On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 20:38:37 GMT, Stan Stocker
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:

Home Depot has rolled out a ton of Ridgid brand hand tools. What's
the word on the quality? Also, who is OEMing all this stuff. Is it
Black and Decker?
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.