What Tool Brand is Best?- Question of the Week

July 5, 2007 | Filed Under Blog, Question of the Week 

This week’s question comes from Shawn. He writes:

Hey Marc, I really enjoy your web site, keep up the great work. I’m thinking about going into woodworking full time and my shop now has more table top tools than big industrial tools. If money was not an issue which manufacturer of tools would be the best for a woodshop and why? I’m really torn between people saying this tool is better even though it’s cheaper than another or vice versa. Thanks in advance for your response, have a great day.

And here was my reply:

“Hey Shawn. The best piece of advice I can give you is not to get too hung up on brands. Even well-respected brands make a bad tool now and then, and budget brands occasionally make a show stopper. So the important thing is to be brand blind when shopping for tools. Now you might notice that I do not practice what I preach. Most of my tools are Powermatic. This is because, like many woodworkers, when I have a good experience with a tool, I tend to gravitate to that brand for future tool purchases. Its only natural that we do this and it makes sense. But depending on which brand we had a positive experience with, we all wind up being faithful to different companies. And this is why you will see devotees in each brand camp trying to convince you that their favorite brand is the best. And you know what the truth is? They are all pretty good. The key is to simply avoid the tool that has well-documented flaws. Even still, deciding which brand to go with can be tricky. So here is what I usually do. I read the Amazon.com reviews. I usually throw out the worst reviews and the best reviews and see what’s left. I also check out the latest reviews in the magazines (taken with a grain of salt of course). And if after all of that there is no clear winner, then I simply pick the color I like the most. And for me, that’s yellow (or is is baby poop color?). I have an unusual need for all of my tools to look the same. And I trust Powermatic based on my previous experiences. But I have heard great success stories from people using General, Steel City, Delta, and Grizzly tools as well. So if you want the best tool in each category, do your research and forget about brands. If you want to simplify your life, pick a color and do enough research to make sure you aren’t buying a dud. I am sure you will be happy with the results either way. Good luck.”

Comments

7 Responses to “What Tool Brand is Best?- Question of the Week”

  1. LordLQQK on July 5th, 2007 6:25 pm

    Extremely well put…..if you open a dozen wood mags. you’ll get a half dozen Top Buys. Most of these picks are based half and half on experienced statistics and collected opinions. But warning flags should be noted if more than a half dozen rate something as crap-in-a-box.

  2. Chamoruboy on July 6th, 2007 10:06 am

    I’ve been building up my shop for the last couple of months and I recently spent hours in Woodcraft, Rockler, and Sumner Woodworking store (in Washington state). I feel the same way, that no one “brand” is superior to the rest because all the major brands do exceptionally well with some of their products and so-so with their other products.

    I’m quite impressed with Steel City though. I learned (unconfirmed) that the company was created by a bunch of woodworking old timers with the intent of creating machines specifically designed for fine woodworkers. I was shown some features in their machines that is evident that a whole lot of thought and experience went into their designs. They don’t compromise for cost buy using cheaper material either.

    Festool also greatly impresses me.

    For me cost is a major factor so my method is to think of what I’ll be using a machine for and finding the least expensive machine that will do what I need it to do. It’s like not buying a $1,000 color copier with all the pretty bells and whistles when I only need to make black and white copies. Instead I buy the $200 black and white copier.

    As you’ve probably guessed, I don’t own any machines from Steel City or Festool, but one day when I win the lottery…..

  3. Vic on July 7th, 2007 5:13 pm

    Shawn, I can’t remember who gave this advise, but I think it wise. “Find the best machine that your money can buy, then save a little longer and get the one that’s just better”. Over my life I have, almost 95% of the time, regretted buying something I felt was just O.K., but affordable. It pays to save and buy what you really want first. That way you don’t by one machine for the price of two.

  4. Tim aka Mopardude on July 8th, 2007 3:02 pm

    Yea I have to agree with Vic. I also went with a more affordable to than regretted later not waiting and getting the better one.

  5. Paul on July 10th, 2007 4:14 am

    I agree with Vic and Tim, after buying a couple of budget tools that never gave me what I wanted I discovered Festool (just plane Festo back then). I decided to bite the bullet and bought a sander. I have never looked back, I now have 3 sanders, 2 routers, a jigsaw and a shop vac ( I put the vac off for some time as they are pricey but I got one this April and I should have got one ages ago). They are pricy but that just means more haggle room to get a better price.

  6. Jim on July 10th, 2007 8:19 pm

    Here is my 2 cents Shawn,While I don’t disagree with the notion that you will never be dissappointed buying the best that you can afford, It’s not necessary to get the most expensive, I have Grizzly tablesaw and horizonal boreing machine, Jet bandsaw, General 15″ planner.(so much for matching colors) Mark’s advice is good read the reviews. There are alot of good machines out there by different manufactures.
    My advice is to learn the most you can, I have seen some very fine pieces of furniture come out of some very basic shops.

    Jim

  7. glenn on July 11th, 2007 11:34 pm

    All the above are excellent thoughts — no argument. Whatever the case, if it comes down to waiting a while longer to save up versus buying cheap now — WAIT.

    In terms of specifics, I too love my Festools. I’ll never own a BMW car but I sort of think of these as my BMW tools. Not perfect (I don’t much care for their jigsaw and tend to use my Bosch more) but overall they are batting about a 975. My DeWalt impact drivers remain the most used tools in the shop and they apparently don’t ever wear out. I, too, love Powermatic stationary tools but like my Delta drill press better than the Yellow one.

    So as you can see from all these replies, there is no one answer to your question; but, you are on the right track - asking questions and looking around. Good luck.

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