This company was established in 1979 to manufacture and sell a product acquired from Rockwell International: the Porta-Nailer, a product used to install for wood flooring. In 1981 they introduced the Porta-Trimmer, a cast-aluminum universal trimmer. Shortly afterwards the company was purchased by Jerry Coleman, the company name was changed to Porta-Nails, Inc., and the unsuccessful Porta-Trimmer was discontinued.

Porta-Nails continues to manufacture flooring nailers, plus several other nailing and woodworking tools.

Information Sources

• Thanks to Jeff McVey for bringing this maker to our attention. Jeff learned of it through an eBay listing.
• A Barry Larson posting to the OWWM list theorizes a connection to Porta-Nails, Inc. of Wilmington, NC. Jeff McVey followed up. In his words, "I called them and asked for info on the Porta-Trimmer. A few hours later, I was called by the company owner, Jerry Coleman. He told me he bought the company (and changed the name) a few years after the Porta-Trimmer was introduced and marketed around 1981. He said somewhere between 1000 and 1500 were manufactured, based on the advice of one of their nailer distributors. It didn't work out, and the Porta-Trimmer (which sold for more than a Lion Trimmer) was discontinued."
• The Porta-Nail web site's history page provides some of the history given here, although it does not mention the Porta-Tools name or the unversal trimmer.