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Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

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Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#171

Post by blt »

rayiner wrote: post #153
gurumeditations wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American manufacturing looks like low-wage workers making $12 an hour (a few years ago) making windshields. A real American manufacturing renaissance would be German, with high skilled trained professionals designing, building, and operating advanced machines to create complex products. Basically what the Chinese are continually getting better at. There is no hope. America can’t even agree on giving community college…

Quoted post unavailable.

Please show me a single person who is both strongly anti-racist and strongly against free community college in the USA.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#172

Post by silisili »

eropple wrote: post #167
dmix wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DeWalt and Milwuakee are owned by the same parent company.

You've got them mixed up. DeWalt is Stanley Black & Decker, which also makes modern, non-Sears Craftsman tools, along with a bunch of others--Bostitch nailers, Irwin, whatever's left of the Porter-Cable line, and upscale stuff like MAC (uses DeWalt batteries, as it happens) or Proto. Milwaukee is TTI, which owns Home Depot's exclusive Ryobi and Ridgid brands, along with Empire (measuring devices), Hart (Ryobi but for…

Pretty well summed up. It's an even hairier mess when you look at the details. For example, TTI licenses the Ryobi name from the Japanese Ryobi, and produces tools for Ridgid while not actually owning the brand.

The odd one out usually forgotten is Positec. They have a rather interesting history, and today make the Worx stuff...which honestly aren't bad tools.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#173

Post by bcohen5055 »

arbitrage wrote: post #169
rch wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same for STIHL: > A majority of STIHL products sold in America are made in America of U.S. and foreign materials. -- https://www.stihlusa.com/stihl-made-in-america/

They're so "made in america" that you have to put qualifiers on that statement ... not buying it, sorry.

This qualifier is actually more about lawyers and accountants. The US has a very unclear policy about labeling something as USA Made. It comes down to the US content in the BOM cost and it is specific to costs essential to the product, at my last 2 companies these decisions were left to accounting and legal.

In my current company we make sunglasses a non-polarized pair of sunglasses will say made in USA and a polarized pair will say assembled in the USA because the polarized wafers are not domestically made. In both cases the boxes, stickers, and logos are non domestic but aren't counted because they "aren't essential". In my previous company anything that had electronics from overseas had to be "assembled" but electronics from NAFTA areas were "usa made"

In reality it doesn't make much sense to ever have a BOM 100% USA made as that fully negates the benefits of trade but we should have policies that still encourage companies that chose to conduct business here. When consumers are turned off by "assembled in" it drives business out of the country.

*I work as a product development engineer for consumer goods. My current role and previous company both had US MFG sites

Edit: here is a link to the requirements https://www.nist.gov/standardsgov/compliance-faqs-made-usa#4

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#174

Post by milofeynman »

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…

China is very very good at injection molding/making plastic stuff

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#175

Post by eropple »

silisili wrote: post #172
eropple wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've got them mixed up. DeWalt is Stanley Black & Decker, which also makes modern, non-Sears Craftsman tools, along with a bunch of others--Bostitch nailers, Irwin, whatever's left of the Porter-Cable line, and upscale stuff like MAC (uses DeWalt batteries, as it happens) or Proto. Milwaukee is TTI, which owns Home Depot's exclusive Ryobi and Ridgid brands, along with Empire (measuring devices), Hart (Ryobi but for…

Pretty well summed up. It's an even hairier mess when you look at the details. For example, TTI licenses the Ryobi name from the Japanese Ryobi, and produces tools for Ridgid while not actually owning the brand. The odd one out usually forgotten is Positec. They have a rather interesting history, and today make the Worx stuff...which honestly aren't bad tools.

Oh yeah, the off-model and the multi-model tools are a rat's nest. I own a Delta 36-725T2 tablesaw, bought from Lowe's. Delta is now owned by Chang Type Industrial (who own the Delta name now). The same factory makes the Ridgid R4560 table saw, sold at Home Depot. The Delta Cruzer was one of the earliest zero-rear-clearance miter saws and there's a Ridgid one of those now, too.

I'm honestly kind of glad, it means there's more better tools getting into people's hands now, but the color is an assault upon the eyes. I could've bought an R4560 probably two months before my 36-725T2, but I do woodworking because I like it, and I don't like "ORANGE!" being shouted at me every time I open the garage door.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#176

Post by ungamedplayer »

granshaw wrote: post #144
londons_explore wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'barely functional' isn't fraud. And in most cases the cheapest made in china product is barely functional. It's only deliberately selling nonfunctional products that would meet the definition of fraud.

Plus selling barely functional products under a DONGJOY etc brand isn’t fraud, only trying to sell a counterfeit Prada bag under the Prada brand is (and only in Western countries at that)

No matter what it says on the tag , if it looks like Prada but it isn't from Prada, someone is getting frauded

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#178

Post by vgeek »

kube-system wrote: post #108
NotYourLawyer wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, as the Chinese say, Chinese. Kidding, and Icon tools are quite decent.

Most Taiwanese tools are pretty good in my experience. The best deals at harbor freight IMO are the Taiwanese tools that aren’t branded “icon”

Their Quinn/Doyle lines are frequently TW, too, and you can tell a huge difference versus Pittsburgh/Pro that are CN. I am not 100% if they bin batches differently, or if specific products switch from TW/CN and back. The TW Pittsburgh tools (some of the 72 tooth ratchets, 6pt sockets) are decent quality for their price-- but you still should feel them and inspect to get an idea (e.g. the foam used in grips for Pittsburgh pliers is junk, wobbly joints, poor finishes/grinding).

The things they offer lifetime warranties on keep getting better. Some things I wonder about though. Their 200amp multi process mig welder is only $200 less than a Hobart or Lincoln-- but who knows how long HF will sell replacement parts, their warranty process for OOS items and what will actually break, so the gamble to save 10-20% doesn't seem worth it.

Apex (Crescent/Gearwrench) are mostly TW and come in a little higher than HF's 2nd tier, but are solid quality for most of their hand tools.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#179

Post by stacktrust »

eropple wrote: post #175
silisili wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty well summed up. It's an even hairier mess when you look at the details. For example, TTI licenses the Ryobi name from the Japanese Ryobi, and produces tools for Ridgid while not actually owning the brand. The odd one out usually forgotten is Positec. They have a rather interesting history, and today make the Worx stuff...which honestly aren't bad tools.

Oh yeah, the off-model and the multi-model tools are a rat's nest. I own a Delta 36-725T2 tablesaw, bought from Lowe's. Delta is now owned by Chang Type Industrial (who own the Delta name now). The same factory makes the Ridgid R4560 table saw, sold at Home Depot. The Delta Cruzer was one of the earliest zero-rear-clearance miter saws and there's a Ridgid one of those now, too. I'm honestly kind of glad, it means the…

> I don't like "ORANGE!" being shouted at me every time I open the garage door.

Some have used Plastidip to blackout loud logos.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#180

Post by eru »

gurumeditations wrote: post #109
fyzix wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Just like climate change, allowing capitalists to invest in foreign countries to build their infrastructure, industries, and workforce all so you can then sell the end product in a fat market like the US for high profit, is fundamentally a political issue. Something that hurts us all long term but is so beneficial in many other ways to us at the same time, and makes lots of capitalists fabulously wealthy. It’s too la…

How does division of labour hurt you in the long or short run?

Mercantilism and protectionism were never a good idea.

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