I went out to the garage tonight, mostly just to get away from stuff inside the house. You know, a change of scenery. First I had to go to the backyard and get some sort of chair to sit on while I was in the garage. Mostly I dink with things while standing, but every now and again something comes along that to properly dink with, you must be seated. All that was out there were a couple of stackable plastic "lawn" chairs. I think they are called that because they're some sort of dark green color that some Chinaman thinks matches the average American lawn. It doesn't.
The rest of the Chinese patio furniture is still waiting to be screwed back together before it can be arranged on my Chinese plastic/glue "Trec-deck." I'm probably missing the hardware required to put it back together by now, but I'm sure there will be some sort of Indian made bolts that will fit and that I can snap the heads off, using my below average American arm strength, while trying to tighten them.
So, I took the chair to the garage and started cleaning the top of my work bench. I never know just how so much stuff winds up on it, I'm pretty good at putting things away. I suspect there is a neighbor who is secretly jealous of my very neat bench and he comes by late at night and messes it up for me. No other explanation fits the facts.
The very first thing that happened was a package containing two coat hooks and two screws fell apart. Now I hope you understand that this package, found in an American branded hardware store and with the American brand name "Stanley" written in large yellow letters on in, cost me $2.93. It must have been that much because the two coat hooks were made of poured pot metal and couldn't have been worth more than a nickle. The price on the package said $2.98. You figure it out. It should not have flown apart and caused me to search the garage floor for more than three minutes before I found the screws to put back in the package so I could tape it back together.
The masking tape I needed was right where it should have been. The neighbor hasn't messed up that area just yet, but I'm watching VERY closely. If you're over fifty years of age I'll bet you remember when a roll of masking tape could still be used after living on a well used work bench for several years. I can remember it, and it was never a big deal. Just pick up the tape, unwind however much was needed, tear it off and apply. Worked every time.
Tape in hand, I sat down in the plastic chair to tape the package back together and the sorry thing just wimped out on me. Really, the chair just sort of folded under my weight and cracked along the top. Now, it's just another piece of garbage to be tossed into the Chinese landfill that America is becoming. So, I stood up to apply the tape.
Remember the tape of yore I just mentioned? Well, even though the roll of tape in my hand had 3M written all over it, this roll was not the equal of those of yesteryear. A close inspection showed several other languages were used on the core upon which it was wrapped. That's kinda suspicious, don't ya think? A product marked with the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. logo should come from Minnesota and have any writing on it in English, shouldn't it? My aged eyes could not make out just what the writing said, it was pretty small, but I'm thinking it said "Hecho en Mexico" or some such. I tried several times to unwind a usable length of it but I could never get more than an inch or so off the reel before one or the other edge would stick and the tape would break. After a while I gave up.
The chair, the package, the screws and the tape are in the garbage can and the hooks are hanging on a nail I drove into the wall. The top of the workbench in no way reflects the forty-five minutes I spent cleaning up. It's still a mess.
Can we please start making decent stuff in this country again? Please? I'm just tired of cheap crap.
Forrest, I tend to think that if and when nobody can get much credit anymore, money will be so hard-won and hard-saved that they won't spend it on anything except best quality -- which costs more in the short run, but is a lot cheaper in the long run.
ReplyDeleteAs for making it in the states, I've gathered that all the Chinese are particularly good at is cheap and simple. If they have to do complicated, not much advantage over doing it at home. And of course they're poisoning their own country by putting few or no environmental or health regs on business -- that mean anything.
In the end, I think it's coming back here. I hope so, anyway.
Gosh, Boomer, I hope you're right. I don't know if younger folks remember how it used to be when things worked, but I do. I yearn for those days. Two fifty dollar, broken almost-wigets are not as valuable as one seventy-five dollar real wiget. It is SO much more than merely tiring when everything breaks.
ReplyDeleteWell, FWIW, We and our government have brought this plague home. We always buy the cheapest, which is always foreign made. I'm as guilty as anyone else. The government has legislated businesses out of this country. Not by a single law, but my such a huge pile of laws that it makes it either inordinately expensive or impossible to manufacture. So much for the once great manufacturing giant called USA. It's now owned and made in China.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of made in China. I did just what I'm ranting about a few weeks ago. I had lost the 1/4" collet for my die grinder. No problem, it was a cheap Harbor Freight die grinder 15 years ago, is one of the best I've ever used, and is still stocked. I'll just buy another. While I'm at it, I'll order a new 100' air hose for the big hangar. I got the stuff. I put the air hose on the compressor and plugged in the die grinder. The shaft was so far out of round that I could hardly hold onto the die grinder.. and it was exhausting a stream of water!!! What? I never get water from my compressors. Within 15 minutes, I looked at the air hose and noticed a long stream of herniated bubbles on the hose, which then started popping and hissing. Apparently the Chinese manufacturer checked for leaks with water, then capped the hose and shipped it. This was rated for 200 psi working pressure and 800 psi burst. That was apparently meaningless as it blew out in multiple places at 125 psi. So, ratings are nothing more than a stamp, but bear no real meaning. But who was really at fault for this? Me. I should have paid twice the price for quality stuff, or three times the price for US built quality. I replaced the hose. The new one says Good Year, which probably means it was made in Mexico.
Oh yes. 3 years ago I bought a stock masking tape from a paint company called TCP global located in California for all the car paint work I had planned at the time. I'll have to look at a roll to where it was manufactured, but I was using it yesterday to mask off my new engine in preparation for painting. The stuff still works like it's new. So the good stuff is still out there.
ReplyDeleteHey, Jeff. Can ya put the new collet on the old grinder? And, I just checked out TCP. All I can say is "Of Course! A place that carries auto bodywork supplies will have the best tape!" Thanks for the info, they're on my favorites list. If you do look at your roll, try to find a model # so I can order. I need a new roll - the last one I had was picked up by todays garbage truck.
ReplyDeleteGreen masking tape made by 3M. Manufactured in Canada.
ReplyDeleteI swapped the crappy die grinder for another just like it. If it's crap too, I'll keep the collet and throw away the die grinder. For now, I just put the new collet with my old die grinder.
ReplyDelete