Sheet metal knockout punches

I had a 1 1/8" one that left a little tab for orienting octal tube sockets. I haven't seen that one on the market for some time.

DimBulb, I have pegged. You're lower than a floor wipe.

Wrong again, AlwaysWrong.

Nymbecile? Basic math? Snoo-o-o-rt! That's just too funny, coming from the group's own math-phobe!

The "integral" motors are usually universal motors; horrible things. An old Sears contractors saw is a reasonable tool. Newer ones are junk. I bought a Delta X5 Unisaw in March. Just came in from making sawdust, in fact (still can't understand why my dado zero-clearance insert no longer fits ?-/).

I also have a Craftsman RAS that I bought about 30 years ago. It's taken apart right now but I'll put it back together when I get my shop built. Last year I bought a Dewalt rear swivel circular saw that's really slick. I also have their 18V 6" saw that I used for cutting plywood down to size. I don't like most of HF's power tools. As I said, the HF 10" SCMS is OK for what I bought it for but it's no world beater. I bought a couple of HF 18V drills that are absolute junk. I bought 'em mail order before I'd ever been into a store. Had I seen them I never would have wasted the money.

The lock in type was more suited for control or power cables. Not all octal sockets had ground lugs. I used to solder the mounting plates to a brass plate to lower the inductance in RF circuits. :)

The older Sears internal motor table saws were split phase, capacitor start. Instead of using a mechanical switch inside the motor, Emerson used the Klixon thermal starter.

Which 18 volt drills? They have several models. I still have one of their 9.6 volt cordless drills that I've had for years. It doesn't hold a full charge, but its over five years old. The same basic drill is now sold as an 18 volt model 93440. The only thing that I don't like about it is that the battery pack slides on, and uses a hockey puck to connect to the charger but I bought a pair for under $40. If I need a high torque drill, I use an AC powered drill.

The belt drive saws have induction motors but every direct drive saw I've seen has a universal motor (to get it small enough to have enough of the blade exposed to be useful).

Dunno, I'll see if I can find it......91396. It's balance is all off and feels like it's made by a kid's vac-u-form kit. It's a total waste of a blow-mold case. ...and blow-mold cases are pretty worthless.

I will post the exploded view of the saw with the motor. It is a capacitor start motor and has no brushes. Its a misshapen piece of oddball engineering. Basically, it fits in place of the bearing assembly that holds the arbor on a belt drive table saw. You can't use as much of the blade, because of the design.

That is one of the cheaper models. That is the same price as each of the drills I bought, without the toy light or molded case. The absolute worst cordless drills I've seen was my first one, a yellow plastic piece of crap from Rockwell, and some 'Coleman Powermate' drills that were given to me. They were store returns, and I've wonder if they were actually returned, or thrown through the store windows. One had a broken output shaft from the gearbox. The other had some wires that were never connected. I 'fixed' that one and have seven batteries, but but it makes anything else look good.

do

en,

True that a punch doesn't need debur, but these holes were pretty clean. I didn't have to debur much. It really depends on how many holes you will be punching. At some point, the chassis punch makes sense. Anyway, my point is these step drills are one of the things at HF that doesn't suck.

Of course, it takes some time for the smell of the store to leave your lungs.....

Ah, one more thing that doesn't suck are those yard rakes from HF. And of course I can't find them on the website. Figures.

I bought one there, with a yellow fiberglass handle a few months ago.

I know we would all like to buy kit made locally, but the very best power tools you can buy, imho, are Makita. I have bought both new and s/hand from machinery auctions and boot sales. The secondhand ones always get stripped, cleaned and relubed before use and you should see the internals. Invariably ball or roller bearings on all shafts and generously proportioned motors, which never seem to have any wear on the commutators, irrespective of age. You can look at it with an engineers critical eye and find little to find fault with. Some of the Bosch kit is not bad as well and even some of the Black & Decker stuff, so long as it's been made at the Scintilla subsiduary in Switzerland, but much of the B&D stuff is rubbish.

It's the old story - buy cheap, buy twice :-)...

Regards,

Chris

I still have a B&D drill I bought in 1970. I have four or five of them, all from the 60s though the early '80s that have seen a lot of rough service I wore out one chuck, and several power cords. All US made.

I thought that Makita is chinese made these days? Or is it Ryobi?

Makita is a Japanese company, but of course they make tools in China.

Ryobi is a bit more of a story.. they used to be Japanese, but they now are owned by a company called TTI, which makes such brand-name "stuff" as Homelite, Milwaukee, Rigid (for Home Depot) etc... all in South China. Founded by a European and a Chinese fellow about 25 years ago.

Makita is Jap. Don't know about Ryobi, but it smells average chinese quality to me.

Perhaps i'm being too harsh on B&D, but the motors always seem a bit on the weedy side and they use a lot of sintered sleeve bearings with oil loaded for life that dry out after a few years. What ball bearings they do have seem to get real noisy. I'm not saying they won't still work, but they cut corners and that reduces the design life. Maybe the us stuff is to a better spec.

The best us kit i've seen in the uk is De Walt. Their stuff is popular in the trade here and seems to last forever, even when worked hard...

Regards,

Chris

No! *Another* good catch. :-) I'll have to try them.

For whatever reason(s), I find myself doing that a lot. I use a rotary rasp - gotta try the stepless bits. :-)

Thanks! Ed

DeWalt is owned by Black & Decker (...as of 1992).

But it is their "premium" line, similar to Toyota/Lexus, whewreas the B&D line is aimed at "home" usage.

Didn't know that.

P&G owns Gillete, and I didn't know that either, until I read some stuff yesterday about Gillette Stadium.

Harbor Freight was selling some Dewalt tools. Here is a recall notice on one:

Some Makita is OK. Most of it is overpriced. I now have mostly Bosch and Dewalt tools, with a few older PC (router, drill, etc) thrown in. Oh, and a Hitachi nail gun. I stopped buying Makita about ten years ago.

It's hard to get rid of crap tools. It's easier just not to buy them. ;-)

Rigid is a US company. They're out of the Cleveland area and they are