Who owns porter cable

They also have some good jigs to compete with Leigh at a lower price point. PC should put their energy into focusing on a quality woodworking brand at a better price than Festool, Mafell, etc.

Seems like the premium sander, nailer, joiner, tracksaw market has room for competition and PC could bring their name and scale to bear. Interesting — the PC dovetail jigs were in production for may years before Leigh came into existence.

One might argue that Ken Grisley set out to make a better more adjustable jig than the what was available from PC when he founded Leigh in What boggled my mind was up until a couple of years ago seeing that SBD was happy to put the most expensive Omnijig back into production under the Porter Cable banner while also introducing the most cheapened down versions of their power tools as of yet including the fly-by-night dimestore looking cordless lineup.

Even Betterley — who had used PC router motors exclusively as the basis for their laminate routers — are starting to migrate away to Bosch and Makita. Some years ago, PC had moved production to Mexico — but now some of their offerings are downgraded copies of Dewalt models — which owe their origins to German maker Elu. The PC 3. They may still be making a D-handle router to replace my vintage — and a power plane — but nothing really up to the standards of my vintage and models.

The remaining yellow Elu models are downgraded pretty hard from the grey ones. With the way they wanted to position Porter Cable cheapened Dewalt models the past decade, the classic PC routers posed an issue. They really should rethink their branding strategy and consider who remembers Porter Cable in and for what reasons. Well, half of those people are dead or demented, now. Ok, I guess anyone under 45 will recognise it as the junk at Lowes nobody buys. I actually just saw a Porter Cable cordless set at Costco- 4, or maybe 6 pieces.

It was kind of interesting to see it there, along with a stainless steel drum DeWalt shop vac. I wonder what kind of business they get from that, since they are pretty much the only option for cordless tools at my Costco, currently.

Porter Cable had some nice routers, belt sanders, jigs, reciprocating saws, and circular saws, but unfortunately most of those are no longer already around. Interesting write-up! The products I would focus PC on with refreshed products would be, band saws, scroll saws, shop table saws, drill presses, jointers, planers, bench grinders, air compressors, nailers, belt sanders, finish sanders, routers, dust extractors and things like that.

They did paint themselves into a PR corner by making their different cordless lines non-compatible. Really dumb non-future proofed strategy right there. Using the DeWalt name was the most publicised example. Seeing the same company mishandle the Porter Cable brand like this. Sheesh Louise. I fully understand what they did with the brand and why they did it.

But that was 15 years ago. When I started in woodworking my high school courses had porter cable Sanders and routers and those are what got me hooked on the brand My first porter cable purchase was a There is a third possibility to explain the social media posts.

Some intern or new comms employee came up with a good video idea, had it signed off by a mid level marketing executive, and posted it to social media. Another dead brand walking. Another to be avoided brand unless the assortment offered and purchased is all you will ever need. Right now it seems that Porter-Cable power tools exist mostly to be sold in stores that do not have Craftsman-branded stuff. Tractor Supply.

So they have the low-medium-high ranges covered. Bostitch had a cordless power tool line for a while, but that seems to have been phased out. Looks like they are focusing one pneumatic and fastening tools, which is the right move, IMO. I think SBD should move PC away from typical cordless tools and focus solely on workshop tools like drill presses, belt sanders, grinders, band saws, scroll saws, etc.

But Kobalt is not that consistent, and that just might be a problem you want to consider. Kobalt is a store brand. It's owned by Lowe's and the manufacture of Kobalt tools gets handed down to various makers. Is DeWalt better than Porter Cable?

DeWalt tools will be able to handle much, much more wear and tear than a Porter-Cable. Whats better DeWalt or Milwaukee? Which is better DeWalt or ridgid?

Price-wise, the DeWalt comes in a little cheaper than the Ridgid combo, so it's advantage DeWalt right off the bat. For starters, both the DeWalt drill and impact just felt better in the hand. Is Bosch better than DeWalt? Bosch Combo Kit So, in this though we find that technically, Dewalt has the upper hand, build-quality and premium-feel wise; Bosch does a better job compared to the tools of Dewalt.

Not taking anything away from them, but the durability is better in Bosch than in Dewalt. A bit sad for those of us who still use every now and then corded PC tools, a Leica M4 and Nikon F2 — but the world moves on. I passed on the limited PC line and walked right past Craftsman because their kit at a similar price point was brushed. I think what most of the comments are missing here is the change in the market. Those two retailers are huge gateways to the consumer.

Without their buy in, your brand goes nowhere. With Craftsman in the mix, someone was going to get bumped. Consumers ultimately decide the fade of brands. At least not in the sense that translated to enough cash to keep the brand alive. There is a life cycle for all brands. Maybe that means that Porter Cable needs to be sold if it is to survive. In its current role model as Stuart has shown it being positioned — it certainly needs lots of either real or virtual shelf space to remain viable.

An alternative might be to sell off the brand and have the new owner downsize it into a niche player. In the manufacture of specialty power tools — I suspect that that would be a hard path to successfully follow. Having them repositioned to compete with folks like Mafell would require a sea change in company thinking.

Hard to take any of these comments or article seriously when you say things like craftsman is good, or recommend to buy ryobi. Literally the 2 worst brands imaginable. Which brands do you think come close to offering the same capabilities at closest pricing?

They are DIY budget brands, yes, but still much better than some of the no-name stuff out there. I used to need tools for work very rarely now mostly a desk jockey and had Dewalt, and still have some.

Other then the old blue circ saw I have acting up and replacing batteries of course I have had no real issue over 10 years of Ryobi ownership. One thing that has surprised me is that I see some pros using Ryobi these days, including an old boss of mine who used to run Hilti and Dewalt, now has a surprising about of neon green tools in the shop. They provide long warranties easy replacement if necessary. Are listings of Porter Cable 20V Max tools indicative that Home Depot will actively promote the tools, or are they passive and even drop-shipment listings that are only there so that Home Depot can compete with Amazon and other retailers on search engine listings?

Agree with Stuart. Porter Cable should become a stationary brand and corded tool brand. Once Craftsman was brought in it took the spot that Porter Cable would have occupied. It needs to go back to what it originally was or become a specialty tool brand.

I was curious about the Sidchrome SBD brand mentioned in the recent SBD fastener company acquisition posting, because I had never heard of the brand before. It is an Australian tool brand that made their tools in country.

SBD bought them and immediately scrapped the Australian made manufacturing and sourced the tools from Taiwan. Just like they bought Craftsman and all the stuff is cheap made in China.

I am really not happy with this. All of my ratchets, sockets and combination wrenches are Sears USA made, and I used them in maintenance in an automotive parts plant. Look at the money that they would have saved. Even if they killed off PC in the future. They look almost the same as the new Craftsman V 20 design to me. And Stewart, there is one Craftsman tool better than the Dewalt light that they copied.

The tall stick light has more lumens than the Dewalt. Craftsman was China made long before SBD bought the brand. You can thank Sears and Apex Bain Capital for that. There is nothing in the Craftsman line where they have positioned it to get anywhere close to their premium Dewalt brand. A lot of guys on my crew used the Porter Cable 20V Max stuff for years because it was 1 cheap, and 2 decent quality.

Basically it was a cheap Dewalt. So understandably the brand probably needed to go. Basically that chart needs to be revised to where the Stanley brand stays around for things like the Fatmax measuring tapes just like Bostitch for staplers. Irwin sort of for value priced tools.

But other than that they are all quickly sinking below the Craftsman red wave. It could be branded Porter Cable, Irwin, or anything else. Craftsman is above the mid-price point line, Porter Cable is below.

DeWalt tools will be able to handle much, much more wear and tear than a Porter-Cable. Hopefully, now you can distinguish a little better between the two, and see where that gap in price comes from. But shoot, looking at those price tags, it definitely makes us second guess some things. I have been working on wood projects since I was a young boy. My dad made rocking chairs and other furniture to sell all over the mid west. I alway enjoy the next challenge to build to keep sharpening my working skills.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Twitter Facebook Pinterest. Ask The Saw Guy. Brian, Woodworker 2, satisfied customers Licensed Contractor - 17 years.