yeah I have to disagree with mountain on this one. good tools make all the difference.
there are so many examples I don t know where to begin.
I have worked with the tools of almost every trade.
good tools save time and in the long run money. they are safer to use. sometimes it is impossible to do a good job with inferior tools.
you get what you pay for
i miss my fluke multi meter. it was stolen many years ago and i m still too stubborn to replace it.
for some reason when i have something stolen i am loathe to buy anotherā¦, weird i know
i ll disagree with missileman too, a good cook can make something tasty with crap ingredients its true.
but good ingredients can make anyone a better cook.
oh come on, we survived without china before we can do it again.
its all a shell game. do you really think its more efficient to send things across the pacific?
@wesw ā¦ I have a brother-in-law that can take the most expensive steak and turn it into charcoal. Good ingredients may have the potential to make someone a better cookā¦but not everyoneā¦no way, no how.
thatās true.
my better half has finally learned to cook a good steak, after 14 years.
maybe one day she ll master eggs!
bless her heartā¦
its bad news for the animals tho. they never seemed to mind her cooking. now that she doesn t ruin much they aren t eating as well.
@Triedaqā
Speaking of fluke meters . . .
I have a Fluke 88, the automotive meter
Anyways, it was one of the best investments I ever made. A couple of times, it needed to be recalibrated, because it was no longer accurate. I contacted fluke, they gave some kind of an authorization number, and I sent the tool to them. Each time, they sent it back, with a recalibration certificate. No charge.
I doubt youād get that kind of service and support with a cheap meter
thereās 2 ways to look at the situation
The meter is inferior, because it needed to be recalibrated a few times
The company is proud of their product, and is willing to stand behind it indefinitely
I choose the second
I like Snap-On sockets because they grab the flat of the fastener not the corners. Snap-On screw drivers fit the philips screw heads and donāt strip it out. The ratcheting screwdriver I use every day for the last 20 years. It holds more bits in the handle than any other brand. The top is a 1/4 twist to remove. Its does not unscrew like all the other brands. I hate unsrcewing a screw and the top of the screw driver comes off in my palm.
I have to agree several others here on using good tools. As an organist/pianist and piano tuner, i find that good tools can make a lot of difference. The church where I play has an off-brand, Chinese digital piano, and it sounds awful! If Van Cliburn came back to life and played on it, it would still sound awful! When I take my Roland pro stage piano to the church the difference is quite obvious. Professionals pay money for good tools for a reason. I am one of the best piano tuners in the business and I can assure you that it is literally impossible to do a good tuning with a cheap āgooseneckā piano tuning lever that some music stores sell. I laugh when I see someone buying one of these and wish I could be a fly on the wall when they attempt tuning their own piano.
yep. my grandmothers old Yamaha guitar has a rich sound that many guitars don t
A local guy who passed a few years ago at 105 years of age was still tuning pianos while in his 90s and he was totally blind most of his life.
For those who want to peruse an interesting short story about the gentleman. Talk about an earā¦
@db4690āIf I did a lot of electronic work, I would appreciate having a Fluke voltmeter. For most of my life, I have had to do a cost/benefit analysis to decide whether an expensive tool is worth the cost or whether it is ultimately cheaper to find a good technician and let the technician do the job. I did buy a used EICO vacuum tube volt meter and I ran down a lot of problems in radios and television sets with this VTVM. A Fluke voltmeter would be a waste of money for me today. The problem I had with my flat screen television(fortunately under warranty), the technician came, changed a circuit board in 10 minutes that took care of the problem with the set, then played with my dog for half an hour. I donāt do any repairs on my vehicles any more, but the old Husky 3/8 drive socket set is sufficient for making repairs to my lawn mower. I appreciate well made tools, but at my age, I canāt justify spending the money.
I like your avatar, any chance you know the guy who owns this theater pipe organ:
@Triedaq, those Husky tools are pretty good ones. Iāve got some Husky tools, including a 1/2" drive ratchet have been with me most of my adult life. Theyāve been as good a quality as anything Iāve ever owned.
@wesw, in some cases, the Chinese make excellent products. One that comes to mind are Lenovo computers. The IBM Thinkpad was build in China for quite a while before IBMs assets were sold to Lenovo. Lenovo, of course, still builds the a Thinkpad and many other computers in China, Japan, and Argentina. They do hav a headquarters and research center in North Carolina, though.
Along the same lines, a recent-issue of a magazine about classic collectible cars (forget the title) has an interview w/Jay Leno about his classic car collection. He complains vividly there that whenever his shop techs need to get something made to fix one of his old cars, like a casting or something, they canāt find anyone in the USA who can do it anymore. They usually have to outsource the job to a different country now.
ā¦and therein lies the problem George. we are no longer independent
Like Triedac my first socket set was a 3/8 drive Husky, mine is 54 years old and I broke the ratchet and some sockets doing things that I should have had a 1/2 in socket set for. A head gasket on a 61 Dodge 318 comes to mind.
Most of my other sockets are Craftsman and I thought they hit the sweet spot for price and quality. If I made my living with them I would have bought Snap On, Proto. or Matco
Most of my Craftsman tools were made by Vulcan tools or Washington Forge. I will not pay Craftsman prices for Chinese made tools. If I want Chinese made tools, I donāt care what name is on them.
Now when I need to replace any of my hand tools I buy old American made ones at car showflea markets. They are dirt cheap and good quality.
yeah Lenovo may be good but Chinese tools are inferior and dangerous