Is this a new line of tools that B&D is putting on the market? It’s my understanding that B&D bought out Porter Cable a while back which was the portable power tool company that emerged when Rockwell split into Porter Cable/Delta.
B&D did the same thing when they reintroduced the Dewalt line because the B&D name was’t keeping up with Makita
Is this a”Firestorm”of a different color?
Are they trying to push yet another “Made in China” product down our throats?
Replies
Got any examples????
I surfed the web and got http://www.rockwell.com
Funny they logo is dewalt yellow?
Edited 1/29/2007 2:55 pm ET by try50772
I saw a line of cord and cordless tools on Amozon.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000LXZYUM/dealtime-tools-20/ref=nosim
Does this mean I'll be able to buy parts for my Rockwell drywall screw gun? The best screw gun ever made but not made for the past 20 years or so?
Ron
for me it's their 4x24 belt sander #362 - a real tank, takes all sorts of abuse, can run all day long, day after day
Sad thing is, Porter-Cable's "first born", the model 503 worm drive belt sander - looks like a locomotive or a Cadillac bumper - was quietly discontinued by B&D. B&D wants high return, volume products, not small run solidly built machines.
Edited 2/9/2007 8:22 am ET by ETG
I hope they come back with a 71/4" circular saw again with the drop bottom style base. The handle was on top and when yopu changed the height the handle kept the same position. These were hard to kill. Just don't make tools like that anymore!!
You talking about the silver 315's?
Still use my original from 72 and since have added a couple more. Good power, no vibration, but then again, I'm a nostalgic s.o.b.A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
My favorite saw ever was a Millers Falls on that same pattern. I had previouslyused two 315 working for another contractor in the seventies! Wish I'd bought one.the only drop foot I can find now is a Milwaukee I have one, but don't know if even they still make one.
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My first saw. 59.95 in a box. A whole skid of them at a lumberyard opening. Shoulda..............
35 yrs old, lets see anything new last that long even with part time use. A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
I had the same saw and was broken hearted when it finally died. It lasted almost 20 years of constant use. Comfortable to hold too.
I've got one of their old drop foot saws for parts (a 7 1/4) and one dedicated to cutting metal (the 8 1/4). Cut the cord the first time I used it, of course. The line-of-site was harder for me to get used to though than newer saws, as well as the old star-nut locking washer thingy on the blade.
Dusty and Lefty
I was just recently at my grandfathers shop in the Detroit area (he is closing up after 44 years) and he probably had dozen of the model 315-1 PC saws in various states of wear and from multiple decades just sitting on a shelf waiting to go. He gave me a brand new one for a wedding present about 8 years ago, and I think he can still get that model directly from the company, but I have not seen them available commercially for a few years. I can still readily get parts from my tools supplier, the table is stock item as they seem to warp quickly. By the way my grandfather has a similar model saw that he purchased sometime around 1958 when he finished his apprenticeship. It is obviously constructed of much heavier materials and he still uses it.
B&D - Broken & Defective
Sorry to see that Delta/PC & Dewalt are under their umbrella but I thought I heard another discussion a couples months back that they were trying to partner with Rockwell. Similar to HD/Rigid.
...The unspoken word is capital. We can invest it or we can squander it. -Mark Twain...
Be kind to your children....they will choose your nursing home.
Don't forget Ingersol-Rand and Miller's Falls.
They are all inbred like European Royalty in the eighteenth century. There are good ones and bad ones.
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Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
Delta stationary machines were bought by Rockwell in the 50's and a few years later, Rockwell bought Porter-Cable - rebranding the PC tools as Rockwell and the stationary tools as Rockwell/Delta. Rockwell was an aerospace/heavy industrial manufacturer and decided in the late 70's to get out of the tool business.
Pentair, an manufacturer of air handling equipment bought the stationary and portable tool lines from Rockwell and rebranded the portable tools as Porter Cable and the stationary back to Delta. Pentair decided a few years ago they didn't want to be in the tool business and put the entire operation up for sale. Black & Decker bought the whole operation a year or two ago.
Black & Decker never "reintroduced" the DeWalt line - Dewalt never made any of the tools B&D sells as DeWalt. Dewalt was purchased from AMF in the 60's by B&D - they made primarily radial arm saws - at the time considered a leader in the product. By the late 70's, B&D had essentially run the line in the ground, sold the radial arm saw business and kept the brand name DeWalt.
In the early 90's, B&D CEO Nolan Archibald went on a buying spree - he bought Emmart which gave them Price Phifster, Kwikset, etc. but nearly bankrupted B&D. As a cost cutting move, B&D took their industrial and tradesman tool lines (trade marks like Saw Cat, Holegun, Macho Hammer etc.), essentially took out manufacturing costs (like 3 gear reduction to 2 gear) and rebranded them DeWalt.
Today we have a whole generation of tool users who have no idea about DeWalt - it's just a yellow tool that's heavily marketed. Posters have already noted high performance machines from PC - the model 315 saw, their screwguns (now everyone is in live with battery impact drivers!), etc. - also gone. A true 24/7 industrial machine (used in heavy industry like steel) is hard to find today.
B&D has a long reputation for buying a company, sucking every bit of innovation out of it, then tossing it by the wayside - Master Power, DeWalt, WorkMate, Elu ard some of the corpses. And I fear the worst for Delta and Porter Cable.
now I understand why Kwikset and Price-Phister are such crap.Wanna know something? B&D is highly recommended as an investment right now. Things are becoming clear in the naked light of day!
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Some Kwikset products are OK, but overall Schlage is a better product. Corbin/Russwin is also a good product but tends to have more commercial items and doesn't show up in retail establishments as much.
As for the B&D stock, as a corporation they are working to enhance their value to their owners - the shareholders - and that's fine. It's the methods they use - moving away from reliable brands to quick selling, high margin consumer products that some folks don't agree with.
That's why the Holegun, Macho hammer, etc. were all dumped. They were too expensive to make, the market is small and it won't make you a "darling" on Wall St. And B&D is not alone - Porter-Cable and Delta before they were acquired by B&D were also facing the same issues as well as Milwaukee and others.
Smaller run, less consumer oriented tools like Souix, Metabo, Festool, Hilti are solid machines that typically are nbot found in a big box store. They are trying to avoid that rat race and I hope they can continue to do so.
all true. Short version is that you can make more profit selling junk to the masses than selling quality to a smaller number of pros
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Absolutely! I covet the older, corded machines - I pick them up all over - ebay, junk shops, trash cans, etc. Picked up a Porter-Cable 545 bayonet saw - worm drive with a street price of close to $400 - got it for $20 in excellent condition!
With so much emphasis on battery tools, the whole portable tool market is really becoming a commodity with brand loyality disappearing.
Thanks for that history lesson. I do miss the B&D industrial line. I still have and use a B&D Srudrill (a corded drill with a clutch), and my Elu power planer
would you pls take the time to share HOW you know
all this good stuff.
I grew up and still live in the shadow of B&D corporate in Maryland. When I was responsible for sheet steel for a major steel company, B&D was one of my customers - their Hampstead MD plant was the largest power tool plant in the world in the 60's and 70's - today it is a subdivided into public warehouses.
Later in my career, I was responsible for manufacturing in MD for State Economic Development - and the whole DeWalt/B&D rebranding was just starting. I had a number of B&D execs leave in disgust (and still do) over the way the company is headed.
Like any publically held company, B&D wants to maximize its ROI so its stock price will continually go up. But a lot of folks are disappointed that they didn't "stick to their knitting" - making solid, reputable tools. They bought GE Appliance Division, Emmart conglomerate, etc. And they lost the creativity of Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker - B&D is not the first to market that is used to be, but comes in qucikly usually with "purchased" technology. Watch and see what they do with Porter-Cable and Delta's creativity!
So what's the story behind this Rockwell line of tools that has just been introduced?Is it part of the B&D empire, or has someone else revived the "Rockwell" brand?********************************************************
"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
Good question about Rockwell. Rockwell sold both tool lines to Pentair in the late 70's or early 80's - and they may have retained the trade name just like B&D retained the DeWalt name even though they sold the line.
B&D got stuck with the same situation when they bought the small appliance division of GE in the early 90's. GE retained their logo/name so B&D had to rebrand the toasters, coffee makers, etc. to their own name. Now GE is reintroducing small appliances at places like WalMart under the GE logo - I suspect they had a non-compete agreement with B&D for a period of time.
It looks like the Rockwell name is being used by a German firm who has several lines of power tools. German engineers seem to come up with good tools but I think the Rockwell machines are made in Asia - more of the move to tools becoming a commodity.
Here's some info on them...
Rockwell tools (http://www.rockwelltools.com/about.htm)
"The Rockwell brand offers the performance-minded do-it-yourselfer and the price-conscious tradesman with an excellent option to higher priced professional power tool brands. Rockwell Shop Seriesâ„¢ is a sub-brand that focuses on lighter duty home and workshop applications. Rockwell power tools are a part of the Positec Group of companies which have been designing, engineering and manufacturing power tools since 1994. "
Positec's website: http://www.positecindustrial.com/
another product line they build... available at true value HW stores
http://www.worxtools.com/
http://www.worxpowertools.com/news/WORX%202006%20Media%20Kit/PDF/release_positec_company.pdf
http://www.worxpowertools.com/pdfs/WORX-Release-Vegas.pdf
http://www.worxpowertools.com/pdfs/WORX-TrueValue.pdf
I'm interested in know if anyone has used either of these brands... I'm considering getting one of the Worx corded drills to replace my only, beat up, B&D POS.
I know that the Worx circular saw comes up over on the EZ-Smart discussion site,http://www.sawmillcreek.org/index.php
(last one down, EurekaZone)So you can see what people say about it.
"The Rockwell brand offers the performance-minded do-it-yourselfer and the price-conscious tradesman with an excellent option to higher priced professional power tool brands. Rockwell Shop Seriesâ„¢ is a sub-brand that focuses on lighter duty home and workshop applications. Rockwell power tools are a part of the Positec Group of companies which have been designing, engineering and manufacturing power tools since 1994. "
Let me translate that into plain language:
"our tools suck, but they don't suck as bad as some of the crap out there, and with the Rockwell name on them we are hoping to sell a boatload before the word gets out"Welcome to Breaktime
Home of
The Aristocrats
That's spot on the same as my translation also! Funny, we both speak marketing BS so well.
The Worx line is available in my area's Lowes, which means you have 90 days to decide if you think it's worthwhile.