Disgusting final chapter to a great American tool.

[IMCA38]

http://journalstar.com/articles/2008/08/30/news/local/doc48b879374c4c8569919303.txt

It appears Newell Rubbermaid is now dealing the final blow to the venerable Vise Grip factory in DeWitt NE. I was at Menards yesterday and decided to check out the "Irwin" version of a Vise Grip. First off, they now have Irwin stamped on the handle and there is no mention whatsoever of DeWitt like the old ones had. Also,they have a crappy, sticky feel like the Harbor Freight ones do. Clearly not like the ones in my tool box.

I guess from here on out, any "new" Vise Grips will come from auctions, garage sales, and swap meets.

 

[jay50]

Looks like Joe Chen will be stamping out crudely built vise grips in the near future.

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

farewell old friend
I like the stahlwille one I have better

 

[nissan_crawler]

I don't get why they think this will work out well. If I'm going to buy a chinese tool, I might as well buy a cheaper one.

 

[goodfellow]

Boy, that is just a total sell out. I guess it won't matter if you buy the "HF Special" or "Vice Grips" from now on -- they're probably in the same league as far as quality is concerned.

 

[bushhawg73]

The US Goverment needs to impose financial sanctions on US Companies that sell out and have goods made in other countries and then sold in the USA. This could possibley slow down all of the outsourcing and keep some jobs for people in America. If not the USA is going to sell itself. There will be so few blue collar jobs that unemployment will break this country. Not to count the fact that we will loose the ability to be self sufficent.

Just my 25 cents worth.

 

[speed bump]

Shoot I didn't want to have to buy that many vice grips that fast.

 

[bushhawg73]

And one last thing. If they are going to China. I will not buy them. I will switch to GRIP-ON.

They are made in Spain and have some pretty nice stuff.

 

[nissan_crawler]

Boy, that is just a total sell out. I guess it won't matter if you buy the "HF Special" or "Vice Grips" from now on -- they're probably in the same league as far as quality is concerned.

Exactly my point. The price won't be the same though, they'll keep the vise grips as high priced as they are.

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

easy profit is the true evil

 

[Defender Chassis]

The US Goverment needs to impose financial sanctions on US Companies that sell out and have goods made in other countries and then sold in the USA. This could possibley slow down all of the outsourcing and keep some jobs for people in America. If not the USA is going to sell itself. There will be so few blue collar jobs that unemployment will break this country. Not to count the fact that we will loose the ability to be self sufficent.

Just my 25 cents worth.

Or.............We could stop buying stuff made overseas. If there is no demand then there will be not need to be any supply.

 

[eschoendorff]

And one last thing. If they are going to China. I will not buy them. I will switch to GRIP-ON.

They are made in Spain and have some pretty nice stuff.

I was thinking exactly the same thing.

***** about Vise Grip. I'm glad I got mine when I did.

 

[l_bilyk]

Why would anyone spend money on chinese made vice grips when you can buy same quality for much less? Before the price was justified... now not so much

 

[jay50]

Or.............We could stop buying stuff made overseas. If there is no demand then there will be not need to be any supply.

But you quit buying them, this might cause Joe Chen to loose his job at the vise grip plant...and he would have to find a new job building lifts at the Chinese Bendpak plant....

 

[ImportTuner]

I'm a little bit confused. Who owns the Vise Grip patent? My later Vise Grips are made by Irwin and my earlier ones says Peterson mfg. Dewitt Nebra. USA .. the Irwin's does not say USA on it so I'm guessing it's probably from Taiwan.

 

[OldCarGuy]

Sure doesn’t surprise me! In my opinion, Newell Rubbermaid is one of the worst run companies in the USA. And employ some of the dumbest dimwit executives known to man...



.

 

[lbgradwell]

While I share the general disappointment regarding the demise of the once-great Vise-Grip marque, this can hardly be called new; the tools have been stamped Irwin for years, and it has been at least a year since they were "outsourced"...

 

[IMCA38]

Its a typical story of mergers and acquisitions.
Peterson Manufacturing produced and sold Vise Grips for years and years. In the 1980's, I believe, the Peterson family formed American Tool Co. and added Quik Grip bar clamps, Chesco allen wrenches and Uni Bit drill bits to the family. The family then sold out to Irwin about 15 years ago or so and Irwin in turn was gobbled up by Newell Rubbermaid. The clamps, bits, etc were made in a plant about 15 miles down the road in Beatrice NE for a number of years until Newell closed that down about 5 years ago. Beatrice may be familiar to some of you as they have about 4 factories that make lawn mowers there. Husqvarna/Dixon, ExMark, Yazoo/Kees and I think one other are all made down there.

 

[ImportTuner]

Its a typical story of mergers and acquisitions.
Peterson Manufacturing produced and sold Vise Grips for years and years. In the 1980's, I believe, the Peterson family formed American Tool Co. and added Quik Grip bar clamps, Chesco allen wrenches and Uni Bit drill bits to the family. The family then sold out to Irwin about 15 years ago or so and Irwin in turn was gobbled up by Newell Rubbermaid. The clamps, bits, etc were made in a plant about 15 miles down the road in Beatrice NE for a number of years until Newell closed that down about 5 years ago. Beatrice may be familiar to some of you as they have about 4 factories that make lawn mowers there. Husqvarna/Dixon, ExMark, Yazoo/Kees and I think one other are all made down there.

Thanks for the info IMCA38 ... so buying Irwin stuff is now **** ...

 

[Merkava_4]

IMCA38,

Thank you for that information. If there was some kind of law that prevented brand names from being transferable during acquisitions, many of us wouldn't be as confused. The company goes out of business, the brand name should go out of business with it.

 

[Joe B.]

I'm glad I found a deal on a full compliment of the USA made ones. I think the Craftsman ones are still USA made but they don't have all of the special items.

 

[HacksawsGarage]

sad news.
any stashs of NOS vice-grips around? any old hardware stores have pre-irwin stamped grips in stock? (for that matter, are there any old hardware stores actually around?)

gone are the days you bought a tool , along with some freindly chatter, from a guy you know that is selling tools you could rely on. Big box stores with tools packaged so ya cant actually feel them in your hands before you buy, well, i have returned more than one peice of junk.

i will do my best not to buy Irwin or Rubbermaid products in the future.
this kind of thing has happend all to often. closer to home here in Ct. was the stanely works in new britain.

 

[elect]

Wal-mart killed rubbermaid they kept adding more and driving the price down and wally said you could make this cheaper with more profit offshore.Then the ugly marriage = newell rubbermaid,and nafta pretty much ended it with u.s.a made goods.I worked as a electrician at a plant that went to Mexico 2 months after nafta passed.

 

[MachineTech]

Vice Grip is one of the old standbys of american tools. It used to always be the same with certain items. I remember my old shop teacher telling us: If you want an adjustable wrench you get a Cresent, if you want a pipe wrench you get a Ridged, and if you want a locking plier you get a Vice Grip. Those brands have always stood alone above whatever Craftsman or Snap-on or anyone could make. I know that I will be looking for more than 1 of each kind of original now.

 

[ImportTuner]

Vice Grip is one of the old standbys of american tools. It used to always be the same with certain items. I remember my old shop teacher telling us: If you want an adjustable wrench you get a Cresent, if you want a pipe wrench you get a Ridged, and if you want a locking plier you get a Vice Grip. Those brands have always stood alone above whatever Craftsman or Snap-on or anyone could make. I know that I will be looking for more than 1 of each kind of original now.

Hey ... hope you meant vise grip instead of vice grip ...

 

[MachineTech]

This would make a good poll.

Vice Grip or another brand of locking plier

Ridgid or another brand of pipe wrench or pipe cutter

Cresent or another brand of adjustable wrench

Although these companies make other tools, these are the one that made them popular...so much that we don't even refer to an adjustable wrench as that...we say Cresent wrench, and know what each other means.

 

[MachineTech]

soory about my speeling

 

[old salvage]

While I share the general disappointment regarding the demise of the once-great Vise-Grip marque, this can hardly be called new; the tools have been stamped Irwin for years, and it has been at least a year since they were "outsourced"...

The last new, non-irwin marked Vise Grips I bought were at Home Despot around 98 or 99. They had already been bought out by then but I guess they hadn't started marking them yet.

 

[Brad54]

The US Goverment needs to impose financial sanctions on US Companies that sell out and have goods made in other countries and then sold in the USA. This could possibley slow down all of the outsourcing and keep some jobs for people in America. If not the USA is going to sell itself. There will be so few blue collar jobs that unemployment will break this country. Not to count the fact that we will loose the ability to be self sufficent.

Just my 25 cents worth.

Here's a thought...how about the Government just stops collecting taxes from manufacturers and big business? It's not like the companies pay those taxes anyway--WE DO! (if you don't believe that, you're nuts. It's easy: if you sold lemonade for 20 cents, and your mom said she wanted 5 cents from every cup you sold, wouldn't you charge your customers 25 cents? Of course you would.)

This country needs to start doing whatever it can to entice companies to stay here and manufacture, and tariffs or penalties isn't the answer.

The second thing that needs to happen is companies need to stop being forced to pay high school drop outs $37.00 an hour to sweep the floor or feed raw material into a machine. My father interviewed at Budweiser in the early '70s, and they had four guys feeding can lids into two machines. Mind you, they loaded them in hundreds at a time, so there was a lot of down time between loads. Four guys, all reading books, when one could have done the job. Fast forward 25 years (1996), and I was working my way through college at a James River printing plant that made cereal boxes for General Mills, with Teamster labor. The guy in charge of the printing press on 3rd shift was illiterate. No lie...couldn't read, couldn't write. And because he was illiterate, JR had to pay a second union guy to fill out the clip board for him a couple times an hour to verifying all the settings on the machine were correct.

The American consumer pays for that. We demand the cheapest prices, and business demands a profit (because THAT is what business is in the business of doing...making a profit. NOT providing jobs, NOT providing tax dollars, NOT providing an environment to make the world a better place, challenge social norms or make political statements). When consumers demand cheaper prices, and business looks around and says "I can build it over there for pennies on the dollar of what it costs over here, due to lower wages and lower cost of doing business (property tax, imbedded taxes, etc)," then of course they go over seas.

Unskilled labor doesn't deserve to make the same money as nurses, teachers, truck drivers, mechanics, accountants, secretaries or any other work that requires more training than an instructional video, or a guy showing you once how to do it.

Looks like this is another one. And it looks like I'll saunter over to the Feed Store and buy out their dusty stock of Vise Grips.

-Brad

 

[Thumper]

Damn.........fucked again!!

 

[eschoendorff]

Sure doesn’t surprise me! In my opinion, Newell Rubbermaid is one of the worst run companies in the USA. And employ some of the dumbest dimwit executives known to man...



.

Wait... I thought that was Steinway pianos. They have teh distinct honor of screwing up the major instrument manufacturers in teh USA....

 

[eschoendorff]

This would make a good poll.

Vice Grip or another brand of locking plier

Ridgid or another brand of pipe wrench or pipe cutter

Cresent or another brand of adjustable wrench

Although these companies make other tools, these are the one that made them popular...so much that we don't even refer to an adjustable wrench as that...we say Cresent wrench, and know what each other means.

That an easy one... time to buy Grip On.

http://www.grip-on.com/idusflash/front/index.html

 

[Stuey]

I recently bought a few types of Rubbermaid containers for kitchen and hobby related uses. Made in USA. My wife has been after me to throw away the boxes, but I've been keeping them to photography for you guys. =)

 

[tatra]

sounds like good business to me.............maximize profit..........the credo of business..................as for unskilled labour making a wage comparable to skilled labour, that shows you two things....1, a strong and united labour front......2, a company, that if not for the wages that they have to pay, would be making more money in profit and a higher turnover of staff resulting in poorer product in terms of quality.................by going to the orient, they accomplish both...............and that overpaid unskilled labour , remember , now pays for services that they normally wouldn't be able to afford...........take garbage men in my city, it has been outsourced and i swear half the "employees" i see were just featured in the local paper as wanted by the police...........the city guys i got to know and would let them take my empties for "considerations" they afforded me for some large items to go in the packer.................same guys on the same route for years............now different guys and when i hear the truck come i close my garage door as i have seen these new guys taking a more than casual intrest in what's in other peoples back yards.............and propperty crimes are also up since this cosy cutting measure has come into effect...........not happy about outsourcing or nafta especially as our fuel prices are tied into the states and when i ran propane, it was cheap, until nafta screwed that up................personally i hope nafta is scrapped as canada will be better off taking advantage of the world prices for our natural resources instead of being dictated the price we have to sell at or product we have to buy [mmt is required in our fuel whereas the states outlawed it]...........sorry for the rant

 

[OldCarGuy]

Wait... I thought that was Steinway pianos. They have teh distinct honor of screwing up the major instrument manufacturers in teh USA....

The sky is falling!

I didn't realize that Steinway and Sons was faltering. It wasn't long ago that I viewed a documentary program about them. That sounded as if they were doing well. Although I've always admired their pianos, I purchased a Sohmer and Company baby grand piano new over 40 years ago. Because of price; but always hoped to upgrade to a Steinway...

 

[xroad]

Here's a thought...how about the Government just stops collecting taxes from manufacturers and big business? It's not like the companies pay those taxes anyway--WE DO! (if you don't believe that, you're nuts. It's easy: if you sold lemonade for 20 cents, and your mom said she wanted 5 cents from every cup you sold, wouldn't you charge your customers 25 cents? Of course you would.)

This country needs to start doing whatever it can to entice companies to stay here and manufacture, and tariffs or penalties isn't the answer.

The second thing that needs to happen is companies need to stop being forced to pay high school drop outs $37.00 an hour to sweep the floor or feed raw material into a machine. My father interviewed at Budweiser in the early '70s, and they had four guys feeding can lids into two machines. Mind you, they loaded them in hundreds at a time, so there was a lot of down time between loads. Four guys, all reading books, when one could have done the job. Fast forward 25 years (1996), and I was working my way through college at a James River printing plant that made cereal boxes for General Mills, with Teamster labor. The guy in charge of the printing press on 3rd shift was illiterate. No lie...couldn't read, couldn't write. And because he was illiterate, JR had to pay a second union guy to fill out the clip board for him a couple times an hour to verifying all the settings on the machine were correct.

The American consumer pays for that. We demand the cheapest prices, and business demands a profit (because THAT is what business is in the business of doing...making a profit. NOT providing jobs, NOT providing tax dollars, NOT providing an environment to make the world a better place, challenge social norms or make political statements). When consumers demand cheaper prices, and business looks around and says "I can build it over there for pennies on the dollar of what it costs over here, due to lower wages and lower cost of doing business (property tax, imbedded taxes, etc)," then of course they go over seas.

Unskilled labor doesn't deserve to make the same money as nurses, teachers, truck drivers, mechanics, accountants, secretaries or any other work that requires more training than an instructional video, or a guy showing you once how to do it.

Looks like this is another one. And it looks like I'll saunter over to the Feed Store and buy out their dusty stock of Vise Grips.

-Brad

I asked my friends that thinks all corporations are evil, and all the accusations leveled against the corporate world in general, if they are communist or socialist. The answers are always no. I read off a condensed version of Karl Marx in 10 bullet points, and they all agrees with that philosophy. When told that they are Karl Marx's core believes, they asked "who?". When I told them it is the fundemantals of Communism/socialism, they feel cornered, because they were raised to believe communism is bad. They feel that I have tricked them with nonsense but not motivated enough go and verify what they missed in high school. One of them had the nerve to embarass himself by mentioning how communism/socialism had brought wealth to China. I still have a spark of hope because the other guy had sense enough to stop that arguement from walking down that strategic road.

 

[Underdog]

Just bought this pair, hope they are petersons, know they are US made. Have to keep looking for more.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...STRK:MEWN:IT&viewitem=&item=200250091909&rd=1

 

[old salvage]

Just bought this pair, hope they are petersons, know they are US made. Have to keep looking for more.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...STRK:MEWN:IT&viewitem=&item=200250091909&rd=1

I think those are from the 80's.

 

[Frank Elson]

In the UK we call vise grips mole grips.
I have absolutely no idea why.

 

[xroad]

It is quite a sad situation, whatever the reason for the downfall. I had a pair of Vise-Grip I have for 30 years, not exactly your precision piece of tool but it has been reliable and did it's job all 30 years. My recent purchase was disappointing. Jaws that don't line up. Edges that cuts me, Locks that don't lock very well, etc. It is not like China cannot build a good piece of tools. They have a space program for God sake. They did not get up to space by accident. Tool making is not rocket science either. Somewhere, some marketing guy or some business decision decided that the American public wanted cheap *** tools and they contract the factories to build accordingly.

Maybe when the US market of cheap *** tools are saturated, they will start to target the niche market of people wanting good tools. We'll have to wait till every household owns a full set of tools from Autozone (don't get me started with those tools, found out during an emergency putrchase).