Job and Knock said:
Rip Van Winkle said:
Bosch may not currently be known for “high-end” tools, but before Festool started to be widely adopted in the USA, Bosch was one if the main manufacturers of “professional” or “industrial” quality tools that were sold in the USA. The Bosch tool line was probably one of the most extensive from any manufacturer available, and owning Bosch tools would probably get you looked at the same way Festool tools would get you looked at now.
Maybe in the USA, but didn't Bosch get a bunk-up by buying Stanley Power Tools in the early 1980s?
With more than 40 years of trade use of Bosch I have to say that the statement,
"...owning Bosch tools would probably get you looked at the same way Festool tools would get you looked at now". never applied in Europe. As a joiner that "crown" in the 1970s and 80s was most certainly held by Elu, creator of the plunge router, who's tools back in the 1980s pretty well all had dust extraction, too - unlike the Milwaukees, Black & Deckers and Porter-Cables of the day (and we did see them here in the UK until the mid-1970s). For drills and grinders, though, Metabo was the brand many people held in highest regard. Festool and Mafell were practically unknown outside of Germany before the 1990s (or at least I never saw any for sale or in use when living in the Benelux in that period, and they never made much of an impact in the UK, either). Out of interest in the 1970s and 80s many of Bosch's corded drills were actually being made by Holz-Her (power tool division now part of Festool) as well as some of the circular saws. In return it appears that Bosch were selling jigsaw gearboxes to a lot of other firms. In fact the relationships between the German power tool manufacturers has long been fairly incestuous with Metabo, Kress, Holz-Her, Mafell and even Bosch all having made tools for others; my first Hilti recip saw (late 1990s) was made by Bosch, my current Hilti WSC-85 rip saw is actually a Mafell and my Swiss-made Elus were produced by Scintilla (also the worlds largest jigsaw blade manufacturer) - a part of Robert Bosch.....
The difference is that the Germans pretty much concentrated on supplying industrial and trade users - so the quality was always pretty high. US manufacturers appear to have gotten into a downward spiral of price and quality much earlier. Nowadays, though, standards appear to be falling with Bosch stuff
Bosch as far as I’m aware never had anything to do with Stanley or their older power tool division, which stanley divested itself of multiple decades ago.
Bosch did have a joint centure with the Emerson Electric Company, who at that point owned the Skil power tool Corporation, which Bosch later Took over. Skil had manufacturing divisions in the USA and various parts of Europe, including the Netherlands. The partnership in Emerson was cslled the S-B Power Tool Co., which presumably stood for Skil Bosch Power Tools. During this period, Bosch tools sold in the USA might be the European made Bosch Tool models, usually the ‘blue’ ‘professional’ models, although some ‘green’ DIY models were also sold in the USA, but in the ’blue’ bosch color. Other Bosch models such as jigsaws and grinders were made in the USA, but using the exact same designs as the European made Bosch tools. There were some European tools that never made it to the USA, and some USA made Bosch tools, like the 1617 series routers, that I don’t believe were sold in Europe. As far as the Skil branded tools went, the worm drive circular saws models were mostly left as is. Other Skil tools were also still made in the USA, usially simpler, less fancy, lower cost, models that lacked fancy adjustments found on similar European Bosch tools. For instance Bosch sold a decently adjustable biscuit jointer that was designed to take on Porter Cable or Dewalt models, whereas the Skil biscuit jointer had a much dimpler fence, and seemed designed more for basic factory furniture joinery. The same applied to heavier right angle random orbit sanders both companies sold. Some other Skil tools that were sold in the USA were European made ‘green’ Bosch tools that were more for the DIY market.
As far as Bosch being a top of the line “professional” brand, that information for the 70s, 80s, and 90s, came from older professional woodworkers I knew, and what they recommended, as well as the Whole Earth Catalogue, which mention Bosch being top of the line for power tools along with Milwaukee, and companies like Ridgid and Rothenberger for plumbing tools. The local tool repair place that was an official repair center for most major brands alsio used to recommend Bosch and Milwaukee.
As to Hilti, up until the 90s did they even make their own power tools other than their rotary hammers? I’ve seen older Hilti power tools that appear to be rebrands from other makers, including drills that were identical to Metabo models exept for color, saws and grinders that might have been from Bosch, and a screw gun that apoeared to be a USA made Porter Cable model. The distinctive Hilti tools, that I presume were actually made by Hilti, were the 90s models, from when Hilti turned up in Home Depot in the USA, and presumably a few years before that in Europe. Many of those tools were manufactured in Lichtenstein, and had very distinctive features, and looks, that set them apart from other power tool brands being sold. The jigsaws had self contained dust collectors, as did some of the smaller rotary hammers, the corcular saw was a worm/hypoid drive track saw, the screw guns were made for collated screw adapters, as well as having other unusual features, the top of the line cordless drill had three speeds back when two was usual etc.
Alledgedly, Hiltis venture into selling a wider variety of innovative power tools didn’t go great, and they didn’t move enough tools for it to be really profitable. Hilti has since dropped a bunch if the innovative designs for simpler models, and moved production to China for those models in a joint venture with Panasonic.
