WTF Toolnut?

[khariV]

I was on Toolnut the other day and saw an ad for this spiffy track square. It reminded me of another one that I've been eyeing for some time, but the other one was blue and from a company with a strange name that I couldn't remember.  I honestly thought that a company had licensed the design from the inventor and gotten it into some online retailers to expand their sales - good for them I thought.  I even went so far as to put one in my card to order.

 

http://www.festoolproducts.com/insta-railsquare-festool-makita-track-saw-square.html

 

Then I got to thinking... was this one cheaper than the blue one?  Let's go look. So I go back through my history and find the original.

https://tsoproducts.com/tso-products-guide-rail-squares/grs-16-guide-rail-square/

 

Looks pretty much exactly the same, right?  Yeah, well that's what I thought, so I did a bit more digging and what did I find? The Insta RailSquare (black one) is pretty much a rip off of the GRS-16.  GRS didn't register a trademark / patent in Canada, so they STOLE THEIR DESIGN, changed it slightly (added a useless ruler) and are now selling it as their own product.  There are several discussion threads over on FOG saying the exact same thing.  TSO even commented saying that, the design isn't authorized and that it was their fault for not being able to provide scale up production fast enough to meet market demand.

 

I know people aren't fans of Sawstop and their patents for the tech they developed / legal strategy, but this is blatantly stealing a product.  I'm even more disappointed at Toolnut for picking up this tool and selling what is a rip off of someone else's good idea.   If they wanted to do the right thing, they should have LICENSED THE IDEA from the inventor and paid them a royalty, not just made the same product and claimed it as their own.

 

Sorry, but I'll pay $20 extra for the Made in the USA original and not this blatant rip off.  I'm seriously contemplating pointing my tool buying budget away from Toolnut in the future if this is what they stand for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SetBuilder]

Yup, I saw that recently and did a little research.  I also decided I would rather purchase TSO version.

[SetBuilder]

I ran across this today... 

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Milescraft-PocketJig200-Pocket-Hole-Jig-1323/301852273?cm_mmc=socialmedia|FY117| FY17 | BASE |DPA | DPA | Viewed Product |&k_clickid=0c9e77cb-9d0f-2e29-a308-000027c2ca1c

 

I also saw something recently on FB where some one said they developed all of Kreg's tools and were leaving the company to start their own line. No idea how true it was or not.

[KnarlyCarl]

Yeah, whole lot of drama went down over on IG about this... Kind of with you there on that line of thinking.

 

 

..

[jtkendall]

Here's some more Instagram drama about it and apparently Atlas Machinery was deleting comments on their post. I don't have the need for either of them, but I'd buy the TSO over the "Insta" one if I ever do need it.
 

 

 

[ChrisK]

I've never considered purchasing one @khariV but like you I'd go with TSO. A lot of this crap goes on in the tool world. Look at Sears screwing the wrench dude.

[dadx4]

Old post but TSO shouldn't be able to control a product if they can't keep up with demand. I'm glad others are recreating the product. I'll order from EU, AU, CA, etc... before ordering from a company focused on controlling the market rather than supply of product.