Di Acro or knockoff?

Hi guys,

I have a 12" shear that I bought at a used tool shop, probably 30 years ago. As I recall, it was represented to me as NOT a Di Acro, but some "lesser" brand.

Now that I'm getting out of the business after 34 years and selling machinery/equipment and have this advertised (but not on PM), the first question potential buyers are asking is whether this is indeed a Di Acro.

I've looked everywhere; there is no mention of brand or model number.
Can anyone help me out? I'm not advertising it here; just looking for info.

Thanks!

Sure looks like the real deal. If its a copy, they done good! DiAcro, over the years may well have supplied to places like Sears or others, who put their own 'house' brand on the labels.

Some of the pictures I see online show a tag on the front of the base casting, under the table.

trevj said:

Sure looks like the real deal. If its a copy, they done good! DiAcro, over the years may well have supplied to places like Sears or others, who put their own 'house' brand on the labels.

Some of the pictures I see online show a tag on the front of the base casting, under the table.

Click to expand...

I agree; if it's a copy, it's a good one!

I've always known that DiAcro is a top brand; but without some sort of ID (it never had a tag on it, and no numbers at all, on the castings), I just went by what the seller told me.

I didn't want to advertise it as the "real thing" if there is a chance that it isn't.

Thank you!

trevj said:

Sure looks like the real deal. If its a copy, they done good! DiAcro, over the years may well have supplied to places like Sears or others, who put their own 'house' brand on the labels.

Some of the pictures I see online show a tag on the front of the base casting, under the table.

Click to expand...

did Sears ever sell a guillotine shear?

if it has no sign of a tag (rivet holes), and that is the original color, I'd say not a Di Acro. possibly a Taiwan copy from the '80s?

Di Acro went from a medium brown to a pea green and yellowish cream color (or visa-versa) then to a blue and yellow scheme. well that and my oldest Di Acro, (a #1), has remnants of a dark grey on it. really like the green and cream myself. im sure someone here knows the chronology of this in more detail.

why wouldn't you take the sellers word for it that it's not one?

cyanidekid said:

did Sears ever sell a guillotine shear?

if it has no sign of a tag (rivet holes), and that is the original color, I'd say not a Di Acro. possibly a Taiwan copy from the '80s?

Di Acro went from a medium brown to a pea green and yellowish cream color (or visa-versa) then to a blue and yellow scheme. well that and my oldest Di Acro, (a #1), has remnants of a dark grey on it. really like the green and cream myself. im sure someone here knows the chronology of this in more detail.

why wouldn't you take the sellers word for it that it's not one?

Click to expand...

I did take his word for it; I'd always figured that it wasn't a DiAcro.
But I've had a couple potential buyers who were not able to travel to my location and pick it up, but tell me that it's definitely a DiAcro #3.
So I thought I would gather more opinions from the members here. As you mentioned; perhaps someone here knows the chronology in detail.

cyanidekid said:

did Sears ever sell a guillotine shear?

if it has no sign of a tag (rivet holes), and that is the original color, I'd say not a Di Acro. possibly a Taiwan copy from the '80s?

Di Acro went from a medium brown to a pea green and yellowish cream color (or visa-versa) then to a blue and yellow scheme. well that and my oldest Di Acro, (a #1), has remnants of a dark grey on it. really like the green and cream myself. im sure someone here knows the chronology of this in more detail.

why wouldn't you take the sellers word for it that it's not one?

Click to expand...

Dunno about Sears, just pulled that up as an example of an outfit that sold a LOT of different manufacturers goods with their own name on them.
I have a very nice Acklands branded Miller Welder, replete with Orange paint and no sign of Miller's involvement, unless you know. As another example.
Same with outfits like Red-D-Arc, a welder Rental Co., that had their own livery applied to many on and off shore brand machines.

Anyways, I would say that it is like to have about as much value, being a good working used tool, as the real thing, it has worked for you for the last 30 odd years.

As to the sellers word, I guess that depends on whether you are certain the seller even knew. Or was he just playing safe 'in case', too? Or he had a Sea Can full of them out back of his shop, still smelling like Downtown Taiwan!

Short of getting it side by side with a known real one and comparing all the parts, about all you can safely say is "I don't know". Even with a straight comparison, the best you'd be able to say for sure is that all the parts do or do not match, I suppose.

If I were looking for one, and it popped up on my radar, I sure wouldn't get too obsessed with whether it was real or a copy.

I doubt it would make any difference in use, but are somethings that are different from this one to my Diacro. Whatever generation mine is.

L7