The End is Starting In California

On Tuesday, February 14, 2017 at 5:29:45 PM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 2/14/2017 6:36 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Tue, 14 Feb 2017 16:22:32 +0700, John B.
wrote:

On Mon, 13 Feb 2017 21:12:29 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
This might be useful to see who really owns the tool brand:
http://toolguyd.com/tool-brands-corporate-affiliations/

I've had very good service from Bosch power tools (made in Malaysia).
I used to be sold on Black & Decker but with the newer generation of
"plastic Junk" their quality seems to have hit rock bottom.

I agree. Old Bosch tools are quite good. I have an older Bosch
reciprocating saw that I've used for demolition. If I bought my tools
by the pound, it would be the heavy weight champion. That's a big
plus if you want something to last.

The Bosch are also "plastic junk" but of a higher quality than B&D :-)

I had a cheap 12V NiMh cordless drill by B&D. After about 10 hrs of
light use, it belched a cloud of smoke and quit. I took it apart,
shook my head in disgust, and didn't even bother fixing it.

But none of the hand held stuff really stands up to constant use.

Agreed. A while back, I was watching a small army of carpenters doing
the framing on a new house. I noticed that everyone had a brand new
Milwaukee worm gear drive saws. I mentioned this to one of them who
replied "We have to buy new saws for every job because by the time
we're done, they're worn out".

I
remember we had a gas pipe ling where the customer required 100% X-ray
welds and the six welding crews each had two 6" and several 4" angle
grinders. With a 12/7 work schedule we had a constant stream of
grinders being repaired and they were top of the line aluminum frame B
& D "professional" tools. Admittedly though that was with almost
constant use :-)

Yep. Mind if I show off a little?
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/repair/B&D%207951%207in%20sander/
That's a Black and Decker Series 1 model 7951 angle sander/grinder. My
guess(tm) is late 1950's. The housing is aluminum and is quite heavy.
Everything about it is heavy duty. A friend asked me to fix it for
him. It was his fathers and he wanted it working no matter how much
of my time it consumed.

The switch had somehow broken. Upon inspection, I found that the
Bakelite case was cracked and some of the guts scattered around the
inside. I found all the parts, but they were too thin to glue.
Finding a replacement switch proved impossible. So, I cut a
reinforcing plate form 0.015(?)in steel, bent it around the broken
part of the switch, and epoxied it together. The difficult part was
keeping the epoxy away from the switch contacts:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/repair/B&D%207951%207in%20sander/B&D%207951%20switch%20glued.jpg
That's the switch with two nuts acting as shims so the glue clamp
would work, and a ty-wrap to keep the return spring in place. The
next day, it worked quite nicely.

It turned out that the reason the switch had broken was that it was
supported by two 1/4" rubber O-ring sections under the switch. One
had fallen out of place, causing the trigger to depress unevenly and
off center, eventually breaking the switch.

I've got an old (1960s?) Craftsman circular saw, also all metal, also
with a bad switch. Decades ago the switch went very bad. I don't recall
the details, but even though I've done repairs very similar to what you
describe, I couldn't fix this one. And of course, Sears no longer had a
replacement switch.

The only similar sized switch I could locate that had sufficient current
capacity was an industrial microswitch. I found a way to mount it in
place of the original. It's worked for all those years since, but it's
a little unnerving to have a circular saw with a hair trigger.

Yikes. I have to rip a bunch of 4X8 plywood for my utility trailer (it rots out every decade or two), and it always takes a couple of trigger-pulls before I'm comfortable cutting with my manly, super-powerful circular saw. After I get comfortable with the saw, I'll use it to pick my teeth, comb my hair -- the usual stupid homeowner stuff. Then I'll climb up a wobbly ladder and maybe work on the power drop into the house.

My favorite "back from the dead" story is my 1950s Electrolux vacuum cleaner. It died, and I took it to a local vacuum cleaner store (we have one http://starks.com/vacuum-museum They even have a vacuum cleaner museum), and they told me it was dead; the motor was no longer made, and that they would take it off my hands. I declined. In about two minutes of internet surfing, I found a replacement motor -- still in production -- which cost me probably 20-something bucks. Threw that in, and the thing works like a charm. It's got some FSA stickers on it (from some ill-advised FSA bicycle component purchase), and it looks really fast!

-- Jay Beattie.

On Tue, 14 Feb 2017 20:29:39 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 2/14/2017 6:36 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Tue, 14 Feb 2017 16:22:32 +0700, John B.
wrote:

On Mon, 13 Feb 2017 21:12:29 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
This might be useful to see who really owns the tool brand:
http://toolguyd.com/tool-brands-corporate-affiliations/

I've had very good service from Bosch power tools (made in Malaysia).
I used to be sold on Black & Decker but with the newer generation of
"plastic Junk" their quality seems to have hit rock bottom.

I agree. Old Bosch tools are quite good. I have an older Bosch
reciprocating saw that I've used for demolition. If I bought my tools
by the pound, it would be the heavy weight champion. That's a big
plus if you want something to last.

The Bosch are also "plastic junk" but of a higher quality than B&D :-)

I had a cheap 12V NiMh cordless drill by B&D. After about 10 hrs of
light use, it belched a cloud of smoke and quit. I took it apart,
shook my head in disgust, and didn't even bother fixing it.

But none of the hand held stuff really stands up to constant use.

Agreed. A while back, I was watching a small army of carpenters doing
the framing on a new house. I noticed that everyone had a brand new
Milwaukee worm gear drive saws. I mentioned this to one of them who
replied "We have to buy new saws for every job because by the time
we're done, they're worn out".

I
remember we had a gas pipe ling where the customer required 100% X-ray
welds and the six welding crews each had two 6" and several 4" angle
grinders. With a 12/7 work schedule we had a constant stream of
grinders being repaired and they were top of the line aluminum frame B
& D "professional" tools. Admittedly though that was with almost
constant use :-)

Yep. Mind if I show off a little?
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/repair/B&D%207951%207in%20sander/
That's a Black and Decker Series 1 model 7951 angle sander/grinder. My
guess(tm) is late 1950's. The housing is aluminum and is quite heavy.
Everything about it is heavy duty. A friend asked me to fix it for
him. It was his fathers and he wanted it working no matter how much
of my time it consumed.

The switch had somehow broken. Upon inspection, I found that the
Bakelite case was cracked and some of the guts scattered around the
inside. I found all the parts, but they were too thin to glue.
Finding a replacement switch proved impossible. So, I cut a
reinforcing plate form 0.015(?)in steel, bent it around the broken
part of the switch, and epoxied it together. The difficult part was
keeping the epoxy away from the switch contacts:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/repair/B&D%207951%207in%20sander/B&D%207951%20switch%20glued.jpg
That's the switch with two nuts acting as shims so the glue clamp
would work, and a ty-wrap to keep the return spring in place. The
next day, it worked quite nicely.

It turned out that the reason the switch had broken was that it was
supported by two 1/4" rubber O-ring sections under the switch. One
had fallen out of place, causing the trigger to depress unevenly and
off center, eventually breaking the switch.

I've got an old (1960s?) Craftsman circular saw, also all metal, also
with a bad switch. Decades ago the switch went very bad. I don't recall
the details, but even though I've done repairs very similar to what you
describe, I couldn't fix this one. And of course, Sears no longer had a
replacement switch.

The only similar sized switch I could locate that had sufficient current
capacity was an industrial microswitch. I found a way to mount it in
place of the original. It's worked for all those years since, but it's
a little unnerving to have a circular saw with a hair trigger.

There is a company "E-Switch" https://www.e-switch.com/ that
specializes in replacement switches for hand tools and other purposes.

I came across them in Singapore and assumed that they were a Singapore
company but their web site says that they are actually a U.S. company
with an overseas office in Singapore.
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Tue, 14 Feb 2017 20:29:39 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

I've got an old (1960s?) Craftsman circular saw, also all metal, also
with a bad switch. Decades ago the switch went very bad. I don't recall
the details, but even though I've done repairs very similar to what you
describe, I couldn't fix this one. And of course, Sears no longer had a
replacement switch.

The only similar sized switch I could locate that had sufficient current
capacity was an industrial microswitch. I found a way to mount it in
place of the original. It's worked for all those years since, but it's
a little unnerving to have a circular saw with a hair trigger.

I've had to do switch transplants like that. It's usually because the
owner tried to repair the switch and lost some of the internal parts.
I've done the same thing more times than I prefer to admit. What I do
now is do a Google image search for something close:
https://www.google.com/search?q=trigger+switch&tbm=isch
Or, go to the source:
https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20170214190344& SearchText=power+tool+trigger+switch
It takes a while, but I can usually find something that can be
convinced to fit. I then attach the switch to the handle with hot
melt glue.

I've also substituted a metal plate to cover the switch hole, with a
common momentary push button or toggle switch in place of the trigger.
On one junk drill, I installed a rocker switch that actually fit
perfectly in place of the old switch. Of course, none of these had a
trigger lock or variable speed control.

Jack D. Repair


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

FLYING CARS DEPT

a ryobi combo scrolling jig saw/panel circular saw ... batts

On 2/12/17 7:33 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
So, why do I tolerate this level of crap? Because the alternative
products that might last and be repairable are far more expensive or
simply not available. In some industries (i.e. home appliances) 100%
of everything offered is crap including the high priced luxury
products.

I used to say I'd rather buy $30 shoes that last a year than $200 shoes
that last three years.

Now that I'm traveling, I'd rather buy second-hand clothes (nd other
things) cheaply after I arrive than things I feel I have to pack because
they cost too much to leave behind.

--
Wes Groleau

On 2/12/17 7:19 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
products would cost if they were made in the USA? We have these chain
stores called the "Dollar Store", where everything is priced at US$1.

England has "Poundland" and Spain has "Eurozone"

--
Wes Groleau

On 2/13/17 3:13 AM, John B. wrote:
Who was it that said that "those who refuse to learn from history are
doomed to repeat it"?

Either it was several people or those quoting him/her/them are just
guessing.

--
Wes Groleau

On 2/14/17 5:58 AM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Tue, 14 Feb 2017 07:37:48 +0700, John B.
wrote:

A great deal deleted :-)
That's ok. I really hate reading my own rants.

And I hate scrolling past them for the tenth time to read the latest
five-line addition. Especially since I have to pull them on a limited
cellular data plan.

--
Wes Groleau

On 2/14/17 9:53 AM, John B. wrote:
This is the fourth one to date and the other three have been on
various bikes for up to two years with no problems. Cheap Chinese Junk
is getting better.

I'm old enough to remember when "Made in Japan" was a synonym for crap.

--
Wes Groleau

On 2/13/17 8:14 PM, Andre Jute wrote:

My bike has tubes and lugs drawn in Italy, soldered and painted in Holland, assembled in Germany, dynamo and gear hubs made in Germany, wired into Belgian-made rims on Belgian-made spokes and nipples, a stem made in Taiwan to a Swiss design and under Swiss supervision, tyres made in Malaysia to a German design and under German supervision, saddle and grips made in England, motor and controls made in China and refined in Switzerland (not much, but enough), pedals made in Taiwan, rack made in Germany, hydraulic rim brakes made in Germany, lamps made in Germany, and it once had a stainless chainring cut in the USA, and was previously fitted with a crankset made in Japan and rebranded in France, and still has a headset made in Taiwan and rebranded in Germany. That's pretty global and, at least for expensive niche products, doesn't bear out the lament, "It's all gone to China and rack and ruin!" The Chinese-mainland made items are not as good by a substantial but narrowing margin as the components from Taiwan, but the Taiwanese gear, especially when made under German or Swiss supervision, is the equal of the best in the world.


And mine is allegedly 100% British.

--
Wes Groleau