New line of Rockwell Powertools

[Paul Greathouse]

I just stumbled upon something while poking around the Woodcraft site. Rockwell is coming out with a new line of powertools. They tout their tools as professional grade without all the expensive hype that makes other quality tools expensive.

If you want to take a look, check out their website rockwelltools.com. The pictures of the tools look computer generated (kinda fishy looking, maybe its just part of their hypeless approach).

One of the tag-lines on the website says "Why pay $300 for a $150 circular saw. I don't know about the rest of you but the only $300 circular saw I ever bought was a Hilti 267E and its worth every penney I paid for it. None of the other major brands are charging $300 for a circular saw.

They mention that their tools will not be sold at the big box stores but at smaller hardware stores and such. In addition to the smaller stores Sears and Harbor Frieght are on the list along with Woodcraft, amazon and TylerTool. Looks like good old HF might have themselves a Pro line of tools now:D. We'll have to see.

The Flagship of their tool line isn't even a powertool. Its called the Jawhorse, a 3 legged sawhorse with a supposedly powerful vise-like clamping jaw. Looks like it could be promising, if it holds up to their claims.

I'll have to take a look at them next time I'm in Sears or HF. You never know they might be onto something.

[Wes Bischel]

Paul,
Actually Positec has had the Rockwell name on tools for a few years. They make Worx tools as well as Master-Mechanic and I think some of the Craftsman line. I have no idea what kind of quality the Rockwell line is though.

Just FYI,
Wes

[Tom Veatch]

...I'll have to take a look at them next time I'm in Sears or HF. You never know they might be onto something.

Was watching a DVD movie the other night, and when I turned off the DVD player and the screen reverted to the TV display, there was a Rockwell infomercial about an "It slices, it dices" Rockwell SoniCrafter for $120. Probably should have called my sponsor, but, sad to say, I fell off the wagon and actually watched broadcast TV for a few minutes.

Like all presentations of that type, it implied, or maybe a little stronger than "implied", that the slicing, dicing, SoniCrafter was the only material cutting tool you'd ever need. Actually, the technology is not new and does work. It remains to be seen if the implementation in this tool realizes the promise. Doubt that I'll gamble $120 to find out since products "as seen on TV" generally gravitate to the bottom of my list. But, if any of you have any experience with this device, I'd be interested in hearing your impressions. If it actually does work, there are applications where it could come in handy. $120 worth of "handy" is another question.

[Jim Becker]

Is the OxiClean guy going to be shouting about these, too??? :D

[glenn bradley]

Is the OxiClean guy going to be shouting about these, too??? :D

And does Triton know about this?

98837

I guess they already have a relationship with Harbor Freight.

98838

[James White]

Ta Da! Looks like everyone is getting in on the action. I just hope the sand paper fits the Fein.

http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/search.do?keyword=multifunction&Submit=Go

James

[Steve Vaughn]

I just stumbled upon something while poking around the Woodcraft site. Rockwell is coming out with a new line of powertools. They tout their tools as professional grade without all the expensive hype that makes other quality tools expensive.

If you want to take a look, check out their website rockwelltools.com. The pictures of the tools look computer generated (kinda fishy looking, maybe its just part of their hypeless approach).

One of the tag-lines on the website says "Why pay $300 for a $150 circular saw. I don't know about the rest of you but the only $300 circular saw I ever bought was a Hilti 267E and its worth every penney I paid for it. None of the other major brands are charging $300 for a circular saw.

They mention that their tools will not be sold at the big box stores but at smaller hardware stores and such. In addition to the smaller stores Sears and Harbor Frieght are on the list along with Woodcraft, amazon and TylerTool. Looks like good old HF might have themselves a Pro line of tools now:D. We'll have to see.

The Flagship of their tool line isn't even a powertool. Its called the Jawhorse, a 3 legged sawhorse with a supposedly powerful vise-like clamping jaw. Looks like it could be promising, if it holds up to their claims.

I'll have to take a look at them next time I'm in Sears or HF. You never know they might be onto something.

I was in a McCoy's Building Suuply last year at Christmas time and they had the Rockwell shop series tools on sale. I picked up the three tool combo kit (1/2" drill, trim saw and flashlight) for $99.00. It came with a charger and two 18v batteries and a heavy duty nylon bag. Then I registered for the free batteries for life program. I thought this was a great deal for a backup set of tools. They work fine for light duty stuff. I also have most of the major name brand tools.

Steve

[Tom Burger]

Is the OxiClean guy going to be shouting about these, too??? :D

Ole Billy Mays!
Man, you ain't kiddin'.
I think that guy tries scaring people into buying stuff.
I gotta turn the TV down every time he comes on!

[Jim Becker]

Tom, I could swear I heard him hawking some kind of insurance the other day when I was in the airport and one of the TVs was tuned to "something"...:rolleyes:

[glenn bradley]

Thanks for that post Steve. My post got a little tongue in cheek. Glad to have some solid input from someone who has used them a bit.

[Chuck Tringo]

Well, it is good to know that there is an option to the multimaster, I would also like to hear from someone who has one....Ive ran into a few projects where I wish I had a multimaster, but not enough to warrant $3-400, probably enough to warrant $120 though....;)



Was watching a DVD movie the other night, and when I turned off the DVD player and the screen reverted to the TV display, there was a Rockwell infomercial about an "It slices, it dices" Rockwell SoniCrafter for $120. Probably should have called my sponsor, but, sad to say, I fell off the wagon and actually watched broadcast TV for a few minutes.

Like all presentations of that type, it implied, or maybe a little stronger than "implied", that the slicing, dicing, SoniCrafter was the only material cutting tool you'd ever need. Actually, the technology is not new and does work. It remains to be seen if the implementation in this tool realizes the promise. Doubt that I'll gamble $120 to find out since products "as seen on TV" generally gravitate to the bottom of my list. But, if any of you have any experience with this device, I'd be interested in hearing your impressions. If it actually does work, there are applications where it could come in handy. $120 worth of "handy" is another question.

[Pete Bradley]

They can throw around meaningless terms like "pro grade" all they want, but really this is just a Chinese company applying a well-known brand name to unknown tools. I'll be surprised if many of them will be unique to the "Rockwell" name.

Pete

[Dave Lehnert]

Ole Billy Mays!
Man, you ain't kiddin'.
I think that guy tries scaring people into buying stuff.
I gotta turn the TV down every time he comes on!


No! Here is THE MAN. Vince from Sham-WOW.

http://carpedenim.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/shamwow.jpg?w=280&h=204

[Tom Burger]

No! Here is THE MAN. Vince from Sham-WOW.

http://carpedenim.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/shamwow.jpg?w=280&h=204


You got that right....this guy just oozes coolness!
Maybe we could start a movement to have him replace Billy.

[Joe Jensen]

I don't know why anyone would want to try an unproven new tool brand. It's clearly just another cheap tool made in china and branded with a retread old iron tool. I for one will stay with proven brands...joe