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I'm going to an auction next Saturday (Krummy, take note) in Marion, Indiana to check out a Powermatic spindle sander so I began to look at pictures of the auctioned items.  It is an estate sale and the owner had some Grizzly tools but he also had a jointer and a 16" planer that were made by a company named Pratco.  They sure had that Grizzly look to them but I had never heard of the name Pratco.  Can anyone enlighten me?

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Just now, lew said:

I wonder if there was an Asian factory that produced equipment and then it was rebranded by various US sellers with their own name. 

Yep, all day long, every day, and today. Just different paint jobs. We could go on forever, mortising machines sold as Shop Fox, look the same as the ones sold as Grizzly, and the lathes, an explosion industry of lathes being sold all over the world, but with different paint jobs, all coming from the same Taiwan factory. Nothing wrong with that, because as long as you are getting a solid product, it all comes down to which paint job has the best customer service. 

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Pratco is not a name I've heard, but there's been so many that come and go it could still be a usable piece of equipment. I looked at one called "Northwood" (not to be confused with Northfield) a few years back for a friend...it pretty much looked like the one in your pic.

Edited by Fred W. Hargis Jr
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From what I can find out, very little on the web. Pratco now sells a line of trencher blades in Austrailia. They are also an Asian importer of other various equipment all over the world. They were the equivalent to Harbor Freight in the 60's selling Taiwanese knock offs of US brands ,apparently under their own name.

Herb

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When I bought a Sunhill 6" jointer years ago, It was all cast iron beds and fence and it looked like every jointer I had ever seen back to when they started making them. I asked the sales guy, he said the there is just one factory in the world that makes all the Castings, they have the molds. Every other company buys the castings to make their jointers. The foundry is in Tiawan.

They are not in bussiness anymore, Oliver equipment sells all their tools,plus their own line.

http://www.olivermachinery.net/index.php?node=home

 

Herb

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  • 11 months later...

I am familiar with Pratco air tools. However, I have never run across the Pratco name on any machinery tools like this. That doesn't mean that it is not a good quality tool.

 

I did find a machine shop in Illinois that liquidated and had a Pratco 6" joiner listed along with several high quality name brand machinery tools. I would have to believe if this was good enough for this caliber of machine shop it is probably is a good quality tool. 

 

It looks to be solidly built. Many tools are made to individual brand specifications in the same factories. It may very well be an older Delta, Bridgewood, or other name brand clone with the Pratco name on the plate. 

 

Put it to work and I bet it will do a good job for you. With a little more research I'm sure you will find a clone to it and a source of spare/replacement parts that are interchangeable.

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Long ago a lot of the cheap tools were made/cast in Taiwan. Now most are cast in China. Powermatic has long been Chinese made. Long ago I bought a new PM 26 shaper. Tag said assembled from parts made in Taiwan. Looked identical to the old US made ones. Neither was what I would consider a quality tool. I sold the PM26 and replaced it with a used Gomad, (Polish made) far better. Taiwan made tools have increased in quality over the years. I'm old enough to remember when Made in Japan meant junk. Now some of the finest tools, you can not afford, are made in Japan.

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  • 1 year later...

I am very familiar with Prato Tools. I once had Pratco franchise. They were headquartered in the Tampa St Petersburg area of Florida and had a few company stores there. They also sold several franchise stores around the Southeast. A  lot of their heavier tools -- drill presses, etc. -- were made in Asia and procured with the Pratco name. I bought a Pratco franchise about 38 years ago just before the onslaught of Asian tools onto the American Market. Their Asian tools were solid imports. I still have a Pratco 16 speed floor-model drill press. Hope this helps.

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  • 2 months later...

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