Bob Hunter

Tracing Swiss-made tools and Bosch’s place in the global market

Written on November 14, 2011 at 2:32 pm, by Bob Hunter

My whirlwind tour of Bosch’s corporate offices and manufacturing facilities in Europe continued from Germany into Switzerland.

Like most large companies in the world, the Robert Bosch Company has grown not only through innovation and development of its own product lines, but also through acquisitions of existing companies. For example, in recent years Bosch has acquired Sia Abrasives, a Swiss-based company making sandpaper and other abrasives for many industries, and also Freud, the Italian business that makes cutting tools (saw blades, router bits, shaper cutters, etc.) and produces its own carbide.

My next stop was the former Scintilla company headquarters in Solothurn, Switzerland. Read more

Discovering about the man behind the Bosch tool company

Written on November 9, 2011 at 3:57 pm, by Bob Hunter

On my second day in Germany to learn about the Robert Bosch Company, I discovered a great deal more about the man who founded the company, as well as a little bit about his tools from the early days and in today’s market.

At the Bosch Archives (which is more like a Bosch museum, but they had already named it before I arrived) I enjoyed a guided tour through the facility from the curator. He told me about how Robert Bosch, born in 1861 in the area near Stuttgart, Germany, grew up with a desire to be a precision mechanic. He studied under a number of established practitioners in Germany and the U.S. (including Thomas Edison), and later found his calling making parts for internal combustion engines. His magneto, the part that generates the spark needed to burn the fuel in the engine cylinders, was his signature product, and his business grew well from that. That magneto is visible today as a cross section in the Bosch company logo. (Run out and grab a Bosch tool and study it, or just look at the photo here of one of the original magnetos, and you’ll see the logo in the cross-section of the armature.)

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Finding out just what all Bosch sells (hint: it’s not all tools)

Written on November 7, 2011 at 5:35 pm, by Bob Hunter

I’ve always appreciated Bosch power tools for their quality, performance, and durability, but I’d never really studied the history of the Robert Bosch Company. So to get a better idea of what makes this company so successful—and not just in the U.S., but also throughout the world—I’ve traveled to Europe to find out. I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany on Sunday, and then drove to Stuttgart, home of the company since the beginning 125 years ago.

On Monday, I visited the corporate headquarters of Bosch. Read more

New project: A box full of blocks

Written on August 23, 2011 at 8:55 am, by Bob Hunter

My sister and her husband in Indiana recently adopted a one-year-old girl from South Korea. Since this is their first child, she asked me to make a set of building blocks for her. So I did just that, making over 100 total blocks in 12 different shapes. I made them from cutoffs from 2×10 and 2×12 Douglas fir construction lumber. After they were all cut out and sanded smooth with edges rounded over, my wife and daughters and I painted each shape a different color. Then I stacked all the blocks into a haystack-like shape, measured the stack’s dimensions, and built a box to store all the blocks. I made it about an inch larger in all three dimensions so my niece wouldn’t have to be precise in stacking the blocks back into the box. The box is also made of Douglas fir, with 3/8-inch box joints at the corners and Rockler Lid-Stay Torsion Hinges on the lid to keep it from slamming on her fingers. This was not a particularly difficult project, but it sure was fun to do knowing she’d have lots of fun playing with the blocks for years to come. And, when they came to visit us in Iowa a month ago, in true kid fashion, she liked playing in the box almost as much as playing with the blocks.

AWFS Fair delivers innovative tools and products

Written on July 25, 2011 at 2:49 pm, by Bob Hunter

Despite what we all know are tough economic times, many tool and woodworking-product manufacturers continue to bring new and innovative tools to the market. I got to see many of these first-hand the past few days at the Association of Woodworking and Furnishings Suppliers Fair in Las Vegas, the biggest U.S. tradeshow of the year for woodworking. Over 500 manufacturers showed up to display and demonstrate their new products (and some launched in recent years), hoping to generate business with retail distributors and end users.

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Dremel adds new tools, new features to older tools

Written on June 14, 2011 at 3:04 pm, by Bob Hunter

Sticking with what must be a company directive, Dremel is launching four new tools this year that are compact, versatile, and hold broad appeal to users of varying skills and interests. Representatives from Dremel stopped by the WOOD Magazine offices today to show us these new tools, as well as lots of new accessories to go with them.

First up is an all-new tool, a hybrid of an angle grinder, oscillating multifunction tool, and circular saw. The Saw-Max, due out in October, is a compact cutting tool that uses 3”-diameter blades embedded with abrasives (carbide, diamond, aluminum oxide) for cutting edges rather than teeth. Powered by a 6-amp motor, the Saw-Max generates 17,000 rpms. The tool has a spring-loaded shoe that’s adjustable up to a ¾”-deep maximum cut, or can be set at zero and the tool used as a plunge-cut saw for cuts where you don’t want an entry or exit. Four blades come with the standard kit for cutting wood, tile, and metal; one blade has an offset flange to allow for flush-cutting at the edge of the blade housing. (There’s no blade guard on the left side of the tool.) The kit with four blades will sell for $129. Attachments also available will be a dust-collection port, a straight-cutting guide to fit a 2×4, and a miter- and bevel-cutting guide.

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Bosch launches innovative new tools

Written on June 9, 2011 at 4:03 pm, by Bob Hunter

Never a company to sit back and rest after launching a line of tools, Bosch instead keeps on finding ways to make their tools better. I spent two days this week at Bosch’s U.S. headquarters in Chicago getting a first-hand look at new cordless drills, random-orbit sanders, a benchtop tablesaw, measuring tools, and lots of other tools related to construction and concrete work.

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New Delta CEO says customer’s won’t notice the transition

Written on January 14, 2011 at 6:16 pm, by Bob Hunter

Woodworkers who buy or own Delta machines should not notice a difference in availability, performance, or price following last week’s acquisition of the Delta brand by a Taiwanese manufacturer, says Bryan Whiffen, the new president and CEO of that company. Delta Power Equipment Corporation, a subsidiary of Chang Type Industrial Company, purchased the full line of Delta’s woodworking tools and machines, as well as the Biesemeyer line of accessories, from Stanley Black & Decker. This comes just six years after Black & Decker purchased the Delta and Porter-Cable brands from Pentair Group. (Stanley Black & Decker still owns the Stanley, Bostitch, Porter-Cable, and DeWalt brands.)

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Stanley Black & Decker sells off Delta line of woodworking tools

Written on January 10, 2011 at 10:30 am, by Bob Hunter

Stanley Black & Decker, the conglomerate that has, for the past year, owned five of the major brands in woodworking tools (Stanley, Bostitch, DeWalt, Porter-Cable, and Delta), has sold the Delta line of stationary and benchtop tools and machines to a start-up company, Delta Power Equipment. A source inside Stanley Black & Decker confirmed this morning that the deal was finalized late Friday. He said no jobs would be cut at the manufacturing facility in Jackson, Tennessee, where Delta made its Unisaw tablesaw and radial-arm saw.

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Finished Hall Bench

Written on November 18, 2010 at 11:26 am, by Bob Hunter

Earlier I blogged about building an entry-way bench for my church. Well, here’s the finished version. It’s made of red oak with a red chestnut stain to match an existing pair of tables. I sprayed it with three coats of polyurethane for a durable finish. I did not finish the interior under the hinged lid since it will be used for storage. As with every project I build, it has a cross to identify it with my faith. Now on to more projects, a bunch of cutting boards for Christmas gifts.

Bob Hunter, Tools Editor, WOOD Magazine