jsackin
Well-known member
For some reason they never sent us the straight jaw 7" so we didn't order any when we restocked.
Malco Eagle Grip pliers
- Thread starter Kscardsfan
- Start date
FSUwelder1212
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2013
- Messages
- 149
We just got a small shipment of eagle grip pliers in. More on the way. When they announced they were closing the line they said they had about 1,000 of each plier in stock. Not sure where it's at right now.
Search results for: 'eagle grip'
www.harryepstein.com
Thank you sir, just put in an order.
SO already hasn't sold enough to keep Malco going, and this was the "out of the gate" and "just opened" surge. And now that's over. The only hope would be for SO to buy the tooling and equipment, incorporate it into one of their factories, and run it for a week a month. But .... why do that vs just going back to grip on? Maybe they will buy the tooling, but that's a major commitment and they will need the space. They are certainly not going to keep a dedicated factory going because that's not currently working.
^
Eaglegrip only made 4 plier variants and 2 clamp variants, that was part of the failure .
those 6 variants are done by everyone and at rock bottom cost .
Rather disapointing Malco through in the towel with very little real effort make the facility workable .
It would be a good facility for locking pliers/grips/clamps and general high end pliers if someone got interest but most won't as easier profits outsource to taiwan/china or spain currently but things are changing globally .
Snapon dumped gripon soon as eaglegrip out the gate, was good reason for that, gripon not that durable or cheap (they do have a great product range/innovation though) .
Was always amazed SnapOn didn't do locking pliers in house .
1000 pieces of each inventory not much either, visegrips new old stock was probably more than that decade+ after it closed .
Sad to see it failed so quickly but I think Malco can be blamed for inept effort in making it workable .
Eaglegrip only made 4 plier variants and 2 clamp variants, that was part of the failure .
those 6 variants are done by everyone and at rock bottom cost .
Rather disapointing Malco through in the towel with very little real effort make the facility workable .
It would be a good facility for locking pliers/grips/clamps and general high end pliers if someone got interest but most won't as easier profits outsource to taiwan/china or spain currently but things are changing globally .
Snapon dumped gripon soon as eaglegrip out the gate, was good reason for that, gripon not that durable or cheap (they do have a great product range/innovation though) .
Was always amazed SnapOn didn't do locking pliers in house .
1000 pieces of each inventory not much either, visegrips new old stock was probably more than that decade+ after it closed .
Sad to see it failed so quickly but I think Malco can be blamed for inept effort in making it workable .
Last edited:
Odd-job
Well-known member
I'd like to wish they are having one of those fake "going out of business" sales that furniture stores always have... but alas must be tough for some of the employees heading into the holidays.
Like some of the other members, this might convince me to take the plunge. Hoping Jori stocks up enough to last until HJE day. Only 8 more months
Like some of the other members, this might convince me to take the plunge. Hoping Jori stocks up enough to last until HJE day. Only 8 more months
I was going to say all this hoarding could end up righting the ship but I think it's all existing inventory. Sounds like they already shut down the line and couldn't just increase capacity to meet this demand.I'd like to wish they are having one of those fake "going out of business" sales that furniture stores always have... but alas must be tough for some of the employees heading into the holidays.
Like some of the other members, this might convince me to take the plunge. Hoping Jori stocks up enough to last until HJE day. Only 8 more months
Speaking of hoarding, we all have to be at fault here. We griped for years about the lack of good US locking pliers and when someone finally tooled up to make them (with all the costs associated with running that kind of operation on US soil), we all of a sudden decided our import pliers were good enough. I'm as guilty as the next person. I have a drawer full of every locking plier Tekton makes and I supplement with HF Bremen when I need something new/different. It wasn't until the OP posted his initial message about the plant shutting down a while back that I decided to jump in. And I'll admit, when they showed up, I was tempted to leave them in the box.
Anyway, there's been plenty of armchair manufacturing and economics discussion in this thread. For my part, I guess I naively assume that if someone is going to fund something like this, they need to see a business plan based on market research before they jump in. Who knows how global supply chain issues, steel prices, labor shortages and inflation played into the scenario but I think we can all admit it's been a tough couple years to launch a manufacturing operation.
Last edited:
It's true, BUT - when we all said we wanted the USA pliers of yesteryear, I doubt anyone predicted the extreme price tag.
I'm in Canada. These launched at ~$80 and I thought "well, maybe there will be a sale eventually and I don't need them THAT bad". Now they're $144. No thank you.
At $50, I would own a couple - but I'm still not going to fill a drawer.
neophyte
Well-known member
The Eagle Grip pliers are the same design used and made for 60+ years, at a cost 2 or 3 times that of German made or basic style French made, or Japanese made, or Spanish made, locking pliers.
Import pliers from all those countries likely incur extra import fees as well, and while I’m not sure about wage cost in Japan or Spain, I doubt German or French wages are lower than the US wages.
The number of styles were also severely limited.
neophyte
Well-known member
The Eagle Grip pliers are the same design used and made for 60+ years, at a cost 2 or 3 times that of German made or basic style French made, or Japanese made, or Spanish made, locking pliers.
Import pliers from all those countries likely incur extra import fees as well, and while I’m not sure about wage cost in Japan or Spain, I doubt German or French wages are lower than the US wages.
The number of styles were also severely limited.
reader2580
Well-known member
Just because you are using an old design doesn't necessarily mean cost savings. My understanding is Malco only used the same building as the old Vice-Grip factory and none of the old Vice-Grip equipment was used. (The building may have been empty when Malco took it over. I don't recall.) You would think that new(er) equipment could have lead to some cost savings.
neophyte
Well-known member
So
My point was that the Malco Eagle Grip pliers were essentially the same exact design that had been available for decades, and produced in the millions, or tens of millions, or maybe more, and which still occasionally show up in unused condition in Petersen packaging.
This was also the same exact design almost every other company that produces locking pliers starts out making.
You can even get Stainless steel, and Non-Sparking Beryllium Copper versions, and Stainless Steel versions made to high quality medical standards for surgeons, and possibly even titanium versions.
The Eagle Grip pliers may have been “the best” locking pliers made to the classic Petersen design, but essentially they were a high end niche version equivalent to Nepros tools, or only needed buy someone who needs the absolute top quality version for some reason.
That’s not going to get huge sales.
When the Eagle Grip pliers were first actually for sale, I think the price was around $60+ , which put the pliers in the price range of the Facom 500 design, which has a four position adjustment, that allows the jaws to open extra wide, and provide extra utility.
The Facom 500s offer advantages and extra utility over the standard locking plier design, so there’s a reason to spend extra. Also, you can or at least used to be able to purchase replacement jaws for the Facoms.
Some of the weird German designs that cost more have jaws that open parallel (a design that has long since been out of patent), or heavy forged swiveling jaws for gripping non parallel flat surfaces.
Newer German locking plier designs have modified jaws that can grip a variety of shapes rather than just flat or round.
A lot of users just use locking pliers for locking a couple pieces together for welding or some other messy job.
These users will pay extra, but usually for designs that clamp stuff they can’t clamp with the regular locking plier designs.
For just clamping a couple of pieces of sheet metal together, having six pairs of locking pliers is better than one pair, even if the pliers aren’t as good.
Sorry,
My point was that the Malco Eagle Grip pliers were essentially the same exact design that had been available for decades, and produced in the millions, or tens of millions, or maybe more, and which still occasionally show up in unused condition in Petersen packaging.
This was also the same exact design almost every other company that produces locking pliers starts out making.
You can even get Stainless steel, and Non-Sparking Beryllium Copper versions, and Stainless Steel versions made to high quality medical standards for surgeons, and possibly even titanium versions.
The Eagle Grip pliers may have been “the best” locking pliers made to the classic Petersen design, but essentially they were a high end niche version equivalent to Nepros tools, or only needed buy someone who needs the absolute top quality version for some reason.
That’s not going to get huge sales.
When the Eagle Grip pliers were first actually for sale, I think the price was around $60+ , which put the pliers in the price range of the Facom 500 design, which has a four position adjustment, that allows the jaws to open extra wide, and provide extra utility.
The Facom 500s offer advantages and extra utility over the standard locking plier design, so there’s a reason to spend extra. Also, you can or at least used to be able to purchase replacement jaws for the Facoms.
Some of the weird German designs that cost more have jaws that open parallel (a design that has long since been out of patent), or heavy forged swiveling jaws for gripping non parallel flat surfaces.
Newer German locking plier designs have modified jaws that can grip a variety of shapes rather than just flat or round.
A lot of users just use locking pliers for locking a couple pieces together for welding or some other messy job.
These users will pay extra, but usually for designs that clamp stuff they can’t clamp with the regular locking plier designs.
For just clamping a couple of pieces of sheet metal together, having six pairs of locking pliers is better than one pair, even if the pliers aren’t as good.
neophyte
Well-known member
I should probably say that I think the main advantage to the high quality Eagle Grip pliers were certain specific tasks.
If you have to deal with tough, hardened steel fasteners, or other parts, that may have significantly corroded in place, such as bolts, or rods or pins, etc., and need to grip those parts firmly to try to torque or hammer or vibrate those parts out undef high stress, and possibly involving lots or torque, than the quality of a pair of Eagle Grip pliers makes sense.
These are jobs that otherwise might be done with a pipe wrench, or by welding something onto the fastener.
This is like buying a specialty pair or two of pliers from a manufacturer like Knipex though.
If you have to deal with tough, hardened steel fasteners, or other parts, that may have significantly corroded in place, such as bolts, or rods or pins, etc., and need to grip those parts firmly to try to torque or hammer or vibrate those parts out undef high stress, and possibly involving lots or torque, than the quality of a pair of Eagle Grip pliers makes sense.
These are jobs that otherwise might be done with a pipe wrench, or by welding something onto the fastener.
This is like buying a specialty pair or two of pliers from a manufacturer like Knipex though.
Shame they didn't hire Mr_B to right the ship.
wouldn't of had hire me, my consultancy would of been offered free of charge lol, really ***** see this dewitt plant in a mess again and Malco's production run time got be a record lol . they spent 4 times as long getting it all together as they did making anything and when you only make 2 basic plier sizes and 1 clamp size that a common standard that already saturated you can't expect mass sales.
gripon, facom and the germans give a free example on what needs to be done and was lot of versions of old style vise-grips and speciality locking grips that people crying out to for ... absolute shameful effort .
dnschmidt
Well-known member
OK, I never thought it was possible for someone to screw the pooch worst than S-K or SBD with respect to Craftsman but clearly I was wrong again.
reader2580
Well-known member
I bought a pair of HF Bremen locking pliers recently because I needed something right away. I couldn’t wait to order Eagle Grip. The Bremen are actually really nice. I had to look at a couple of them to get a pair with jaws ground properly.
Ton ton
Well-known member
This is a shame that you weren't able to connect with Malco before they shut down.
I spoke with Malco about a year ago, they said all right things but none of it turned into anything but words .
Pliers I had from them are proper nice in use besides the plating, would of bought more variants if they had made them .
Would of expected it be hard going but you ain't got a chance when only got 3 base models with 2 variations on each that every low cost manufacturer covering .
Higher end price and targeting pro users requires more speciality products and a full range and time build reputation and get the products in the right sales platforms .
Hope someone takes it on and does a better effort, hopefully not the chinese lol .
Going be a small turkey for lot of dewitt employees this holiday season ...
Really is a downer when a company like Malco throw in the towel in about 18 months of production .
Last edited:
reader2580
Well-known member
Malco probably looked at tooling up to make other styles as throwing good money after bad.
Bubba Fett
Well-known member
It's almost as if creating/managing US manufacturing during a post-pandemic economy with labor and supply shortages while remaining profitable is hard or something.
They are the best bang for the buck for locking pliers. Made in Taiwan, but that's better than China.
Rosso
Well-known member
I was chatting to my Snap on dealer today (im in the UK) he checked stock levels for the UK warehouse, there are only 16 of the 10 inch ones left in stock, I'd imagine once those are gone that's it.
Shame as to be honest they are fantastic. As a full time tech working on German cars the ones i have have so far been brilliant.
Shame as to be honest they are fantastic. As a full time tech working on German cars the ones i have have so far been brilliant.
2ndGearRubber
Well-known member
I mentioned Malco closing down production with my dealer. I'm hoping SO is sitting on some stock for warranty purpose. My dealers have always stocked irwin pliers over the grip on variety. Grip are are decent. But a big downgrade over the Malco.
I bought the 4 toothed locking pliers in snap on trim, 7" and 10", flat and curved jaw. They're amazing quality pliers, they just WORK and actually grip stuff.
I think that if they could've priced these at ~$35, they would've been viable. But $50 is just too much, obviously, no matter how great they are. As I posted before, I'm not sure who at Malco thought they could sell enough $50 locking pliers to keep a factory going even 40 hours a week when imports are $10-15.
SO is not going to keep stock solely reserved for warranty- they're going to sell what they have and that will be it.
Indexmill
Well-known member
I agree that there are multiple use cases for locking pliers, where the quality requirements vary widely.
- clamping for welding - any cheap ************* will work just fine. When thay get all gobbed up, toss em and buy some more for $9.99.
- Actually grabbing onto stripped nuts and bolts because they are your almost last-ditch chance to get the fucker out - seems like this use case warrants a high quality, good grade of steel, sharp milled heat treated teeth, with lots of clamp force... to get those pesky stripped fuckers out so you can save the godamn day with whatever they came out of. $50.00 ok here... all day long.
- other use cases that I can't think of at this time. (like a crank for an old car window shaft that has lost the crank).
dnschmidt
Well-known member
I don't think that a Vice Grip grips any better than a Knipex Cobra for case #2.
American Locomotive
Well-known member
Locking pliers grip way, way harder than a Cobra could ever hope to. A good pair of locking pliers will exceed 2000 pounds of force at the jaws.
four.cycle
Well-known member
Indexmill said:
^ It's for this reason I will most likely be procuring a couple pairs of them. The video comparison seems to indicate there's a significant difference in the way they perform where it concerns gripping power. If that is indeed the case, and that $50.00 pair of pliers is able to hold onto those frozen studs that have thwarted all other efforts, then yes, they most certainly are worth every penny.
Considering what I've thrown away on Tekton, Pittsburgh, Irwin, and other trash, what the hell? This looks like one of those "cry once" kind of deals. I'm willing to risk it if it saves any skin on my or my buddy's hands - we don't heal up as fast as we used to.
- BK
neophyte
Well-known member
You can lock the locking plier on, then use a bar on the handle for extra torque.
This especially might be useful on a hardened round stud or rod that was jammed in place.
There are also locking pliers that have hammer attachments that screw into the adjustment bolt.
A factory or shop made attachment could then use the better grip to pull items, which is far less effective with Knipex Cobra pliers.
dnschmidt
Well-known member
Dude, I live in Arizona. We simply ask the bolt to come out and it willingly obliges. Life is good out here in the desert except for July and August when it sort of *****.
LB-1911
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Last edited:
Insightful video. Exciting that they are getting a couple truckloads of new old stuff too! Thanks for posting.
Sportsman762
Well-known member
Jori, Thanks for making a video about Malco. Your insights into the tool industry are great.
dnschmidt
Well-known member
Bremen and Milwaukee killed Eagle Grip. Both are completely serviceable and cost 1/3 as much. Festool has a niche in that their stuff always has the best vacuum extraction. I don't believe that Eagle Grip had that unique feature.
According to the recent video by HJE, they are in production until the end of the year and HJE will continue to buy them as long as they can
dnschmidt
Well-known member
Here is what killed Eagle Grip: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwauk...-Kit-20-Piece-48-22-2710-48-22-3690/320163354
Okay..... but the end of the year is only a month and a half away so like I said, get them while you can. Lol.
There is a large on-line dealer for Malco Eagle Grips located about two miles from my place.... last I heard from them was they wanted to place one last large order with Malco before they complely stopped production. The guy I talked with wasn't even sure if Malco would accept their final order.....
Last edited:
Google wal mart and Rubbermaid for that answer.
Stuart in MN
Well-known member
I feel bad for the people of Dewitt, Nebraska.