Yep, and there's a gigantic range of products, processes, source material/base stock etc at your disposal that can be made in those factories. Just because two different things were outsourced to China doesn't make them equal, not even being made in the same factory makes them equal.Originally Posted by LittleLebowski
Between my $25 set of combination wrenches from H-F and spending $200+ on a similar set with blue-point branding, the clear value-to-dollar winner is the H-F in my mind.
But tools are not alone in the way Chinese manufacturing has changed the whole landscape. The automotive aftermarket has been totally up-ended in the past ten years by Chinese reproductions of more prestigious parts made in Japan or the US.
It's gotten to the point where many of those same Japanese and US names have outsourced production of some parts to Chinese factories - sometimes the same factories that were making no-name eBay copies of their parts.
This is particularly prevalent with alloy wheels, coilover suspension kits, exhaust system parts, intake filter kits, even complete turbo kits with intercoolers and wastegates. The quality ranges from surprisingly decent to absolute hot garbage. Generally the simpler no-moving-parts sorts of items work best. Headers exhaust systems, etc all tend to work decently well but the fitment is suspect and the welds can be really sloppy. Don't expect stacked dimes and clean backpurging on a $150 set of headers. More complicated parts like coilovers, turbochargers, etc - tend to have high failure rates or lots of other issues.
Chinese manufacturing has done the same thing to outdoor wear, cameras, personal electronics, car stereos, etc.
The firearms industry is actually one of the few that hasn't been so deeply affected, really. We get all the tacticool furniture and cheap red dots, but the only reason we're not seeing Chinese copies of Winchester Model 70's or Glocks or AR's is due to the import ban.
My last Nikon lens was ‘Made in China’.
My rules.
Never buy online, only in person, so you can inspect the items.
Don't buy anything that needs to be precise for its purpose (from measuring instruments to sockets and wrenches), be sharp and cut something (saws or abrasives), or has more than minimal moving parts.
If you have to assemble it, plan to buy all new threaded fasteners from a real hardware store.
They're usually fine if just being made of a lot of steel or aluminum is good enough.
If it looks crappy, being cheap isn't enough reason to choose it, unless it's in the qty-per-dollar price range.
Never buy without at least a 20 percent off coupon.
Last edited by OlongJohnson; 07-23-2018 at 08:03 PM.
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Not another dime.
Not to continue postwhoring or pile on the love fest on the Predator inverter generators, but I just got an email blast with"Super Coupons" for the 2000W and 3500W models. $449.99 and $699.99 respectively. Happy hunting.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur."
Disclaimer: I have previously worked in the firearms industry as an engineer. Thoughts and opinions expressed here are mine alone and not those of my prior employers.
As much as I hate copy cat intellectual property mofos HF can be an availability ace in the hole.
I think twice about high stress stuff like hydraulic presses, extended ratchets and such that can hurt a person. Some of their stuff has gotten worse, not better.
Sometimes there are decent Taiwan-origin options worth the slightly higher price and f-you China-direct.
For auto hand tools there's a lot of used Williams, Proto, Super-Krome, etc. from 3rd party resellers.
+1 on the Xcelite puke/soap smell, that cracked me up.
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