Milwaukee USA-Made Hand Tools (i.e. Pliers) ****

[dnschmidt]

The advantage to getting into the game late is that much of the information is available on designs that work, and steels that work, and what designs snd models usually sell.
The disadvantage, is that slight tweaks and tricks developed over long production years, may not be publicly known, and purchasing all new equipment and setting up a new facility can get expensive.
Malco for instance took years to get their Eagle Grip facility up and running.
Milwaukee has the advantage of a well regarded brand amongst tool users which helps.
Milwaukee is also used to computer designing motor housings, and making injection mold dies, which is probably their main advantage other than branding, since they can make fancy multicomponent grips, using knowledge they already posses, to appeal to buyers who shop based on grip material and design.
This is a distinct advantage to many plier manufacturers used to making forging dies, and dimply dipping the handles for grips, and I suspect many plier manufacturers may use outside producers for these multicomponent grips.
Most brands just find a manufacturer that already makes the hand tool, and then rebrands the tool, maybe with custom grips.
This seems yo be mostly what Stanley dies with Dewalt branded hand tools, and what Milwaukee did pre-TTI with basic accessories.

I don't buy Milwaukee hand tools, except for their wire strippers made in Taiwan, but I have a shitload of their corded and cordless tools. The one point you made about being late to the game being an advantage is particularly true of their track saw. By the time they introduced it they saw the flaws in the other brands and fixed them prior to introduction of their late to arrive track saw. Their track saw is truly great and about half the price of the Festool.

 

[neophyte]

I don't buy Milwaukee hand tools, except for their wire strippers made in Taiwan, but I have a shitload of their corded and cordless tools. The one point you made about being late to the game being an advantage is particularly true of their track saw. By the time they introduced it they saw the flaws in the other brands and fixed them prior to introduction of their late to arrive track saw. Their track saw is truly great and about half the price of the Festool.

Milwaukee also doesn’t made a corded version, , even though Milwaukee likely makes far superior corded saw motors than Festool is capable of.

 

[rust in the eye]

I wanted to reiterate this - Milwaukee Pliers (USA-Made Pliers) ****! They have a promotion going on right now for a Linesman Pliers and Diagonal Cutters for $49.97 - the jaws on both pliers do not close flush - when I point them at a source of light, light bleeds through, the machining is poorly done (i.e. rough edges), and metal looks soft versus the German (i.e. Knipex) and Japannese brands

This fellow confirms some of my findings, as well as some Reddit users -

Unacceptable

Why are we falling for this Made in USA ****. Even Icon pliers at Harbor Freight have better quality control shockingly.

This fellow confirms the same finding as well -

Milwaukee USA Pliers

Would like to share my recent experience with Milwaukee's USA made pliers. My desire was to support Milwaukee, in that they created jobs in America and built a brand new plant in West Bend, Wisconsin. This comes at a time when Klein appears to be moving jobs offshore, evident at Lowe's where...

www.garagejournal.com

metal looks soft
No shortage of USA manufacturers that will build to price rather than quality, slap a picture of old glory on the package and expect you to think its better than the imports because of that picture.
I don't recall Milwaukee ever having any especially good reputation for pliers. Yeah, Icon makes 'em look like a booger.

 

[zimman]

I buy Sharpe brand only because I'm guaranteed 4 out of 5 are good.
Zim

 

[zimman]

I have plyers from everyone. MAC, Matco, Snapoff, ICONic. Depends on where I'm at when I'm needing it. I have never held a pair of plyers up to the light to see if the teeth meet each other with precision.
As long as a pair of plyers can rip off the lid of a kitty litter box I'm good.
Zim

 

[darkzero]

I buy Sharpe brand only because I'm guaranteed 4 out of 5 are good.
Zim

I buy/use Sharpies so I can use my SR2000. Since it's called the Sharpie Rejuvenater I don't think I can use other brand markers with it.