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Re: [Shop-talk] (no subject)

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Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] (no subject)
From: John Miller <jem@milleredp.com>
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:42:15 -0700
> buy Milwaukee electric, Starrett gauges, Simpsom meters, Wilton vices, etc. 
> You will never regret it.

Y'know, I more or less believe in that theory myself, but...

I've got a couple $9 Shenzhen Tool And Dog Collar Works (1998) Ltd. 
angle grinders from Harbor Freight.  They're nearly ten years old, one 
of 'em is rather noisy now, but they both work and they've done a full 
measure of work in that decade.   I just bought two more and I hope 
they'll do as well.

I've got a reasonable suite of Milwaukee Sawzalls, drills, etc. I've 
done a lot of work with both the corded Super Sawzall and the battery 
Sawzall and the well-beaten-on 14v drill I got off eBay for $25.  I'd 
love to buy more of their stuff but I just flipped over the box on a 
tool I was thinking of buying the other day, their stuff is Chinese now 
too.  The price of getting on the shelves at Home Depot?

My father had a set of manual Ridgid pipe-threading tools, I used them a 
couple times back in my teens, worked very well indeed.  I wish I knew 
where they went, I could have used them.  I think Ridgid's pipe tools 
are still good stuff.  But, like Husky and others, they've whored out 
their name to Home Depot for a whole lot of Chinese-made stuff of so-so 
quality.

HF is a crapshoot.  Some of their stuff is quite usable, some of it is 
utter crap.  I've got a few of their hand tools in my 
junkyard-scrounging tool set, and they're barely good enough for that. 
But I've got one of their abrasive cutoff saws - it's a piece of crap, 
but given just a bit of care it'll cut a square end, and with it I've 
built the vanity counter support frames and the range-hood support 
bracketry for our house, the frames for our outdoor kitchen peninsulas, 
the rotisserie on which I hung my '65 Mustang convertible and all the 
chassis reinforcement that went into that car, the end pieces to hang a 
friend's '66 Falcon on that rotisserie, and a bunch of other oddments. 
  Would I buy it again?  Probably not, I'd spend the money to get 
something with a more solid baseplate.  But I've more than gotten my $89 
or whatever out of it.

> Buy tools that you enjoy using. Tonight I needed to pull out my 30 year-old 
> Simpson 260 meter for some measurements -- what a joy to use this precision 
> instrument.

I generally agree with the sentiment, though my even-older hand-me-down 
Triplett and Simpson meters are shelved in favor of a couple nice 
modern-enough Waveteks I've gotten off eBay.

John.
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