Ridgid's new powertools have arrived!

[AL]

The local HD assembled an end-of-aisle display full of Ridgid's new handheld powertools. Most of them were very similar to their Ryobi counterparts and I wasn't too impressed. But I noticed that the 6" ros, hammer drill, and jig saw were made in Germany. In fact, the jig saw looked remarkably like the Bosch 1589 with the quick blade release (which Bosch chose not to release in the US). For the price, they seemed like good values.

Anyway I picked a $100 router, but they were out of stock on the PC sawzalls that can twist in several directions. Not too bad of a trip though.

[J]

They look like Ryobi tools, different color. twice the price.

Just like Black and Decker and Dewalt.

I will rather stay away from Ryobi tools in Rigid outfit.

[Quadindad2]

I was at Home Depot last week and saw a Rigid representative drive up and park next to me. So, I took the oppurtunity to ask her about the new line.She said the are the same as Ryobi, coming from the same factory. She said the new stuff has a 2 year warranty, verses the old stuff, lifetime. She said if you can find the old line at a Home Depot that is slower (sales wise). Yes, this was all coming from a Rigid Rep. John

[Christian Aufreiter]

"AL" wrote

I'm not familiar with Ridgid tools because they are not available in (middle) Europe. The R3120 jigsaw displayed on their website looks exactly like the Metabo STEB 105 Plus.

[Noel Hegan]

Yip,

Looks like Ridgid have re-labelled at least the Jigsaw, ROS and some others from Metabo. English site at

Europe Metabo are recognized as premium quality tools.

Rgds

Noel

[j]

I've seen some of the hand tools and was not overly impressed. This week end I saw the new 3650 Table Saw. For $595 you get real T slots, an enclosed blade undeneath for dust collection and Highly polished top.The winges are cast but not wafel although they do have three elongated holes aligned fron to back closer to the main table., Oh yea, and a three year warantee )-8

jw

AL wrote:

[GTO69RA4]

I talked a little with a guy who's in charge of purchasing for the local HD. His opinion is that the Ridgid portable power tools are junk. Also said that the reason they dropped PC (and maybe some other high-end brands) was because the profit margins weren't much compared to the Ryobi-produced ones.

GTO(John)

[AL]

A recent email newsletter from American Woodworker, Popular Woodworking, etc. (I forget which one) said that TTI/OWT not just made Ryobi tools but also made some tools for Fein and Metabo. Maybe this is an example.

[jim wilson]

Yes, that's pretty sad.. but as long as plenty of Americans continue to buy purely on the basis of price, the country will continue to be flooded with crappy products that don't last long.

I figure that in about 30 years, we are going to be longing for the

1990's, when power tools were made with quality in mind ha ha.

[Fred the Red Shirt]

Any idea if they are going to continue the benchtop belt sander?

I liked the layout of the tool, but though the construction was a bit flimsy.

[2manytoyz]

I doubt it. That was made by Emerson Electric, who lost the contract. The new company may come out with another version, but it likely won't be too close to the original design. FWIW, I have one and really like it. No, it's not industrial by any means, but it works very well. I'd buy it again. Had mine about two years now, used it again today. The dust collection port works surprisingly well. I looked at the Delta BOSS, thought this one had more for the money, no regrets.

Robert

[Fred the Red Shirt]

I would assume that the RIdge Tool company owns the patents on the design so that they could contract out the fabrication of the Rigid design to Ryobi, as opposed to simply having Ryobi put the Rigid name and colors on a Ryobi design.

So I remain hopeful.

[Mike Reed]

Well you also have to take into account the fact that Ryobi will sell existing designs cheaper than new designs to Home Depot because of development costs. If the old design is more expensive through Ryobi, you can bet HD will stay away from it regardless of quality, since all they care about are profit margins.

-Mike

[Fred the Red Shirt]

It is clear that over the years the Sears product line has been clones or minor mods of the manufacturer's pre-existing designs. The Ridge Tool Company has only recently come out with this line of power tools so we do not have an established pattern.

As far as I know Rigid Hand Tools remain good quality today so it seems odd that the company would put it's name on something as shoddy as the lathe. But they did. So, yeah, I'm not going to get my hopes up for any improvements in the product line.

[2manytoyz]

Well, Ridgid updated their website. Their brand of tools now sport some orange paint. Glad to see that my jointer survived and I should be able to get blades at least in the near term. The bad news is no sign of the oscillating sander. At least the drums & belt are a common size. You might send them an e-mail to see if they plan on repainting it and selling it again too.

Robert

[Fred the Red Shirt]

Aha!

website is screwed up (relies on javascript) but the picture looks like the old model in the new color scheme.

[2manytoyz]

That's it! As mentioned before, mine still works great. The only complaint I can muster is the Ridgid brand lettering lifted in several spots and I've since peeled it off. My shop is 90-95 degrees most of the year (FL), and that wussy adhesive was no match. No biggie.

Glad to see they're going to offer it again.

Persistence pays once again...

Robert

[Mapdude]

The website is fine if you use IE.

[Bob Haar]

You must be talking about IE on a Windows system. The web site has problems under IE on a Mac, better than with Safari but there are still problems with resizing a window and some of the navigation doesn't work.

MS IE does so many things wrong that saying a web site works fine with IE is not much of a recommendation.

[Fred the Red Shirt]

I observed that myself. However any website that only works right with a specific browser is screwed up, as is any website that depends on javascript as surfing with javashit enabled is pretty darned insecure.