Vise Grips now made in China

"To keep the Vise Grip name competitive they have to move to China"???
Booolpuckey. I, and I suspect many others have paid a premium for YEARS for genuine Vise-Grip quality. If anything, they will lose market share being made in China. What the owners are really saying is---"We can put a lot more money in our pockets by going offshore". Arrgggh. Must stop now---this isn't doing my blood pressure any good!

Good thing I got too many of them now, and that a lot will be available in my lifetime at yard sales, ebay, etc.
Anyone who buys a new Vise Grip tool needs to have their head examined. I've bought four or five for what they want for a new one today.
Steve

I hope that they will charge prices below Harbor Freight then.

I'm with you on that one - lots of them of all sizes and shapes. I missed some, best run out and find the specials.
One never knows if the spring or lever or ... works past a year. We can only hope the quality stays the same high level.
We have not seen it on most other items.
Martin
SteveB wrote:

Ignoramus4508 wrote in news:jIudnUV9taGGW9zUnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
They'll be built on the same production lines as the HF ones and just stamped differently.

Once you lose the means of producing something it will be a matter of time before you lose the wealth of producing it. This notion of "value added" by any means thinkable will stop someday (ask a Brit).
I got side tracked by the origins of the Reuben sandwich noted in the article and chased it for awhile.... I suppose in a generation or so it will have been invented in China??? Hard to be angry at the peasant in China for bettering himself, history repeats itself again.
Matt

I have carefully avoided buying Vise Grip knockoffs, having seen how other mechanics toy tools held up. Vise grip has just lost a long-time customer.

You can get quality stuff out of China, but you have to ride them to do it. I have read numerous articles that all say about the same thing, and I've talked to a couple of people who have been there & done that and they say the same things, too.
Of course, they're getting more expensive and the dollar keeps dropping, so at some point the cost of keeping the quality up is going to equal the cost of just doing it here with employees who care. Then we'll all have to live with less stuff, but at least it'll be made locally...
If the Chinese ever start taking pride in their work we're doomed. Fortunately (for us) there appear to be some deep-seated cultural biases in China against this (if you _do_ you have much lower social status than if you manage, if you're an engineer and you haven't gotten into management within 5 years of starting work then there's something wrong with your head, that sort of thing).

From my experience (living in Asia for some 40 years) the Chinese are very pragmatic people. I think that if you research their recent industrial activities you will find that they produce the quality of goods that the customer requires.
For example, you can go into any machine shop in Asia and see Chinese made machine tools and believe me these machines are running all day, every day, and they do stand up. If they didn't the machine shop owners wouldn't continue to buy them. At the same time you can go into the local shop and buy a pair of "vice-grips" that is likely to break the first time you use them.
If you pursue the matter a bit further you will find that the Lathes and milling machines weren't that cheap in price and the vise-grips were the cheapest pair in the shop.
In other words, if Harbor Freight wants to buy a million pairs of vise-grips AS CHEAP AS POSSIBLE the Chinese manufacturer will be quite happy to oblige. On the over hand when Cummins comes in and sets up a factory to manufacture CUMMINS Diesel engines the quality is identical to U.S. made Cummins.
Take a look at Chinese made "art". I have seen a Jade (actually jadeite) ship as large as your car carved out of a single piece of stone - complete with the anchor chains, carved with separate links, sails, ropes - the whole thing. One piece of stone. But not cheap at all.
At the moment, the Chinese are, to a great extent, simply manufacturers of stuff for other people but slowly they are developing their own products. Right now they have in the field of small single cylinder diesel engines, used by the millions in Asia to pump water, power garden tractors, generators, welding machines, etc., outsold the Japanese made product. Small marine engines are more and more "China diesel" - Australia is full of them.
The day is coming, I suspect, when much of what we buy will be either Chinese, or Indian, in origin.
Cheers,
Bruce (bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

That day is here.

I was watching one of the expert witnesses on CSPAN about the auto industry problems and he stated that unless the fact that China pegs their currency to the dollar and it doesn't float is modified the Detroit auto makers have no chance. He also stated if a Detroit based auto company goes and manufactures autos in china all the components must be made there. Unlike here were components come from wherever the manufacturer desires.
Are you sure the Chinese currency isn't tied to the US dollar still?
Fran.

That is very sad. Some of the stuff I've bought at auctions recently were the result of such closures. I think we're gonna go in the fresh pizza business. Perhaps these will not also be made in China.
V