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I found an old Black and Decker drill from the 1960s and the quality seems to be way better than the junk they're putting out today. It still runs smoothly and feels just as precisely made as my Milwaukee cordless drill.
I was genuinely surprised, as my first power tools, a Black and Decker corded drill and reciprocating saw bought around 2019 were horrible. The saw died after ONE cut on 2" cast iron pipe and the drill's keyed chuck constantly came loose no matter how much I tightened it. That piece of junk was big and unwieldy but could barely drill a 1/2" hole through a 2 by 4.
A relative bought a B+D vacuum cleaner and the charging port broke after a few uses.
WTF happened to them? I know that they are owned by the same company as Dewalt now, and that company now makes a variety of tools at different quality levels, but I am surprised that a brand can go from producing quality products to making garbage that makes Walmart, no-name Amazon stuff and Harbor Freight look amazing in comparison.
It's no wonder that the only stores locally that sell Black and Crapper are this horrible hardware store that charges double what everyone else does, doesn't allow returns, and sells shit products in general.
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What year is it?
Dude… back in the 1980’s when B&D had diluted their brand to the breaking point, consumers (especially tool users) lost faith in them. Construction workers didn’t want to buy tools from the coffee maker company.
That’s a huge reason why they decided to take the Dewalt brand name that they owned but hardly did anything with and turn it into their new flagship line of professional quality tools.
Even now, B&D tools are the bottom of the barrel in terms of what they offer. They’re still in a bit of a transition but it’s Dewalt on top, Craftsman in the middle, and B&D at the bottom.
If it’s taken you 30+ years to recognize this shift… well, damn. That’s impressive.
30 how about 50? My dad's black and decker jigsaw was shit, from the 1970s. It did still run in 2000 though. I was gonna say that is because we never used it cause it was such a piece of crap, but that isn't true either; Dad used the shit out of that thing.
Wiki has a really interesting read on B&D. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%2BDecker
Looking at their list of brands it’s clear that they know how to make fantastic tools. B&D stuff is crappy because it’s profitable to them to make them crappy.
It seems odd that their original name brand is the one they let be the bottom of the barrel but here we are. Maybe it happened organically and then they just ran with it.
It kind of happened like/u/wpmason said it did. B&D tried to expand their offerings to mor than just tools. They started making household objects, like juicers and coffee makers. Hell, I have a B&D crockpot that is actually really nice.
They wanted all household products to be B&D, so they started making their tools cheaper. This way you could have your B&D tools, B&D vacuum, B&D string trimmer, and B&D food dehydrator.
This turned off professionals. In order to be a more household consumer friendly brand they had to lower the quality. Then B&D tools started to be viewed like many people view Ryobi today, okay but not great. So they started promoting the DeWalt brand as their professional line, and the B&D brand kept sliding in quality.
Personal anecdote; I grew up helping my grandfather in his woodshop and garage a lot. He had a lot of B&D tools that were decades old when I was born. So when I grew up, moved out, and got my own place it was time for me to get my own tools.
I started thinking about all the tools my grandfather had in his shop and figured that would be a good place to start. Afterall, they lasted him decades and worked great whenever I used them.
I wasn't building out a workshop at the time, just some tools to do stuff around the house. So I got a B&D cordless drill, corded reciprocating saw, corded jigsaw, and then a bunch of Craftsman hand tools (wrenches, screwdrivers, hammers.) The only tool I still have is the jigsaw, and that is because I barely use a jigsaw.
I am only 20 so I have only known the shitty version of B+D. I bought the two tools to help my parents with some household projects (which is how I learned to build and fix stuff) and threw them away after a couple uses.
Back in the day, like late 80’s - early 90’s, they actually used to have B&D stores and they were awesome because they sold and serviced all the B&D industrial tools. All made in the USA, all meant to outlast you. You could go in there and buy an SDS hammer, get your drill brushes changed, buy a toaster, and pick up a rebuilt industrial recip saw for cheap. All the BD Industrial tools were just black Dewalt stuff at the end, but it was good stuff. Still got a drill.
The whole arrangement pissed Home Depot off something awful, and pretty much ran them out with purchase power to make Dewalt the then house brand of Home Depot.
Object lesson is that the old stuff really was/is awesome, if a bit underpowered by modern standards, and also, fuck you, Home Depot
Nowadays, I don't think any consumer-level tools are serviceable. I haven't had any problems with my M18 cordless tools that require service yet, but I am just using them to help my family maintain their homes. Still, with modern brushless motors, I am not sure if there is even a need for servicing anymore.
I found a shop that services all my Milwaukee tools. As I recall the service warranty is 3 years on the drills and it’s honestly pretty reasonable after that. It’s rare. It took me 20 years to find it but I love it. Nothing feels as gross as throwing away tools does. My conservationist core just hates it fundamentally.
Unfortunately even high end tools require servicing at some point. Probably not in home use, but professional use still takes it's toll.
That's true, but I asked people that are in the trades and they only service very expensive stuff like a ProPress machine or a miter saw. Something like a simple cordless drill is essentially throwaway nowadays. I guess it makes sense since there aren't as many moving parts as the old brushed and geared drills.
The name became the product. There was more return on selling branded items than quality items.
You're like 25 years too late..maybe even more
The history is rather interesting (or it’s not, depends on you!). B&D bought dewalt and used the name to market their higher end tools. So the low end product kept the b&d name and the better product became dewalt. Technically speaking it’s all b&d though.
They had a black and decker drill for use out on display at a local hardware store here. It was literally a children’s toy. I could hold the trigger all the way down and completely stop the chuck from spinning with 2 fingers.
Everything built back then was tough as hell, that was before planned obsolescence was engineered into things. We could still build things like that, way better even, but they would be so expensive no one would buy them. The few select people who do buy them never have to replace them so it ruins long term corporate profits.
We mostly have ourselves to blame for planned obsolescence though. Yes, most power tools from the 60s were built like a ton of bricks, and most still work, but who is using them? Virtually no one. We want improvements, and we want progress. Why bother overbuilding something that people will want to replace anyway?
You make a good point. If we were cool with a drill maxing out at 600 RPM and weighing 8 pounds, surely companies would still be making them.
I like my old vintage worm drive saws but I use my Dewalt cordless. Lighter, more powerful and I don’t need a generator.
It's also easy to forget just how expensive tools used to be.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266253362525
Sounds cheap, but the median family income then was only $10k. Adjusting for inflation the "low cost" circular saw is $150, and the router is on sale for $400. That's pretty much at the high end of the current market, and about double what most non-professionals are looking to pay.
$150 is about how much a good circular saw costs
I’m too young to have witnessed their decline. I only owned those two shitty tools, threw them in the trash, and forgot about them until I found the 1960s one.
Yeah it makes sense! Many tools are junk nowadays and no matter how new the tool is or how many times it is used it just isn’t as good as advertised.
“Junk they’re making today” Literally the the best tools are being made today what are you talking about? We have literally ever tool you could want.
The real secret is.... rose tinted glasses. Black and Decker has long looooooooong been a consumer brand, their whole deal was affordability which is how they became the name everyone knew in the postwar DIY and home handyman boom.
They did also have a professional line. These were obviously aimed at actual professionals. But they saw value in what other companies were doing by putting their higher tier stuff under a different brand name entirely and decided it was time for DeWalt to become a premium power tools name, rolling their pro stuff into that and keeping their consumer level stuff on their own name.
But back on affordability... as time goes on things get more expensive. More expensive to produce, more expensive to transport, etc. This forces companies to make choices, one such choice is do we increase the price or lower our cost and keep the price? Since they already had a penchant for affordability and as of the early 90s were firmly entry level, the choice was clear.
But that didn't even start in the 90s. When Rockwell bought Porter Cable decades before, they purposely watered down the quality and therefore the price to compete with Black and Decker. Surely if B&D was such a workhorse, one wouldn't be shitting on their own brand to bring it to B&D's level, yes? Quite the opposite I would assume.
It's just now the affordability has caught up to it, especially in the modern age of stagnant wages and purchasing power much lower than Ye Olden Tymes.
B&D has produced mostly junk for at least 50 yrs. I'm over 60 yrs old and can't remember any great tools from them.
The only good product they've come out with in the last 50 years is the 'Alligator' A mini chainsaw pruning shear that's about as safe as you can make a chainsaw for a homeowner. It is a legitimately great tool... but it is a homeowner tool, not professional quality like the old B&D kit.
Can't fault the business plan though. Trash the build quality, minimise production costs - make a ton money living on their brand name before people clocked on they were complete garbage. Then use that huge profit to go buy the competition, Ironically Stanley did something very similar but less drastic and the two merged into the blob we have today.
In my country B&D is known as cheap crap. Best for home use is Bosch and dewald and others for heavy duty.
Hmmm, B&D has been bad for decades.
Stanley Black & Decker owns multiple brands so it makes sense to divide the brands to cater to different customer bases rather than have a dozen brands competing of the same potential buyers. Over the years B&D has been moved to the DIY side (ie. cheaper).
The thing with Stanley Black & Decker that confuses people is that all their brands are very old, some well over a century, and most of these brands used to be individual businesses trying to beat the others. Over the decades more and more companies were bought and merged. As I mentioned previously, it doesn't usually make a lot of sense to have competing brands within one company so Stanley B&D has gradually made some brands tools cheaper and focused more efforts in making for example DeWalt compete in the professional and prosumer market.
1st the tools you described where very cheap models. But that's what black and decker are known for. You basically get what you pay for. They shouldn't be breaking from 1 use but definitely aren't meant for professional work. 2nd power tools really have gotten better especially cordless. Corded metal tools worked ok, lasted forever but in general are a pain to use. Then came brushed cordless with the crappy batteries in the same shape of the Ryobi ones now but even worse build quality and I want to say they used a Ni-cd battery that made them weak and they died really quick. Now we are at the point where any brushless tool uses lithium ion batteries and is way lighter, more powerful and in general cheaper than it used to be. Try some quality DeWalt tools or higher end black and decker cordless tools and I think you will have a much better experience.
I currently use the Milwaukee cordless tools and they’re pretty good. I found that Ryobi is usable for light duty stuff and is a good buy for single use specialized tools.
But Black and Crapper? That’s barely adequate for assembling furniture. They also ruined the black and orange color scheme by making it look cheap.