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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

#101

Post by bradly »

CraigJPerry wrote: post #79

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…

> I noticed at the most recent Milwaukee power tools event that they’re really going all in on specialist tools.

I hope this means a Domino and proper track saw competitor in the works.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#102

Post by mc32 »

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)

Agreed. It's not always straightforward but I also feel there is a disconnect when on the one hand people say the answer to worker's poor pay is "Unions!" and then on the other hand they want cheap things and also say that people have a right to cheaper things because that improves quality of life through increased purchasing power... Well, that's true if you have a professional white collared job. If you're in the lower middle class or in the working class... offshoring to cheaper locations is going to hurt the working class because now they are out of a job or have fewer choice jobs --their job market as a worker has no power --you want to get paid more, great, we'll ship production to Mexico or China. What, you want better pay for being a janitor? Great, we're getting cheap labor from unregulated guest workers and you're out of luck.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#103

Post by happyopossum »

chongli wrote: post #95
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)

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.

So you’re picking low prices and an UNpaid workforce - cutting a workforce by 90% but doubling pay for the remaining 10% doesn’t improve a local or domestic economy.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#104

Post by GuB-42 »

sbierwagen wrote: post #85
stacktrust wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there adapters to migrate between some battery platforms?

Yes. But for certain vendors and voltages it can make the tool much more bulky: the Milwaukee 12v is cylindrical and inserts into the grip while Dewalt 12 is rectangular, etc.

Not only that but is would add an extra failure point. Hand tools are made for rough use, and I certainly wouldn't want a flimsy adapter between my tool and battery.

And I am just a home gamer. I can't imagine a pro whose living depends on reliable tools rely on hacks like these. These guys buy absurdly expensive Hilti tools because this is a brand they can count on, they can spend a couple hundred bucks on a pair of proper batteries.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#105

Post by kube-system »

cplusplusfellow wrote: post #53
kube-system wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Professionally engineered products have their steel specified by physical attributes, not country of origin. If it meets the spec, and passes QA, it meets the spec. That being said, not every plant makes every type of steel. Higher end steels are the types of steels that western manufacturers can compete on, so it is often what they specialize in.

Some countries declare steel to have certain properties and they do not have those properties. This is a certifiable fact.

Manufacturers can and do test steel for compliance and will demand remediation from suppliers if it exhibits issues. I have first hand experience.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#106

Post by gurumeditations »

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.

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 to poor kids, let alone training a generation of toolmakers, electronic engineers, programmers, and every other profession involved in making things out of atoms more complex than a handtool or a radiator. This country is dying and wildly unstable politically.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#107

Post by stacktrust »

gurumeditations wrote: post #106
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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…

TSMC is sending recent American college graduates to Taiwan for 12-18 months of internship/training, in preparation for work at the TSMC fab in Phoenix, AZ, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29676073

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#108

Post by kube-system »

NotYourLawyer wrote: post #55
kube-system wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Icon tools are Taiwanese

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”

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#109

Post by gurumeditations »

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)

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 late to tear down the current reality because there is no political will to build a new one. Perhaps giving away the long term professional knowledge core of the US to foreign countries so that capitalists could become richer and laborers could have cheaper goods will be what historians point to as the root cause of the decline of the American empire.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#110

Post by [deleted] »

chongli wrote: post #95
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)

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.

[deleted]
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