Ridgid

Ridgid is a name that's been around UK for a long time in pipe fitting tools. Their quality is very good in that area. Their web site

says they are owned by a US company who I have never come across. You may know them better.

John

Yes, the engineering mascot at the University of Waterloo is a 3' Rigid Tool (a pipe wrench, AFAIUI).

Emerson Electric, eh? I suspect all the home quality tools are from China and are just leveraging their brand recognition. I'll look next time I'm in Home Despot. Last time I checked ALL the small drill presses were from China, including the Ryobi and Delta ones.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

IIRC, Rigid made the Craftsman line of power tools for Sears until Sears refused to renew the contract. I believe that Sears was their sole customer and Sears was trying to fit a barrel under them.

They went to HD and but their own label on the tools.

If you liked the Craftsman tools of 10 to five years ago, you will like the Rigid.

Not all the power tools were made by Ridgid.

Many were made by Singer and then by Ryobi in the same plant in Pickens, SC. Craftsman was one of their largest lines.

Some of my friends worked there and the plant is still in operation.

Or maybe Brack and Decker? The peopre that speciarize in "brand name" knockoffs rike the brands that don't have too many unpronounceabre retters in the brand names. :>)

I'm surprised no one else here know's the real story.

The cordless and some of the corded Ridgid portable tools are made by Ryobi. The most expensive corded tools are actually German Metabos. High quality, high price jobs. I believe that the spade handle drill is a DeWalt product.

Emerson Electric made Sears stationary tools until a few years ago. Emerson, Ridgid (the pipefitting tool company), and Home Depot all got in bed together to use Ridgid-branded, Emerson-made tools as HD's store brand. Bascially they're Sears or generic Asian designs. Not bad quality, but nothing to get excited about.

From what I've heard now, Emerson and HD have had a falling out. I think the stationary tools are going to be phased out.

GTO(John)

Rigid Tools supposedly began in the USA in about 1916. As I understand Rigid's marketing strategy, they have two levels of tools - one, the expensive professional stuff - is still made largely here in the US. The lesser tools, intended for outlets like Woodworker's Warehouse and Home Depot is primaraly made in China. The $99.00 retail drill press, for example, is not made in the US. Like any other firm Rigid Tools has found it necessary to make their stuff offshore to survive in the marketplace. Quality is average for both the US made and Chinese made tools. There are better values out there. One man's opinion.

Regards,

Marv

John Manders wrote:

I think Ridgid is part of Emerson Electric. Their Shop Vacs are pretty darn good for the money. They used to make some of the older Craftsman stationary power tools that were pretty good, Crapsman HP ratings aside.

Just bought their (Taiwanese) larger table saw, it's quite a nice piece of equipment. Very smooth, well finished inside and out, no detectable play in the arbor, solid stops.

No idea about their current mass market hand tools, haven't seen them yet. Ridgid has been a respected maker of tools for the plumbing business for many years, but I don't know any plumbers to ask if this is still true. They did print some very hot calendars in years gone by, made the SnapOn and Stihl ones look like Penny's sale fliers :-)

Cheers, Stan

George wrote:

Ridge Tool has always made pretty good plumbing tools. Their electrical trade specific stuff is pretty good too, historically. Ridge catered to the HVAC business, and plumbing. They are now part of the Emerson empire. I hope the Emerson quality does not permeat the Ridge Tools core product line, because Emerson Electric has been a purveyor of poor quality junk electrical items for between 10 and 20 years. Prior to that, for 10 or 20, they sold reasonable, if not exemplary stuff.

When I was wrenching for a living, I had to supply all my own tools, including air impact wrenches. Lane

This subject has been beat to death in rec.woodworking. Ridgid plumbing tools are in a league of their own, good stuff.

Now the Ridgid power tools you see at Home Depot WERE made by Emerson Electric. That association is over. Ridgid power tools are now being made by the same company that owns/manufactures Ryobi. (One World Technologies) There is a couple corded tools that are made by Metalbo, but the bulk is from China. Greg

Facom (French) are the best I've yet found. Lovely quality on their wrenches, really slick ratchets with strong fine-tooth mechanisms, and some very clever variations on the Vise-Grip theme.

I once managed to smash myself in the face (broke a tooth) by snapping a Britool wrench in half, with hand force alone. Metallurgist friend took a look and suspected bad heat treatment - and this was 20 years ago, before Britool became obvious rubbish. Mind you, their chrome was always prone to flaking off.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

I was involed in a rebuild on a Catipillar crawler a few years back. We replaces the pads in the tracks so we had to remove quite a few 1/2" bolts, two per pad. We went through aproxamatly 20 3/4" impact sockets of various brands untill we got a hold of a Snap-On impact socket. That one Snap-On socket did one track all on its own!

Another time I was trying to remove a brake caliper on an import car. The only way to get to the bolt was a box end wrench. I broke two Craftsman wrenches trying to get the first bolt free, never budged it! Borrowed a Snap-On wrench and was able to get all four bolts loose by jumping on the end of the wrench! Made me a believer! GReg

I've both busted, and seen a lot of cheap tools broken. They're hazardous and can make a mess out of what your working on too.

There is no substitute for good tools.

Erik

Normally I would agree with those who say that "good branded names" are best but for one example. I used to run the maintenance section in a large sawmill. The local cheap tool shop sold sets of metric combination spanners (8 - 19mm in all the usual sizes) for £2.99. Yes that's about $4.00. We all laughed until one of the fitters bought a set. They worked, and worked well. We bought goodness knows how many sets after that and, in about 5 years, I never heard of a breakage. I have a few sets. Well at that price, you do, don't you? These things just work and work. I do accept that they are the exception though having had many a cheap tool break on me in the past. What you do get with the branded names is the knowledge that they WILL work rather than the lottery with cheap tools. Over here in UK, one of the trade mags used to test different makers hand tools to destruction occasionally. Can't remember all of the details as it's some years ago now. However, the top names included Beta, Facom, Snap On and (I think) USAG. Snap On were never at the top of the list and the consensus was that they were overpriced when the same strength was available from others for less money.

John

I'd heard that Emerson was leaving earlier this summer. There was a big thread about it at rec.arts.woodworking. However, a name never came up as to who the new maker would be. I was about to buy the Ridgid planer at HD and decided to hold off as a result.

HD has quite the Ryobi l>

....>>

the real problem with most import "channel locks" is the groves & ridges that give the adjustable feature, they are very small and only on one side of the slip hole. this causes the jaws to loose "lock".

the steel is probably fine, just a design issue that probably holds over from years back when Channel Lock held patents. --Loren

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