My experience with B&D's consumer line was not good. No, it was terrible. Likewise with Craftsman power tools. Hopefully, the new Craftsman line up will be better. But, don't bet on it. The bean counters will always have their way. 

My earliest good tools were some Wright wrenches and sockets i bought at Ontario stores.   I probably got my earliest B&D quarter inch drill and sander there.   I ran that drill so hot the grease ran out of it, let it all cool down, i re-filled, and it still runs to this day.   I can't imagine that current "homeowner" quality anything lasts like that; and my Wright tools - they're still tops.

3 hours ago, p_toad said:

and my Wright tools - they're still tops.

 

I believe Wright Tools were equal with Snap-On Tools.  The open end wrenches held their own with Snap-On which to me is the test to go by.

Was in Menards today and they are starting to carry Craftsman tools, now, too.

For those unfamiliar, Menards is a store like HD or Lowe's headquarters in Wisconsin and is spreading out over the midwest.  A bit different in that they have a grocery and pet food department.   They are famous for running a lot of rebates, usually one week a month everything at 11% rebate and sometimes in between rebates on small items at 100% of cost (i.e., free).

 

Porter Cable used to be a great brand, but Stanley Black & Decker seems to have aimed it at the Joe Garage user and not the serious or pro user.   They seem to put DeWalt in that niche.  Be interesting to see where Craftsman ends up in the family.

I noticed those tools in Menards as well. I was a little surprised since I expected it to be a house brand for Lowes (based on their ads "new home of Craftsman" but that just shows how little I know of the current market. The other thing is that Menards used to have very good tools with their brand on them (Masterforce) and they downgraded them big-time recently. The old ones were USA made by Allen, and very good tools. But they switched the entire line over to Asian manufacturer and clearanced the older USA tools out.

Yeah, those "house brands" frequently get subbed out to different manufacturers.   That was the case with Craftsman until SB&D bought them.    The guy at Menards told me Lowe's was discontinuing their Kobalt line (their recent house brand).  I even saw a HDX (Home Depot house brand) tool on the clearance rack at Menards (???  Might have been they took it in on a return when they shouldn't have).  This guy at Menards was one of the ones that knew his inventory instead of giving me a dumb look.   I was looking for a new glass cutter (I figured there would be one peg of them) and he showed me a kit in one aisle and then just a cutter in another aisle -- walked right up to them.  Unlike the three guys that once had no idea what a Kreg Pocket Hole tool was (tried to direct me to drills, drill bits, screws, and displayed a lot of dumb looks), when there was a whole bay of them two aisles over.