Damn Chinese Quality Control

[BrianAltenhofel]

So the other day while buying some food to eat while my wife is out of town, I impulsively bought the Craftsman work lights (two 500w'ers on a 70 inch stand). I get them home, and the square nuts are two small to contact anything to keep them from rotating. At first, I didn't want to screw with it, so I exchanged them out, except the next one was even farther off!

But what can I expect for $27, when the equivalents at ACE, TSC, and Atwoods are all double the price (and look the same with the same CoO on the box)? Loctite epoxy should withstand the heat okay, right?

 

[KenS]

Isn't "Chinese Quality Control" an oxymoron? Fits well with:

Original copy
Genuine imitation
Pretty ugly

All in all, it's seriously funny.

 

[biggsean]

I used to have the same set of lights. I had several issues including the housing completely falling apart, the switches breaking, and something else that I can't quite remember. I used it for a while as best as I could, and then threw it away eventually.

I guess it's a good disposable set of lights at that price-point. They work well when they are actually operable.

 

[Bolster]

I looked all over for non-Chinee worklights and gave up, could not find any. Finally bought 500W red ones from Home Depot, shorties with no stand, just a roll cage, and promised myself I'd be realllly careful with them. One blew a bulb within 3 hours of use (no physical shock, it just blew); and then several hours later I accidentally pulled on the cord and the lamp tipped over (remember it is about 8" to the top of it, so rolling over to the side should not be a big deal!). That was enough to strip the peg-and-hole mechanism that controls vertical position. Pulled it apart, the metal must be about as soft as lead for that peg to strip like that. So now it always flops up into the 45 degree position. Oh, and it blew the bulb, of course. So I have maybe 8 hrs of work on them, two bulbs, and one is stripped.

What really worries me is that all these halogen work lights spew UV, which can toast your eyes and give you cataracts in no time. They come with UV shields of course, but what if the UV shields are as good as everything else on the lamp?

At any rate, maybe I can replace these with made-in-a-responsible-country models? There are none available from local hwre stores or BORGs...does anyone have a source for a quality halogen worklight?

 

[wilbilt]

I think the poor quality of Chinese imports is a good thing. The worse it gets, the better the chance of US consumers waking up to the fact it's all ****.

 

[Moose-LandTran]

Isn't "Chinese Quality Control" an oxymoron? Fits well with:

Original copy
Genuine imitation
Pretty ugly

All in all, it's seriously funny.

Don't forget "military intelligence".

 

[russlaferrera]

Don't forget "military intelligence".

When China built their missiles. The safest place to be is where they aimed them. Our President Clinton gave them our super computers . Now they are capable of putting a missile in your our pocket.

 

[RbrtAWhyt]

When China built their missiles. The safest place to be is where they aimed them. Our President Clinton gave them our super computers . Now they are capable of putting a missile in your our pocket.

Easy now,dont mention politics..."they" whill shoot you down...

 

[Bolster]

So, back to worklights ... does anybody have a bead on QUALITY worklights? Regardless of country of origin?

 

[rsanter]

I think there was a problem with the translation
the chinese do not have quality control that have quantity control

just a simple minunderstanding

bob

 

[billymade]

The body shop I used to work at had a really awesome guy who did mostly fabreication all day; they took most of the cheap lights, welded new mounts for them, pretty much eliminated all the "weak points" and even fabricated their own stands; seems its impossible to find high quality lights. I remember the Dayton company, made allot of nice shop equipment; I wonder if the made some nice lights, too? I'm sure there are high quality stuff out there; you need to check out MSC or the other industrial suppliers, won't be cheap tho!