Colleagues and friends here. I have read all the posts here and can certainly understand most perspectives. I would like to share my experience, which may or may not agree with your perception.
I am an electrical engineer and in the 60's and 70's worked for GTE Automatic Electric in Brockville, canada, designing electronic common control end office switches, pabx's and apartment entrance systems.
As my young family expanded we felt it was time to turn our large attached garage into a three room addition. Money was tight, but I was a DIY'er and said I could do it. Needing power tools I bought a Black & Decker drill and jig saw for about $9 each and a low end circ saw for about $29, could have been $39.
Finished the project and all worked well, the tools served me well. The circ saw got shoved away and never used much, but the drill and jig saw continued to be used occasionally.
As I moved on in my career I wanted to do more design for consumer products rather that stuff that no one knew about. And in 1981 and opportunity came up to join the design team at Black & Decker in my original town.
They had a huge manufacturing facility, quite vertically integrated, with a magnesium die casting foundry, plastic molding area, and we made all of our own motors with many field and armature winding lines.
After a few months of getting there, there was some organisation changes and I ended up managing the test labs as well as my original design position. And this turned out to be a real eye opener. B&D tested all of the competitors DIY products. Wen, Skill, Pet, Craftsman..and the list went on.
B&D's goal was to provide ultimate value to the DIYer...ie best function at the lowest cost...with a two year warranty. And from all of our testing we out performed the consumer products by a significant margin and at lower cost. However Craftsman power tools were different. While they were typically more expensive than ours, they were often better performers. At the time I was involved, Craftsman power tools were made by Singer. While most of our competitors failed due to motor issues, Craftsman/ singer held up very well and were perhaps more robust than the average DIYer required.
As time moved on we changed manufacturing locations and had our own plants in Mexico and China. I was fortunate to visit a number of our suppliers in China. I think I have seen the low of the low and also some of the best. But what I can tell you from my experience is that there are many Chinese suppliers that can provide you with exactly what you want on quality, on cost, on time.
I retired from B&D 6 years ago just about the time that Stanley acquired them, so can not comment on where they are now. All I can say is that of all the products that I helped design for DIY consumers, I feel proud and firmly believe they delivered good value.
Now before I leave... Just a thought. I think most of the folks posting on this thread are perhaps older than 25 when I used my first B&D tools. Do we think perhaps as we have gained more experience and perhaps wealth, we have moved up to another level?
All the best,
David
