What's In a Tool? a Case For Made In the USA (hackaday.com)

szczys writes: You have the choice of buying a wrench made in the USA and one made in China. Which one should you buy? The question is not a straightforward one. Tools are judged by their ability to do the job repeatedly and without fail. To achieve this, only the best of design and manufacturing will do. But this is a high bar when you factor in price competition which often leads to outsourcing production. Gerrit Coetzee looks at this issue, comparing two instances of the same model of Crescent brand adjustable wrench; one a legacy manufactured in the USA, another outsourced for manufacture in China.

Comments

Judgement

[jbmartin6]

"Tools are judged by their ability to do the job repeatedly and without fail" Not necessarily. I might just need it once, or for very light use. It is often true that you get what you pay for, but this doesn't mean you should pay for more than what you need.

Re:Judgement

[slinches]

True, except that fraction is likely in the range of 6/2 to 15/3.

Re:Judgement

[MBGMorden]

Rarely is hiring a professional going to be cheaper than a cheap tool if you can do the job yourself.

Personally, I COMPLETELY understand the point of the article. There are certain tools I use a lot. For those, I avoid crap and try to buy Made in the USA stuff if I can help it (not that everything made here is good or everything made in China is bad - but the signal to noise ratio is definitely better if you buy domestically made stuff).

On the flip side though - there are other things that I expect to use once or infrequently. As a DIRECT comparison to your example - I needed to fit a recoil pad to an old gunstock a few years back. Cost to have a gunsmith do it: $35. I had full faith in my ability to do the job - I just needed a belt sander (which I've never needed before so I didn't have one). I not only bought a cheap Chinese made one - I bought a USED Chinese one from a pawn shop for $10. Job went perfectly without a hitch. Not only did I save a bit of cash, but I also now have a belt sander sitting in the garage if I happen to need one again. Now if I used one daily , I'd get something a lot better. It'd be worth it as I'm sure this unit wouldn't last too long with constant use. But for just the one time I needed it for? The cheap unit worked fine.

Re:Crescent won't learn

[Anonymous Coward]

One could easily see this lesson by taking a Craftsman wrench from the 1990s and comparing it with one made today.

Now, one can just go to Harbor Freight, pick up hand tools which are just as good as the Craftsmans (because they likely come off the same forges and on the same boats), but a lot cheaper. For stuff that is infrequently used, this is fine. Same with HF's power tools. I've seen their stuff with a different color and a name brand... same cheap, Chinese construction... but 2-5 times the price. So, might as well skip the "badge engineering" and go there.

Of course, if you want stuff that is worth anything, especially powered items, you will be paying more, but it actually will work.

What is funny is there is room in the tool market. All it would take is for a tool company to make decent tools (not whatever the Chinese factories can make), but something designed in the US, and well made (the 1990s Craftsman tools are a good example.) Then, sell those at mom and pop shops or whatever stores don't mind carrying them. Now, people will have a choice between cheap Chinese junk, rebranded Chinese junk, and overpriced (but well made) US made tools. This is what Craftsman should be, but since Sears surrendered to K-Mart, it will need to be a specialty company.

Maybe if Park Tool decides to get their head out of their ass, move tool making back to the US, and expand out of the bicycle market, that would be the ideal thing. Their stuff has been quite decent, but it would make them actually stand out if they went back to pre-millenium tool making.

also a case for "Design in China"

[dfn5]

There are lots of Chinese tools that are the best in the world.

I’ve worked as an engineer in industry. The one common thread between a quality product and a bad product has always been this, ”Is the person who designed the product involved in making the product?”

This is not an argument for "Made in the USA". This is an argument for the design and manufacture should be in the same place. Therefore, this also makes the case for "Don't just export the manufacturing phase. Also export the designing phase."

Re:Crescent won't learn

[Anonymous Coward]

It's problematic to do comparisons with older objects. The ones that lasted were the good ones. The ones with manufacturing defects have been replaced long ago.

Re:Crescent won't learn

[drinkypoo]

Some HF tools are fantastic, though they are few. Some are total garbage; surprisingly, they are few. Some require modification before use, which supposedly notably includes their machine tools which have rough edges and the like. No self-respecting machinist would let anything like that out the door, but no self-respecting machinist was involved in their manufacture.

What actually is great, though, are most of their hand tools. The wrenches, socket wrenches and so on are every bit as good as Craftman ever was, if not better — I am a vintage tool aficionado, so I do actually have basis for comparison. Their torque wrenches are not pleasant to the hand, but they are consistent and durable and practically free compared to the big names, which aren't actually any more precise.

The stuff that gets used up, like drill bits and grinding stones, are actually better purchased somewhere else, because those actually are crap.

The only hammers I've bought at HF have been rubber mallet and plastic dead blow, which have been of very high quality for their price. All my other hammers are vintage, acquired at yard sales and the like. I live in rusty crusty old boy country, so there's lots of tools around. I only have to buy stuff online if I need something metric.