Why doesn't this website have a tool review forum?

[1Badfrog]

This place should put together a tool review conference. People could put out reviews of tools and products that they've bought in the last few years and it would be really helpful and in an organized and easy to find/search spot. There could be a number of standard things that can be rated on a scale of 1-5 and then the person could comment at length about the product as well. Is this a good idea or am I on the wrong track. I just thought it would be nicer to put down our reviews in detail once instead of commenting about it serveral times in the "Before I Buy" area to those asking about table saws, miter saws, jointers etc.

[bjman71]

I'm with you on this one! I think a forum for reviews would be very helpful and would help to make for more informed questions.

Ben

[vikingfan73]

I absolutely agree. I'm sure some of the "veterans" on here get kind of sick of answering the same questions all of the time. I'm relatively new to the site and have seen the table saw question several times since I joined. I'd love to have an area of the site where I could compare tools.

For example, I'm trying to decide between the DeWalt and PC 2 1/4 HP router combo packs. I hear PC from our local tool store, but my father in law has the DeWalt and loves it... I have 3 DeWalt tools and love every one of them. It would be nice to read some opinions from the "pros" that are here - opinions that are more thorough than the quick responses.

[deathwish2]

People post now and again about new tools they get. However, tool reviews on an individual basis are a tough thing to see through.

If someone has no experience with a particular tool, they may find the assembly/set-up time to be too long or instructions to be too vague. They could also very well be thrilled with a new mortising machine that is 10 times easier to use than the drill press mortise attachment they are used to, even though it's not as good as another brand.

If someone is upgrading a tool, they might only have the old thing to compare it to . . . i.e. "this new 12" Yamaguchi SCMS cuts a lot smoother than my old 8-1/4" Hack & Pepper CMS".

In a nutshell, it's tough to be objective if you don't have several to compare to, or have used several in the past. And then . . . is the experience with the old stuff relevant, if you can't buy that model anymore?

If I was to do a review on a new cabinet saw today . . . I'd surely find it to be better in many ways than my current contractor saw . . . even if I bought a sub-$1,000 model . . . (c'mon I can dream can't I !!!!) }>

Know what I mean??

[vikingfan73]

Sure, I see what you mean... but the point would be that other users would be free to comment on the review and compare their experiences. It would be similar to the "comments" area at Amazon. I absolutely agree with you - the DW 18v cordless drill that I recently bought is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than the old store brand that I had :D... but it doesn't mean that DW is the best. BUT... if I were to post a review stating my opinon and there were several others with plenty of experience that agreed with me, or disagreed with me, that would be some good info.

[1Badfrog]

That would be the toughest part is people being objective. Also, did the person not set the tool up correctly and that's why it doesn't work so well or are they using a poor cutter? etc. That's just like with my Bosch router. It is in another world when compared to the craftsman that broke twice in two months. Because of this I think the Bosch is flat out awesome and I will probably always buy Bosch routers and more than likely won't give PC a serious look unless I actually had the chance to use one. It can be tough to be partial and not get so excited because the tool replaces something that wasn't worthy of being used. Another nice area to each review would be having the question "What other models did you look at?" also, "Why did you choose this model over others (Price, features, bed length etc.)?

[queues]

I'm first....
Let me tell you about this Dremel....
}> }> }>

[pgeer]

I guess the question is, do we need another forum?




Paul

[1Badfrog]

Probably not. I'm sure that there are a couple of forums here that aren't doing much. This really wouldn't be a forum in which you post messages and people respond. More of a forum where people would post info about the tools that they bought and what they think of them. You wouldn't necessarily have people responding to these postings but it would be nice to read them and be able to search them by TS or MS or jointer etc.

[randall]

Well my thoughts on this are it might be a matter of liability for the web site host.

For example, a competitor, sales rep, or whomever decides to really slam the bejesus out of another company's tools, what better way then to post some very negative comments and "testimonials" on a free forum like this basically totally anonymous and basically untraceable if certain methods were used to open accounts and post with?

Someone comes in and says something like

"Oh boy, the widget company jigsaw was a lousy machine, had it for 2 hours and the bearings went out. took it back to the store, got another after some hassle, was using that and it lasted a little long- 4 hours later the bearings went out on that!
I went back tothe store and the manage refused to do anything so I called the widget company and they told me they wont cover it because I 'abused' the machine and only factory defects are covered!!"

See a potential liabilty there for the web host?