Put that in todays dollars, that nailer would probably be $2000.00 ..

There was a time that a contractor could make money because he had tools that his competitors did not have.. It reduced his labor costs.. This is much the way the millwork and Cabinet shops operate today.. A new $250,000 CNC will make one shop more competitive than his neighbor..

Tools have gone from "coveted" possessions to commodities.. My dad had one router and made a living using it .. I have 6.. In his dollars, he likely paid what I paid for all 6..

To turn tools into such low cost machines, production and automation needed to be moved to China or Malaysia.. This is what the market wanted..

[Matt Meiser]

I think there should be more things made here and keep the price down where regular people can afford them.

So you are volunteering for a massive pay cut and to waive any benefits? OK with pollution like Beijing? OK without safety regulations and no safety net (worker's comp) when they don't work?

Didn't think so...


By the way there are a lot of companies competing very nicely in the US. A lot of them are privately-owned companies that aren't tied to worrying about how wall street will react to next quarters numbers. Many aren't and are just getting it right (take a look at the transformation Ford has pulled off in the last few years, of course helped by major missteps by major competitors at the same time.)