Are Ryobi & Ridgid related?

[CManinLa]

Does anyone know if Ryobi & Ridgid are related? Are they basically the same company with Ridgid being considered 'high-end' & Ryobi 'low-end'.

Appears both are sold exclusively by Home Depot.

Also, this week I purchased a used Ryobi Jointer/Planer (JP155). Unit is in good shape & I got is for a nice price. From doing research online, I understand that Ryobi has not produced this unit for nearly 10 years. Seems that the blades are somewhat hard to find. I also noticed that when I search for parts, most part companies seem to list the Ryobi & Ridgid parts together.

This being the case, the Ryobi JP155 & the Ridgid JP06101 are both 6/18 Jointer Planers. The Ryobi is a 2 blade unit & the Ridgid is a 3 blade unit. I am wondering if the Ridgid replacement blades would fit the Ryobi JP155.

Any insight anyone can provide is welcomed.

Thanks,
cm

[LCHIEN]

Does anyone know if Ryobi & Ridgid are related? Are they basically the same company with Ridgid being considered 'high-end' & Ryobi 'low-end'.

Appears both are sold exclusively by Home Depot.

Also, this week I purchased a used Ryobi Jointer/Planer (JP155). Unit is in good shape & I got is for a nice price. From doing research online, I understand that Ryobi has not produced this unit for nearly 10 years. Seems that the blades are somewhat hard to find. I also noticed that when I search for parts, most part companies seem to list the Ryobi & Ridgid parts together.

This being the case, the Ryobi JP155 & the Ridgid JP06101 are both 6/18 Jointer Planers. The Ryobi is a 2 blade unit & the Ridgid is a 3 blade unit. I am wondering if the Ridgid replacement blades would fit the Ryobi JP155.

Any insight anyone can provide is welcomed.

Thanks,
cm

yeah they're related. A few years back (5, 6?) Emerson Electric owned Ridgid but had Ryobi manufacturing for their tool line.
Since then, Ryobi has basically taken over the Ridgid line from emerson. Ryobi has historically concentrated more on protable, hand held tools and Ridgid on bench or freestanding tools.

But no, your old Ryobi benchtop jointer is not likely to take the exact same blades as the free-standing Ridgid jointer, the designs are ten years apart and they were different companies back then.

[sweensdv]

Let me muddy up the water just a little bit more here. Emerson Electric actually still owns the RIDGID name. They just license out the manufacturing rights of the RIDGID name to OWT(One World Technology) which is a subsidiary of a much larger corporation called TTI(TechTronics Industries, I believe).

OWT is the company that makes both the Ryobi line and RIDGID line of woodworking tools. Ridge Tool/Emerson also manufactures some tools sold under the RIDGID name. I could be wrong here but I believe that if the tool is orange in color then OWT makes it. If it's red in color then Ridge Tool/Emerson makes it.

It's also my understanding that both Ryobi and RIDGID are just trademarks and not actual tool companies. Much like Craftsman isn't actually a real tool company.

[cwsmith]

Let me add this,

Emerson Electric is the parent company of Ridge Tool and Rigid brand shop vacuums, plumbing, and both electric and plumbing trade tools. They have manufacturing facilities here in the U.S. and elsewhere.

In the late 90's they started contracting many of their woodworking stationary tools to TTI (TekTronics International). TTI is a Hongkong-based company with manufacturing facilities in Taiwan, Shanghai, and other Asian areas. They're a fairly young company, but have grown rapidly and are well known throughout the world. TTI owns the Ryobi, One World Technologies, Homelite, and recently, Milwaukie tool names.

In 2003, Emerson Electric licensed the "Ridgid" brand name for use by TTI in it's manufacture and marketing of it's professional-grade line of woodworking tools. The design of the Ridgid stationary line was included in that agreement as was the warranty service, product support, etc.

Up until that point, Ridgid-brand tools, though made under contract with TTI, were grey in color, with orange accents. With the agreement, the color scheme was changed to orange with grey accents and... a line of handheld tools were introduced. Here is a link to that press announcement: http://www.ridgid.com/news/RidgidBrandRel.pdf

Ryobi used to be a Japanese company, but was acquired by TTI years ago. I can't find a referance to when that occured. Back in the 70's they used to make a large number of Craftsman-brand hand-held power tools, just like Emerson Electric made the Craftsman-brand RAS and a couple of other tools for Sears.

Today, the "Ryobi" name is well known in the printing business (especially in Europe) for thier high-quality, high tech, color printing equipment. I'm not sure of that relationship with TTI, or if that is somehow retained by the original Japanese company. Ryobi and TTI are also well known for their high tech/quality aluminum casting abilities.

TTI has made tools for Ridgid and Metabo, as well as other companies in the past. Some Ryobi tools were still made in Pickens, SC (like their routers, hand drills, etc.) up until just a few years ago (my R161 and RE1803 combo routers were made in the U.S.). Today I believe most tools are made in a new high-tech manufacturing center in China, where they also make most, if not all Ridgid-brand hand-held power tools.

Many of the Ridgid-brand stationary tools are made in Taiwan. Among those that I know of are the 1550 drill press, 3650 table saw, and the 1300 Thickness plainer. With the acquisition of Milwaukie tools a year or so ago, I'm not sure where that brand stands. Surely some components will be off-shored in time.

With much speculation on my part, I imagine that as the American dollar continues to shrink, we'll eventually come full circle and start seeing some product manufacturing return to the U.S. in the same manner that many of the Asian auto manufacturers have done.

I hope this helps,

CWS

[CManinLa]

Thanks to everyone for their input. After submitting the question, I was able to find some information about both the Emerson & Ryobi brands but still were not clearly able see how they were tied together.

Once again, the responses show how intelligent & knowledgable our members are about their tools & the companies that make them.

[Alex Franke]

I have to say, I have an old Emerson radio from the mid 30's, I believe. Still works fine. I wonder if it's the same company...