"Dual drill" -- opinions? experience?

Saw this thing advertised on (late night) TV yesterday.

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It's a cordless drill with a 2-chuck turret on it. It _seems_ like a good idea: drill bit in one chuck, driver bit in the other, for instance. Flip from one to the other to install a bunch of woodscrews quickly, say.

I never saw such a thing before, and I wonder why they're advertising on TV specifically. Is this a totally new thing, or just new to the home-owner market?

Does anybody here own one? If so, is it _worth_ $140 or so? Is there an industrial version? And who _is_ "Mansfield Power Tools"?

Like I say, it _seems_ like a good idea ...

-- TP

Reply to
tonyp
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Let the lawsuits begin!!!!!!

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Reply to
ph17314

It's what the old folks used to call a gimmick...

Seeking suckers. Likely means you'd keep your $140 in your pocket if you could handle the tool before plunking down money. Only real question is whether they are paying $14 or $1.40 to have this thing made. Given it's a TV product, you can generally find the actual price they pay by looking for the shipping and handling charge - that, minus any actual cost of shipping, is usually what the thing cost them, which is why they are happy to have you buy it and return it for a full refund, less the shipping and handling.

At a guess, another Chinese company with an American city (or state) prominently in the name, for help in fleecing the foolish. [I'm supporting those nice folks in Mansfield with my business! Oops, says here in 0.04 point type, "Hecho in Chine"... now why didn't the nice honest folk on the TV ad mention that?]

If you want a drill and driver all chucked up at the same time, wander into Wally's Freaking Mart and plunk down $30 each for a pair of cheap drills - then at least you'll have a source of spare parts, two batteries, two chargers, and an extra $80 in your bank account. If you want quality, do the same thing at a higher class establishment for drills not made in China.

Reply to
Ecnerwal

A good idea? I, for one, don't think so.

Consider: for the money you'd spend on this bizarre masterpiece of consumer consumption you can buy 2 (perhaps more) equivalent cordless drills that would enable you to work twice as long between battery charges or 1 REALLY GOOD drill that'd hold up 10 times as long and do more than twice the work.

IMO it's just another gimmick in the same class as all of the other Informercial Specials - you know what I mean.

Reply to
RAM^3

Mansfield Power Tools appears to be a Danish company.

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I'm guessing here, but maybe the above abstract says something like that it started as a school project by Mr. Steen Mandsfelt Eriksen in '92 and now production is coming out of a factory in China.

Perhaps someone here reads Danish and can confirm or refute.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

The manufacturer appears to be "Kinpow Industry Co., Ltd."

This site has some (not so favorable) reviews..

Reply to
reply

I have an inexpensive cordless drill whose chuck comes off to expose a two inch hex drive bit. Takes up a whole lot less space and worth a whole lot more to me than that. It was a good bit less than $120, too!

Reply to
carl mciver

I've had one of these Craftsman "Speed-Lok" sets for years and it is quite handy when I've got a bunch of wood screws to drill holes for and then drive.

Just slip out the business part, flip it over and snap it back in to change from a drill/countersink to a screwdriver bit.

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A heck of a lot cheaper than that monstrosity of a drill/driver.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Wisnia

"Jeff Wisnia" wrote: (clip) Just slip out the business part, flip it over and snap it back in to change from a drill/countersink to a screwdriver bit.

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(clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Jeff, I went to that link, and evidently Sears is closing them out at a reduced price, so, based on your recommendation, I ordered one.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

Hey Gang,

Does anybody else think they got the idea from the

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site that was shown a few days back?? Or vice-versa?

VBG

Take care.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario.

Reply to
Brian Lawson

On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 19:28:46 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, "tonyp" quickly quoth:

You shouldn't watch TV, Tony. It's full of ads, CSPAN, and other horrible, nasty, evil things.

Advertising on TV allows advertisers to sucker-in more people at once. Check your local Dollar Store or Big Lots. Things on TV usually end up there within 4 months of their TV debut...at 1/4 the price.

"Free lifetime battery replacement" will probably mean that the company will be bankrupt (or dissolve) in less than 3 years, _before_ they have to replace any. ;)

---------------------------------------------- Never attempt to traverse a chasm in two leaps

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Reply to
Larry Jaques

"Larry Jaques" wrote: "Free lifetime battery replacement" will probably mean that the company will be bankrupt (or dissolve) in less than 3 years, _before_ they have to replace any. ;) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I watched a very appealing TV ad for an electric toothbrush, and I was about to order one, when they finished their *incredible* offer by saying that it included a free replacement for the brush head every few months *for life.* So I didn't order.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

"Larry Jaques" wrote

Now, now, Larry. If not for C-SPAN, I would not own a TV. I may be the only person in the universe who actually enjoyed watching the Alito hearings :-)

As for that dual drill, the consensus is about what I expected:

1) It's a cheap piece of Chinese crap, and 2) It's not a very good idea anyway, so 3) It's just a gimmick. I kinda wondered, myself, if Ron Popeil was behind it somehow.

It's too bad, in a way. Somebody _might_ have a good idea for a new tool someday, and be quixotic enough to want to manufacture in the US and bootstrap it into a business. But trying to sell it on TV would probably work against him, since we all have been conditioned to be suspicious of TV ads.

Right. Except maybe for the other wacky thing I saw advertised on TV recently: an electric(!) log-splitter(!!) for the yuppie-home-owner market. Surplus inventory on _that_ one will probably have to be parted out.

"Lifetime" is certainly one of the slipperiest of weasel words, isn't it :-)

-- TP

Reply to
tonyp

That one's easy, Leo. It's "free", but you pay "shipping and handling", which is to say that it's not "free" at all, and the "shipping and handling charge" is not actually applied solely to shipping and handling, which is false and deceptive advertising, etc. Good call on not ordering it.

Reply to
Ecnerwal

I think you'll like it. It has that quality feel to it I used to get on most all Craftsman tools.

The drill bits are replaceable. if you snap one, they slide into bores in the countersink cutters and are retained with a setscrew. The drill bits which come with the set have a long flat on their shanks for the setscrew to bottom against and thus let you adjust the amount they project beyond the countersink. I found it pretty easy to grind workable flats onto standard drill shanks when I need a replacement..

And a real user friendly feature is the allen wrench for those setscrews sunk into the end of the tool shank which goes in the the drill chuck. So, you always know where it is.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Wisnia

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 16:48:44 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "Leo Lichtman" quickly quoth:

"FREE" means only $7.95 to ship the 0.63 ounce brush to you 4 times a year. $31.80 shipping for 4 free $1 brushes. Sucha deal!

---------------------------------------------- Never attempt to traverse a chasm in two leaps

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Reply to
Larry Jaques

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 14:50:43 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, "tonyp" quickly quoth:

Yeah, and I remember going to Searz twice or more every week (with bandages on body parts) to replace broken Crapsman tools back in the late 70s. Lifetime warranty on shitty parts IS NOT A GOOD DEAL! Caveat emptor.

---------------------------------------------- Never attempt to traverse a chasm in two leaps

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Reply to
Larry Jaques

Its a great product!

Buy it!

If you are a retard.

Reply to
greyeyezz61

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