Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

toolguyd.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 312 posts

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#91

Post by WheatM »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #48
_Adam wrote: post #9

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…

There's a great YouTube channel, Project Farm ( https://www.youtube.com/c/ProjectFarm/videos ), that features a single guy testing, grading, and comparing all kinds of things you might find in your garage. He's not sponsored and tries to be objective throughout the process. It isn't perfect but he puts a ton of effort in and for backyard science it's pretty good. Anyway, he mentions country of origin for a lot of too…

No post body was provided.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#92

Post by londons_explore »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #46
googlryas wrote: post #15

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.

This is definitely the case in med tech, devices and Pharma. Many manufacturers avoid China because you can set a spec but you can't trust the outgoing QA testing. You can do incoming QA testing, but then you are double testing and losing a lot of efficiencies when those things would be best done at the supplier

You do spot incoming QA testing.

And if you find any issues, you test the whole shipment.

And then you compare the results to the outgoing QA test results.

And if any results can't be explained by failures relating to shipping, then you fire your supplier.

You let them know ahead of time that this is the procedure you'll apply, and then they'll do proper QA testing.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#93

Post by stacktrust »

tzs wrote: post #89
ajaimk wrote: post #50

Isn’t Milwaukee tool owned by a Chinese company? Some irony here.

Yes. They are owned by the Hong Kong company Techtronic Industries, which also owns Homelite, Hart, Oreck, Dirt Devil, and a few others. Ryobi Power Tools and Ryobi Outdoor Equipment are also Techtronic Industries brands, under license from Ryobi. 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…

> I just wish that they would get together and agree on battery standards for their cordless power tools, so that batteries could be interchanged.

Paging the EU regulators who mandated USB-C for smartphone chargers.

Another comment mentioned that DRM is coming to tool battery platforms.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#94

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

stacktrust wrote: post #54
blt wrote: post #44

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…

A handful of DeWalt power tools are "assembled from global materials" in USA, https://www.allamericanmade.com/where-are-dewalt-tools-made/ Jackson, TN Air compressors Hempstead, MD Drill and saw components Charlotte, NC Cordless drills, screwdrivers Greenfield, IN Grinder, recip saws, hammer drills

That manufacturing process is the result of bean counters determining it's a waste to ship boxed products that are 50% air overseas in a container. Ship the broken down components instead with denser packing and have a minimum wage worker bolt it together stateside. It isn't an enlightened return to domestic production.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#95

Post by chongli »

fyzix wrote: post #87
blt wrote: post #44

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…

Low prices or well paid workforce...Choose one! 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)

You don’t have to choose one. With automation you can have a small, highly paid, highly skilled workforce do the work of a much larger, low skill, low paid workforce and actually produce higher quality products at a lower price.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#96

Post by londons_explore »

Tao3300 wrote: post #73
clhodapp wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple comes to mind. But yes, it seems very rare.

Even they are suspect. The quality of the batteries in MacBooks at our office has been terrible. Lots of them swelling up and splitting the case apart.

Battery swelling is rarely poor manufacturing.

Nearly always it's poor design of the battery chemistry or battery management system.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#97

Post by AlbertCory »

Tao3300 wrote: post #73
clhodapp wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple comes to mind. But yes, it seems very rare.

Even they are suspect. The quality of the batteries in MacBooks at our office has been terrible. Lots of them swelling up and splitting the case apart.

Indeed, the quality of the keyboards is lousy these days. A classic case of lack of attention to detail in manufacturing.

And this is AFTER they fixed the infamous design flaw on mine:

https://thenextweb.com/news/what-hell-apple-butterfly-keyboa...

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#98

Post by abfan1127 »

fyzix wrote: post #87
blt wrote: post #44

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…

Low prices or well paid workforce...Choose one! 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)

Chips act doesn't fix this. we pay taxes. we pay people to administer these silly corporate welfare programs. Companies allegedly keep manufacturing here with cheap prices... but now the prices of those objects SHOULD include the taxes to do so.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#99

Post by bradly »

walrus01 wrote: post #59

Anecdotal, but the Milwaukee packout modular stacking toolbox/rolling system has become wildly popular with electrical and low voltage + premises fiber contractors. Home Depot and several others have tried to clone it with their own cheaper house brands which are kinda okay, but not as good as the original.

Pack out is great. A great alternative to Festool’s Systainer system.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#100

Post by stacktrust »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #94
stacktrust wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A handful of DeWalt power tools are "assembled from global materials" in USA, https://www.allamericanmade.com/where-are-dewalt-tools-made/ Jackson, TN Air compressors Hempstead, MD Drill and saw components Charlotte, NC Cordless drills, screwdrivers Greenfield, IN Grinder, recip saws, hammer drills

That manufacturing process is the result of bean counters determining it's a waste to ship boxed products that are 50% air overseas in a container. Ship the broken down components instead with denser packing and have a minimum wage worker bolt it together stateside. It isn't an enlightened return to domestic production.

It's a start. Next step is automation-heavy U.S. production of specific components.
Post reply on HN