81–90 of 312 posts
I noticed at the most recent Milwaukee power tools event that they’re really going all in on specialist tools. This is a strong signal that they’re going to continue to cream the competition because irrational or not, people end up preferring a single battery platform, it’s not guaranteed they’ll stick to one brand for future power tool purchases but it’s extremely sticky. The Milwaukee battery power tool ecosystem s…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you ever try to get something built in China, you really need to know what you're doing, or the manufacturer will violate your specs all over the place in order to profit an extra 1/10th of a cent per unit. But, big companies don't really have that excuse, because they should know what they're doing.
Yep, suddenly they will change the type of plastic used, changed the ratios of plastics, use less copper (wires, pcbs), replace the brand name electronics with cheaper knockoffs and qa rejects from other factories, replace the type of glue, etc. Basically you need a QA team there to monitor every step of the production, or they'll try to screw you everywhere they can.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Milwaukee (TTI) is vertically integrated, i.e. they own their factories in China.
... that's possible? Don't companies from outside china have to set up joint ventures with a chinese company?
I noticed at the most recent Milwaukee power tools event that they’re really going all in on specialist tools. This is a strong signal that they’re going to continue to cream the competition because irrational or not, people end up preferring a single battery platform, it’s not guaranteed they’ll stick to one brand for future power tool purchases but it’s extremely sticky. The Milwaukee battery power tool ecosystem s…
Are there adapters to migrate between some battery platforms?
I noticed at the most recent Milwaukee power tools event that they’re really going all in on specialist tools. This is a strong signal that they’re going to continue to cream the competition because irrational or not, people end up preferring a single battery platform, it’s not guaranteed they’ll stick to one brand for future power tool purchases but it’s extremely sticky. The Milwaukee battery power tool ecosystem s…
Are there adapters to migrate between some battery platforms?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, suddenly they will change the type of plastic used, changed the ratios of plastics, use less copper (wires, pcbs), replace the brand name electronics with cheaper knockoffs and qa rejects from other factories, replace the type of glue, etc. Basically you need a QA team there to monitor every step of the production, or they'll try to screw you everywhere they can.
This sounds like perfectly efficient capitalism. Is it really not this way in other countries?
This is good news, but Milwaukee is primarily a power tool company. Bringing power tool manufacturing back to the USA would be much bigger news. Project Farm is a YouTube channel that reviews tools. I've noticed that most of the made-in-USA products are relatively simple - hand tools, drill bits, adhesives, lubricants, and so on. Any complex assembly that includes electronics is almost invariably made in Asia. It fee…
This is a result of decades of regulations and labour laws. Paying Americans 10x more to make similar quality tools is a terrible business decision. This cannot be fixed without government incentives/handouts (eg. Chips Act)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
China has a “caveat emptor” culture that I suspect plays a role in this. In most western countries and other countries, like Japan, selling counterfeit or barely functional products is seen as somewhat shameful. But in China it’s often seen as being clever or cunning. Chinese consumers are used to this and are very cautious about what they buy and from whom, and of course negotiating a reasonable cost for the goods b…
It's not that it's seen as merely shameful in other countries, it's that it's seen as fraudulent and illegal. Trying to play fraud off as a cultural difference and misunderstanding is frankly bullshit victim blaming.
It's only deliberately selling nonfunctional products that would meet the definition of fraud.
Isn’t Milwaukee tool owned by a Chinese company? Some irony here.
Techtronic Industries bought them from the Swedish company Atlas Copco in 2005.
Here's an article on who owns what in power tools [1].
With some of the licensing deals, the same brand might actually come from two different companies. Emerson owns RIDGID and makes tools under that name, but also licenses the name to Techtronic. Emerson seems to make the non-powered RIDGID tools and Techtronic makes the powered ones.
It looks like maybe 6 companies cover pretty much every power tool brand that most people in the US are likely to find at Home Depot, Lowe's, ACE, Walmart, and so on.
I just wish that they would get together and agree on battery standards for their cordless power tools, so that batteries could be interchanged.
My first lithium battery cordless tool was a bundle from Black & Decker of a weed whacker and a hedge trimer. Since then I've added a B&D drill and a B&D impact driver. I now need a cordless leaf blower and although it looks like some other brands would fit my needs better than B&D I'll probably go with B&D just to avoid getting another battery system (and will probably by the tool only since I have enough B&D batteries and chargers already--I don't use enough tools simultaneously to need more than the three batteries and charges I already have).
There are some adapters to allow mixing batteries, for example this one allows using Black & Decker 20V batteries on Bosch 18V tools [2], so it might be feasible to branch out from B&D without having to deal with a different battery system.
[1] https://www.protoolreviews.com/power-tool-manufacturers-who-...
[2] https://powertoolsadapters.com/products/black-decker-20v-to-...
I don't think this will make much of a difference aside from the branding advantage. The quality of a mass-produced product like a consumer hand tool isn't a function of the country in which it is made but rather of its design. All the decisions made during that process and all the cost / performance considerations made are what determine the ultimate outcome. It's common to blame Chinese manufacturing for cheap tool…
I don't think you've read all the posts by people with actual experience in manufacturing. Give the same "design" to two different factories and you get two different results. Manufacturing matters.