Replies

1. 
   JohnWW | Jun 02, 2006 10:16pm | #1

   A tricky question, being we haven't actually reviewed 6 inch jointers in a few years.  First some history:

   Ridgid stationary power tools were made by Emerson which is a division of a larger company that also manufactured the Ridgid line of plumbing tools.  For many years Emerson made most of the power tools that Sears sold under the Craftsman name. 

   Sears and Emerson parted ways, I think in the early 90's, and Emerson started to sell basically the same tools under the Ridgid name which it borrowed from the plumbing division.  A few years ago Emerson decided to get out of the business and licensed the designs and the Ridgid name to TTI World Industries which makes the Ryobi line of tools and a number of the tools currently sold under the Craftsman label.

   The Ridgid jointer that we reviewed was made when Emerson ran the business.  It was made in Taiwan and the fit and finish were excellent and the price was very competitive.  At that time most of the competing machines were also made in Taiwan and were more or less all clones of the same basic design with the differences in the fence, motor and base, but the main castings of the tables just about identical.  Emerson was very careful to maintain quality control, which a number of other companies didn't, and Emerson didn't jazz up their machines with cheap but useless features.

   When TTI took over the line they moved the production of the cast iron machines to China.  Shortly after the move, I got a chance to look at the Chinese version of the Ridgid 14" band saw.  I was very familiar with the Taiwanese version of the saw and the quality of the casting work and the paint job on the Chinese saw wasn't as good as when the machines had been made in Taiwan, but the machine work appeared to be well done.  Since then virtually all of the Asian importers have also moved their production from Taiwan to China and they have all suffered at least some lowering of finish quality, but I think this is improving with time.

   From what I know, there have been no complaints about the Ridgid jointer, or any of their other tools, since TTI has started making them in China.  Since all of the competing machines are also being made in China the only sure way to compare them would be to do another tool review of all the machines which we haven't done here at FWW.

   I'm sorry, that after all of this explanation, I can't give you a definite answer but too much has changed since we last looked at 6" jointers.

   John W.   

   
   

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   Edited 6/2/2006 3:21 pm ET by JohnWW

1. 
   tnova | Jun 02, 2006 11:54pm | #2

   That's OK.  Thanks for your time and effort.