On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 05:14:52PM -0400, [email protected] wrote:
>
> Last year I bought five Chinese 1/2" angle grinders on sale from
> Harbor Freight for $15 each. I bought so many because I expected them to
> fail soon but a well-made Western tool can cost ten times the Chinese
> units. I like to have several grinders with different wheels so I don't
> have to keep changing wheels. It turned out the only failure mode so far
> has been that the switch failed or a wire broke in the power cord near the
> motor. I ended up bypassing the switch and installing a cord switch on the
> power cord. In the process I discovered that the wires often broke easily
> inside the insulation so I know I will have to buy some new non-Chinese
> power cords.
[laugh] Wouldn't you know it - I had the same experience, with minor
variations. My angle grinders from HF cost me $17 apiece; I bought 3
because I was thinking of them as "disposable Chinese crap". They failed
in exactly the way Norm described - switch (which, interestingly enough,
is designed in such a way that it can be repaired) and power cord
breakage (all in the same spot, about 6" away from the tool, in all
three grinders.) Once I fixed that, though, these tools have kept
going... and going... and going... (the Energizer bunny keeled over from
exhaustion a couple of hundred miles back) and going... :)
In fact, I'd previously burned out a Makita grinder motor and had the
gears fail on a Milwaukee grinder; I bought these three because I had a
relatively large welding project to do. They've seen a huge amount of
service since then, and are still in use (I live on a steel boat, and am
doing a lot of work on it these days.) In fact, they've turned out to be
the most cost-effective power tools I've ever bought. I've gone back to
HF and bought another one of their "Chicago Electric" tools (a big
electric drill) on the strength of that experience. Overall, these tools
are noisier and more crude than their Western counterparts... but
amazingly enough actually have enough "oomph" to keep going - which is
usually _not_ the case with cheap Chinese tools.
> I have powers tools from Western manufactures with cords that
> have lasted for many years so it is my view that the Chinese copper is in
> some way defective.
Actually, once I've repaired each one of these, they've stood up to some
very rough usage without any further problems. I have to wonder - since
all the failures were in pretty much the same spot - whether it was some
sort of a manufacturing defect (i.e., the cables somehow got crimped
there?)
> My point is that it appears that some copper wires are
> more equal than others (sorry - I couldn't help myself!).
OH MY GAWD! HOW COULD YOU SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT!!! You *pig!* :)))
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