Grrrrr...Milwaukee, what a con.

[MikeK]

MikeK didn't mention Mafell, presumably because they didn't have a stand /display ?..anyone know where they are made .

Mafell machines are made in Germany. I didn't mention Mafell because there aren't that many distributors in the US and their products tend to be focused on the timber industry. The salesmen I talked with knew the Mafell product line, but were quick to add there was no market in their area for Mafell. He told me no one was going to spend $5K on an Erika 85 contractor saw when they could spend less than half of that on a SawStop saw for on-site work. Festool seemed to be the upper limit of what people were willing to spend on money-earning machines, followed by Makita.

Yes, it is - you have no idea how many parts of those tools are made in the PRC no matter where the tool is assembled.

Good point. On some of the packages, the manufacturer listed the countries that sourced the plastic cases, batteries, and machine components, and they were global.

Jet and Powermatic are owned by JPW Industries, and they do not make it easy to find out where the machines are made. For example, the sales brochure for one of the popular thicknessers has this at the bottom of the last page. The address and phone number is for WMH Tool Group and is fictional.

On the JPW website, the only mention of manufacturing was this image at the bottom of the About Us page.

While some product lines are made in the US, the Jet and Powermatic are made in Taiwan.

 

[mwinfrance]

Thanks for the additional info .
That JPW brochure looks like they bought a "fill in your own details" template from someone, and neglected ( maybe deliberately ) to fill in all their details on all the pages.
Taiwan ( at least for now ) isn't PRC although despite the rhetoric from both sides of the water there there is much trade between them, Taiwanese companies own many manufacturing plants in the PRC.

Surprised that Mafell are so much more expensive than the rest of the list in the USA, in the EU I know that they are not cheap, but I had the impression that they were not hugely more expensive than Festool here.

Much easier to know where the hand ( non power tool ) tools are made, most of the ones from China appear to be made by skilled artisans ( or very small workshops ) selling what they make themselves. I can't remember the name of the maker, but over on woodcarving there is a PRC based gouge maker who does all his own forging and smithing, and whose tools ( always shipped without handles, and sometimes people have to wait until he has made particular items ) He is very highly regarded as are his tools .A one man business.

i've got his name on a drive on a computer which is currently on my bench in parts.

Interesting. Via the JPW "global directory" I find that the Russian JPW website for ( A JPW brand ) jet tools is still open for business, as is the site for Wilton another JPW brand
The french JPW operation website says that their Baileigh brand is made in the UK.
Whereas the JPW main website says that the Baileigh brand is mainly made in the USA. doesn't mention the UK at all.
Hidden away on the faq page ( not on the about page which only mentions their USA offices ) of Baileigh.com ( the USA main site ) it says ..in small type

We make products in manufacturing plants all over the world. We currently have factories in the USA, Portugal, Italy, Poland, England, Germany, China, and Taiwan.

The plot thickens...

JPW's french distributor "Tool France" claims to own "posséde"..Promac, Jet, Baileigh et Wilton...

Tool France possède quatre marques qui répondent à des besoins différents : Promac, Jet, Baileigh et Wilton"

They "Tool France" also give no prices on their site, french companies rarely do, even B2B, you contact them via webform to say how much is X ? they send you a company rep, who looks at you, decides what they think you might be prepared to pay, if that is more than the price that they actually were prepared to sell the item for, the price that they think you'll pay becomes the price, which, if you haggle , they may or may not offer a small discount on.no two customers will ever pay the same price for the same item.

 

[Adam W.]

My initial post was about Milwaukee deliberately misleading people who purchase online, like myself, and who have had their machines before which were clearly made in the USA, but are now made in China.

Nowhere on that Milwaukee tool listing or in the photos did it mention that the tool was made in China and even the Milwaukee rep was reluctant to say so.
Just like Bessey, deliberately misleading their customers by hiding the fact that some of their clamps are made in China.

As I've said before, if you want to buy Chinese, go ahead it's your choice.

Addendum:

I was thinking of buying a Powermatic lathe, so I emailed their customer service centre in the US and asked where it was made....Never got an answer which is unusual for a proud US company, so I asked Axminster tools who I was going to purchase it from and they couldn't find out either, so I didn't buy it and went with Vicmarc, which doesn't use Chinese parts, but has a couple of switches from Taiwan. Although they did fess up to their Vicmarc hat being made in China, which is ok as I don't wear hats.

 

[Tazio]

well I always buy handmade English shoes preferably Crocket and jones , at least then I avoid treading on the Chinese ! )

 

[MikeJhn]

@mwinfrance interesting that you have posted five times a day since you joined, hate to think how many words as your post always seem to be inordinately long, are you bed ridden with an injury?

 

[Noel]

Jet, Powermatic et al:
.
They used to be owned by Walter Meier AG based in Switzerland (Walter Meier Tooling in the States, hence the WMT that @MikeK mentions).
About 10 years or so ago Walter Meier sold out to Tenex Capital Management based in NYC who then listed the brands under the JPW umbrella (JPW = Jet, Powerematic, Wilton) and also own a few other brands in the WW and machining sector. Then Tenex sold the JPW group to Gamut Capital Management also based in NYC.
All the larger Powermatic and Jet machinery used to be made in Taiwan as mentioned and most still seem to be.

 

[mwinfrance]

@mwinfrance interesting that you have posted five times a day since you joined, hate to think how many words as your post always seem to be inordinately long, are you bed ridden with an injury?

Double slipped disc, so only working in short bursts, trying to avoid eating oxycontin every three hours..Why does my posting give you a problem ?
I read at least 50 times more than I post. lot of old threads are golden.

 

[Daniel2]

@mwinfrance interesting that you have posted five times a day since you joined, hate to think how many words as your post always seem to be inordinately long, are you bed ridden with an injury?

@MikeJhn , what is your problem? Can you not be civil toward other forum members?

 

[MikeJhn]

Thought it may be an injury that give you the time to post that often, sympathies with the problem of a bad back.

 

[MikeJhn]

@MikeJhn , what is your problem? Can you not be civil toward other forum members?

Don't read into a post something that is not there.

You should not judge other people how you judge yourself.