Ox Tools recently acquired Armor Tool, which is perhaps best known for their multi-functional dog hole-style work tables and compatible clamping accessories.
Ox Tools acquired Affinity Tool, including Bora, Centipede (collapsible work supports), HTC, and Portamate, towards the end of 2023.
The company recently expanded their own branded lineup with soft storage products – tool pouches, work belts, and similar.
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Before that, they launched modular tool boxes overseas.
Ox Tools has a lot going on for them right now.
They have what I’d call a sporadic relationship with Lowe’s, with a couple of tools having appeared in their holiday promo and tool gift center. Some of their tools appear on Lowe’s and Home Depot’s website, and much more at Amazon.
What’s next for Ox Tools?
Let’s consider work supports. HTC has portable stands and work supports, and used to have more. Centipede has collapsible work stands. Armor Tool has workshop-type workbenches and similar, and they used to have a portable table with dog holes. There’s plenty of room for broad expansion, and this is just one product category.
There’s more to come from Ox Tools. It will be interesting to see how their story continues.
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fred
I was always a bit confused about Affinity. They seemed to be both an owner of some brands and perhaps just a distributor (in North America) of others. Boes their distributor relationship with Fisch still remain? Or is there some other tie-in with that brand?
fred
I might have added that I’m a fan of the MFT style of worktop. I’m not sure who started the idea, but Festool and others sell ones – mostly with 20mm dog holes – but Bora has tops with both 20mm and 3/4-inch holes.
I bought a pair of the Armor brand inline clamps – and would give them a C+ rating – based on what I perceive as weak clamping pressure
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X2APO0G
Some of the MFT accessories made by Bora also might get a C or C+ rating from me – based on sturdiness and plastic construction.
For higher quality bench dogs and MFT accessories – I’ve been happier with products from Axminster Tools UK – their UJK line, Benchdog Tools UK, and TSO products.
https://tsoproducts.com/bench-dogs/
fred
Some other links:
https://www.axminstertools.com/us/instantsearch/result?q=ujk
https://benchdogs.co.uk/
JR Ramos
Never tried that Armor inline clamp but I have several of the c-grips and t-track/through bolt grips. They’re been pretty good and I love the adjustable clamping pressure. I had one pair that crapped out – couldn’t quite figure out what in the cam mechanism was failing but they replaced it for me.
Hopefully this purchase by Ox will breathe some life (and stock availability) into both Armor and Bora – last few years for both seem to be sort of like Toughbuilt in that available outlets have shrunk and many items unavailable to purchase.
Goodie
I, too, am a big fan of the portable work table. My MFT gets quite a bit of use and has spent some time doing mobile work.
Our good friends in Canada at Lee Valley have some very nice parf dogs for them. I really like the threaded through holes in M8 for jig/fixture building.
https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/workshop/workbenches/benchtop-accessories/71185-stainless-steel-parf-dogs-by-veritas
fred
Thanks – I may give them a try. My first batch dogs were UJK ones form Axminster-UK (some now sold by TSO). I had used the MkI version of the UJK Parf jig to create my first batch of MFT style tops. They now have a new version (also sold by TSO):
https://www.axminstertools.com/us/ujk-technology-parf-guide-system-mkii-104779?queryID=86c3b35ac0b1839bddce0ad5a46e9446
I took the time to chamfer bore all of the holes so that I could use flush mounting (chamfer) dogs when desired. I’ve bought quite a few different style dogs over the years – some with M8 thru-holes to clamp down fixtures and jigs, some others to clamp two MFT-style tops together with a cam, some smooth, some grooved etc. I both made and bought jigs. One that I like aids in making multiple repetitive cuts with a track saw. I bought mine when it was on a promotional sale:
https://benchdogs.co.uk/collections/hinge-system/products/quad-mft-hinge-system