My worst Brand Name Tool

[li0nhart123]

I found it!!..after digging through my 5 gallon bucket of crappy wrenches..I finally found my one an only Gedore Combination wrench.

Forged in India, bulky with square edges, and still has the grinding marks present on the side where the k1d5 working in the factory removed the excess metal after "forging"

Indianium definitely rivals Chinesium

 

[Uncle Buck]

Yup, looks like every one of that brand I have ever seen! (notice I did not say I ever owned one!)

 

[Merkava_4]

That's one ugly wrench but when the Chinese wrenches first started coming over here, they looked like someone had been hacking at them with a machete.

 

[bmwpower]

Are those curry stains?

 

[Merkava_4]

I'd be willing to bet that wrench was made buy some kids that were walking around bare foot on a dirt factory floor without any personal protective safety gear at all.

 

[ImportTuner]

Are those curry stains?

You are bad ....

 

[JRGSPE73]

Are those curry stains?

 

[Chris Adams]

The Thorsen Allied Tool (TAT) stuff from the low 70's makes that look like a snap-on.
Thorsen used to be a decent homeowner brand, and then they went to India.

After that, they looked like something you would sand cast in shop class, say in Junior High.

Don't know if India ever got their tool making up to speed, but I never actually saw any tool from them that I would use for anything more important than fishing sinker.


First Chinese tools I saw were vastly superior, and the recent stuff shades up into passable.

 

[li0nhart123]

Are those curry stains?

No...it's actually the cow manure they used to fire the forge..

 

[reversegear]

Don't know if India ever got their tool making up to speed, but I never actually saw any tool from them that I would use for anything more important than fishing sinker.

I have visited a tool manufacturer in India. Pretty big company, wide product range. We were there with the idea to source semi-finished parts for our production.

We got a tour of their wrench production, and the drop forging was great. Seriously. All German equipment, well trained workers, etc. Good quality.

But their polishing operation was like something out of Dante's Inferno. It was a huge, dark place filled with smoke and sparks and filth. The equipment sucked, and nobody could possibly see what the hell they were doing in there to get a good polish. They told us that they planned to improve the facility. I thought the best improvement would be to burn the place down and polish wrenches in the parking lot.

Anyway, I finished that trip with two convictions: The first was that the Indian manufacturers have the technical knowledge and understanding to do quality if they want to. The second was that I never, ever, ever want to go to India ever again.

 

[eschoendorff]

I wonder if by forged they mean cast?

 

[Lyaec350]

The second was that I never, ever, ever want to go to India ever again.

So true, after being to China twice I feel the same way :-x

 

[Chris Adams]

I have visited a tool manufacturer in India. Pretty big company, wide product range. We were there with the idea to source semi-finished parts for our production.

We got a tour of their wrench production, and the drop forging was great. Seriously. All German equipment, well trained workers, etc. Good quality.

But their polishing operation was like something out of Dante's Inferno. It was a huge, dark place filled with smoke and sparks and filth. The equipment sucked, and nobody could possibly see what the hell they were doing in there to get a good polish. They told us that they planned to improve the facility. I thought the best improvement would be to burn the place down and polish wrenches in the parking lot.

Anyway, I finished that trip with two convictions: The first was that the Indian manufacturers have the technical knowledge and understanding to do quality if they want to. The second was that I never, ever, ever want to go to India ever again.

Thanks for the insight.
I've dealt with India technicians and programmers when I was Alpha and Beta testing for Satellite internet.

I liked them, I thought their technical skills were excellent, but talking to them over the phone, messaging and e-mailing them left me depressed in the extreme over the conditions they worked in.

Crowding they talked about was unreal, but most of them were talking about having 4-10 kids, at least.

Still, you want to breed like a hamster, you get to live like a hamster.

 

[NOMAD]

A buddy bought some HF india made wrenches and if the forging was done right I wouldn't know as every size was a couple mm off! The "chrome" was like rice paper and crumbled when you first picked it up.

 

[jay50]

I found it!!..after digging through my 5 gallon bucket of crappy wrenches..I finally found my one an only Gedore Combination wrench.

Forged in India, bulky with square edges, and still has the grinding marks present on the side where the k1d5 working in the factory removed the excess metal after "forging"

Indianium definitely rivals Chinesium

Shame on you for buying tools made with child slavery.

 

[wilbilt]

I have one Gedore wrench. Made in India. It looks worse than the posted photos.

 

[kartracer55]

Ill take two!

 

[reversegear]

A buddy bought some HF india made wrenches and if the forging was done right I wouldn't know as every size was a couple mm off! The "chrome" was like rice paper and crumbled when you first picked it up.

I only saw one company, and I know they were considered high-level among most Indian manufacturers. I'm not saying that all Indian companies have the ability or the equipment to do quality forging. Even so, there are a lot of processes after forging that can screw up the tolerances on an open end if they are not done right.

 

[TedC]

Actually Gedore is an old-established German maker of automotive tools, something like Hazet or Stahlwille. I have some of their German tools tools and they are perfect and still being made.

I also have some of those India tools in in my car, put there after someone stole my nice ones. To look at the finish and lettering, they were forged in very worn out dies. I don't know how production started in India, maybe the product was never meant to leave the country, but they should have ground their good name off.

 

[t100]

I'd be willing to bet that wrench was made buy some kids that were walking around bare foot on a dirt factory floor without any personal protective safety gear at all.

letting them die would be a better option.

back to tools. mernard's stores sell some combo wrench sets, $6 for set of 9 or 10. cheaper than the chinese ones.

 

[atari]

I have a Challenger by Proto that still has the casting leftovers still on it, It is folded over the side of the wrench. Its pretty sweet! Ill look for it and slap some pictures up later if I get the chance.