POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?

[mksj]

With the Kohler faucet it is both a factor of shipping abuse as well as disappointing quality when you start looking at everything. On the surface the faucet looks very nice, but everything on it is minimalistic from a build perspective. They indicate that the faucet is vibrant stainless, but that is just the outer shell. Price wise these run around $240 at HD, so neither cheap nor expensive. I did speak to the seller, and he said he had shipped 50+ units previously w/o any shipping issues and also mentioned that the big box stores ship the same way w/o any additional packing. So a combination of both a material strength and handling issue. I did get a refund from the seller, he did not ask to return the item as it clearly was no longer usable. I was going to toss it but gave it some thought as to how to repair it and a minimal investment to see if I could repair it. If I didn't have the materials on hand and the tap, it would not have been worth repairing and probably just bought another one. It is for my garage sink, so good enough.

As other's have mentioned there are different build levels depending on how much you want to spend, I previously installed a Grohe Kitchen sink faucet ($$) and it was all solid stainless and built very well, but the cartridge and spray head would wear out every couple of years, the replacement parts were expensive. My general view on so many things that you buy today is that they may look nice, but they do not have the durability of products built decades ago. We have become a society where many things wear out or break quickly, and just thrown out as opposed to repairable. Costs continue to rise, and manufactures are squeezing the maximum profit they can out of everything down to a fine point. Capitalism.

 

[Larry$]

Costs continue to rise, and manufactures are squeezing the maximum profit they can out of everything down to a fine point. Capitalism.

China!

 

[savarin]

All modern manufacturing irrespective of country utilize planned obsolescence in their designs as a means of maximizing profits.
The creed of greed is alive and well and thriving everywhere.

 

[mmcmdl]

All modern manufacturing irrespective of country utilize planned obsolescence in their designs as a means of maximizing profits.
The creed of greed is alive and well and thriving everywhere.

So no one could see this coming ? Horible Freight with low ball prices and tools that fail , and we buy them because they're cheap . Drive the American companies out of business and then double and triple the prices .Some people just don't understand . I'll stick by my old time USA made tools . YMMV . FOSS .

 

[woodchucker]

Started working on the arbor press the other day.
When my septic tank had a root problem, this got doused with water. It started rusting and just needed a cleanup and now was the time.
I filled some ugly casting area with what I used to call red lead, but you may know it as glazing compound. I didn't have any bondo.
Then after sanding I primed it with clean metal primer since I got all the rust off with a wire wheel. Hand priming it with a cheap chip brush.. (they suck for painting). Next onto gray, and a small brush (artist brush for oil painting). The white is not as nice to coat as the heavy rust brown primer. The brown sucks the paint in, the white is not attaching as well and is going to require another coat or 2.

 

[savarin]

So no one could see this coming ? Horible Freight with low ball prices and tools that fail , and we buy them because they're cheap . Drive the American companies out of business and then double and triple the prices .Some people just don't understand . I'll stick by my old time USA made tools . YMMV . FOSS .

True story. Some years ago my sister owned a publishing company, she outsourced all her printing to China because it was so much cheaper.
Then Chinese workers wanted more than a bowel of rice for their wages so prices went up. After a while the difference in pricing for printing was not much different to what she originally paid in the UK so she looked around for a local company.
Surprise surprise, there wernt any, they had all gone out of business when companies outsourced.
So I said I bet your looking at India now to which she admitted she was.
My answer was give it three years and you will be back where you started.
She no longer has a printing company now.
On another note no matter what period of history we look at the price of everything is higher at the end of that period not lower. Prices NEVER go backwards to expect that to happen is like looking for fairies at the bottom of the garden.

 

[mmcmdl]

On another note no matter what period of history we look at the price of everything is higher at the end of that period not lower. Prices NEVER go backwards to expect that to happen is like looking for fairies at the bottom of the garden.

Buy once and cry once . Half the threads on our site relate to this . As a machinist/toolmaker/ mechanic who earned a living doing the trade , there wasn't a choice . I'm aware that harry homeowners ( my son and DIL ) don't need these . I'll to this day buy up any nice sets of USA made tools . And I did work for the company who started the the out sourcing . Danaher . They treated me well but I hated to see what they did . I do understand that many if not most people won't shell out the bucks for the tools . Similar to inserts , taps , drills , etc . If you're not making a living using using these , you're not willing to spend the bucks . You can buy a used Starrett , or you buy a Yuang whatever for the same price now . Its whatever floats your boat . It does look better when walking thru the door of a new employer with some quality tools that didnt come from HF or KMart .

 

[GrifterGuru]

@mmcdl

I agree with the "buy once,cry once" mentality, though that does come from the "buy cheap, buy repeatedly" advice I was given many years ago and it has proven true enough where I have seen others buy cheap tool after cheap tool constantly replacing broken/damaged stuff to the point they could have just purchased decent quality for what they ended up paying out.

I have always sought out the best I could afford to buy and, if I have ever been in the position to do so, replaced it with the best quality replacement available. So far, that has worked well.

The consideration I make is "do I need this for just one job, or will I use it again"? If it is for one job, I will buy cheap and get rid afterwards. If I find that the tool is handy and I will use it often, I ditch the cheapo tool and buy the best quality available, within reason.

I don't need "professional" grade/quality/level tools for hobby use, but I do like a quality tool that will last and that does often mean pro-grade quality or going with an industry standard tool (Mitutoyo for certain metrology tools as an example).

 

[SouthernChap]

Like all rules, "Buy once, cry once" is an appropriate one, but only in context. The simplicity of that rule hides an awful lot of nuance.

It's a generally good principle to have as a default in any domain but in hobby machining there's another rule that trumps it: "Don't make perfect, the enemy of good" (and in some cases, you can even add the word "enough" to that imperative).

In some cases, a poorly manufactured or QC'd casting propagates out to the rest of the machine and effectively makes the whole machine a bad deal, however cheap. In others though, it doesn't matter.

How many of us have machine tools that were made in Taiwan in the 80's or 90's, where the castings leave something to be desired but are still very functional machines that are enjoyable and capable in use?

There's also an ideological/ethnic stereotype element to some people's objection to cheaper imports (these days generally Chinese, although I bet in the 80's there were people railing against Taiwanese products) that can muddy the waters too (just to be crystal clear, I'm definitely not suggesting anyone in this current back and forth has that bias, by the way).

@mmcmdl 's principle of buying used, reputable brand products wherever possible, is a good one, but for 'consumables', that can often be tricksy (although part used boxes of inserts, for example, can be a good deal), and sometimes it's good to supplement that principle with @GrifterGuru 's "where appropriate, buy cheap, replace once with good when necessary"

The one thing that I've found that you definitely don't want to buy cheap "brands" for (from personal and soul-destroying experience) are taps.

 

[Gnpenning]

To continue beat this poor horse, there are more options than just top of the line pro grade and junk. There are many options between in todays world. The buy once, cry once can include quality mid range items. Choose wisely according to your needs.

I remember into/through the 80s Japanese products were considered junk.

Ego and elitism should be left out of these type of discussions. Many on here are hobbyist on limited budgets, and would never get the value out of a high dollar item, nor should be expected to. This would limit what and how they could complete a project or even try.