Rank the tool manufacturers

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Don’t think I’ve seen Craftsman tools in HD or Lowe’s. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough

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Craftsman is Lowes’ signature line now. They aren’t quite the quality they were when sold by sears, but still damn good tools with a lifetime guarantee.

Milwaukee and dewalt are neck and neck at the top for power tools, just depends on the particular tool you’re looking at. I prefer Milwaukee hand tools, and it’s not close until you get into the real premium stuff that isn’t in box stores.

I have a ton of Milwaukee battery-powered tools, since I’ve been married to the M18 platform for around 15 years or so. The tools are generally good, but they aren’t what they were 15-20 years ago, when they were still American made. For instance (and I’m not a contractor), my ~10-year-old Sawzall shite the bed 5 or so years ago, and since then I have replaced it 3 times! And, to be fair, it’s a similar case for all the other big players out there (Bosch, DeWalt, Makita).

The truth is, nowadays—for a homeowner— the gap between Ryobi and Milwaukee isn’t large enough to justify the premium.

As far as hand tools are concerned really any of them will get the job done unless you are a mechanic or some sort of other heavy user. I've noticed that a good portion of the Craftsman line is made in the US again, which is nice to see after they moved all their production to China around 2010.

As for power tools, I've never had Makita tools do me wrong. Have some DeWalt tools and Milwaukee as well, nothing wrong with any of them but Makita stuff just seems to hold up really well.

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I’m not a contractor

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I am (was). We all use Makita

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Harbor freight. Because theyre all the same.

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Pretty sure the Torque Test channel on YouTube has consistently found most HF-brand power tools under-perform against better brands. There's a reason why they are cheaper.

Depends on what you’re wanting.

I have dewalt and Bosch.

Never had any problems with the tools. Had two dewalt batteries crap out but I was within the one year window and they replaced them.

There's always going to be a dick measuring contest amongst those that favor a particular brand. Today, outside of a few very premium and expensive brands, you are getting fairly similar tools built to a certain price point and you are getting less for your money despite battery and tool performance increases. Here is my old 2004 14.4V DW054 vs. a 2012 20V DCF885.



Both still work perfectly fine, I have a new DCF870 that is now my go-to but I still have the 885 in my kit. I plan on rebuilding battery packs for the 054 and its matching drill, no particular reason other than I can and I like keeping tools useful even if they are technically obsolete. The point of the picture is to show that pretty much any and all brands are making tools that are putting durability behind marketing wank. The switch on that old 054 is a tank, actual metal and a heat sink, thicker wires and connections. Even the housings differ a little, PA6/GF33 vs PA6/GF30, little less glass fiber means less cost in manufacturing and injection molding die wear vs a tool housing with a bit more strength and heat resistance.

Mechanics tools or everything else? Mechanics tools, Lowes carries Craftsman and Kobalt mostly. Current Craftsman hand tools are not the quality of old US-made stuff but they aren't bad. Kobalt is ok too. Both have good warranties and the few times I've taken a broken tool back to Lowes they exchanged it without drama. Home Depot carries Husky and GearWrench and GearWrench is pretty good. I have a whole set of the ratcheting combination wrenches and the 1/4" drive mini flex head ratchets. Anything else is mostly Stanley, Dewalt, Milwaukee, Estwing, etc and you can basically just pick what you like most. Dewalt and Milwaukee tape measures are pretty crappy though, I just stick with standard Stanley non-FatMax tapes. Both carry various Klein tools, Lowes carries some Ideal products while Home Depot carries almost all Klein and maybe some Fluke. Klein's little mod-box kits are nice, but wait until they have sales if you want them.