The Core

Why We Are Here => Hardware & Technology => Topic started by: Brad on June 28, 2026, 04:41:19 PM

Title: Power Tools
Post by: Brad on June 28, 2026, 04:41:19 PM
What happened when conglomerates and consolidation took over the power tool industry.

Your Power Tools Got Worse On Purpose

https://www.worseonpurpose.com/p/your-power-tools-got-worse-on-purpose
Title: Re: Power Tools
Post by: littleman on June 28, 2026, 06:05:44 PM
>Your Power Tools Got Worse On Purpose

Enshitifcation seems to be the universal path.

I was thinking about the VW Beetle.  I've never been a giant fan of it, but one thing about it is that it was absolutely designed to be home serviceable.  One could theoretically be kept alive forever with simple tools and a few 4x4 blocks of wood.  It is pretty much the opposite design objective of what is happening today.
Title: Re: Power Tools
Post by: ergophobe on June 29, 2026, 11:26:02 PM
Interesting. Years ago, the job site default seemed to be Dewalt and I had basically never heard of Milwaukee. Bit by bit I saw them replaced with Milwaukee and to a lesser extent Bosch.

And now I know why.
Title: Re: Power Tools
Post by: rcjordan on June 30, 2026, 01:25:32 AM
Lately, I've seen a fair number of complaints about Milwaukee's declining quality.
Title: Re: Power Tools
Post by: Rupert on June 30, 2026, 05:14:36 AM
Glad I just invested in some Makita
Title: Re: Power Tools
Post by: rcjordan on June 30, 2026, 12:52:47 PM
Makita has always been a top contender and now seem to be top dog. The batteries have been considered to be the best value for some years now. Adapting another brand to Makita batteries is fairly common.

That said, to my knowledge no tool line has the broad range of tools & specialty tools to equal the Ryobi 18v One+ line.  The line extends to 300+ tools now from construction to gardening to auto repair. The tools are cheap and batteries are good. I reluctantly moved to them from a pro-quality Porter-Cable line about 8 years ago and adapted my remaining favorite Porter-Cables to the Ryobi batteries.