Show us your made in China tools.

[Firebrick43]

 

[Fedwrench]

I would be curious: 1) why you selected these over Channellock or Knipex or NWS; and 2) what's your initial assessment?

I have plenty of Channellock & Knipex. I have a few NWS pliers but, I don't care for their grips that much. These were on sale at my local Home Depot for like $9.97 down from $14.97. They're Crescent's version of Gearwrench's Pitbull series. They're nicely finished, have some heft to them. I would have preferred simple dipped handles but, these are ok. I like them so far.

 

[isb cornbinder]

I needed a large adjustable wrench for one job. I was not about to spend hundreds of dollars on a CRESCENT, so I bought this contraption. I had to take the Squirrel apart and make a bushing to stabilize the adjuster nut action. .073" was too much clearance, for me. .006" clearance works so much better.
The working end was too thick, so I thinned it down in my milling machine. While I was at the milling machine, I removed the COO and the SQUIRREL.
I have been retired for nearly 18 years. The Squirrel resides at the back of an adjustable wrench drawer. I like to cover it over with my MADE IN NORTH AMERICA Crescents.
I did use it a few years ago to adjust the angle of a bracket by giving the bracket a little twist. This wrench could be a really good nut cracker. It is about 20 inches long.

 

[Ton ton]

I try not to negatively judge others for what countries they buy their consumer products from. Life is just to short for being bothered by such imo. Btw, I'm longtime fan of Plumb and Proto USA tools going back the the early '70s. I'd like to think that people in countries other than the US would not pass negative judgement on me for such. But if some do, then so be it.

The new Plumb claw hammers are made in China. I'm sure you know that. I actually am enjoying this thread.

 

[visionguru]

I will answer your question as if it was a serious one, even though it seems like you chose to interpret and respond to my last post in a way that completely (and likely purposefully) missed the point. It's not surprising, people do that sort of thing all the time. Usually it's done when a belief structure that creates harm for others provides personal gain for the holder of the belief, so the person doesn't want to let it go. That being said, this response is mainly for others who might be reading this thread and also thinking about the things I think about. Also, if you're reading this on a smart phone and finding yourself angered by the length of this post, just skip over it, because it wasn't written for you.

There is a difference between "buy American no matter what" and "support countries that treat their people and the environment well and aren't actively wishing you harm". I fall into the latter group. There are junk tools made in the US just like there are junk tools made elsewhere, and there is nothing wrong with the international trade of goods. My hand and power tools are about 55-60% US made, but most the vehicles in my family are Japanese. I usually buy American if they make the best quality tool in some area and the cost is worth the use I will get out of it. I also own lots of tools from Germany, Japan, Taiwan, Spain, etc. I even have a few tools made in China, I listed them earlier in this thread. Those were mostly purchased used, but a couple were purchased new because it's almost impossible to live an absolute life these days. All any of us can do is our best. I prefer to purchase goods from countries and companies that treat their citizens well for the most part, care about the environment for the most part, and have manufacturing practices that are more sustainable. I also try to avoid coutries that are currently diplomatic or ideological enemies with the US, because I happen to like it here. I have been to lots of other countries, and most people in the US have no idea how good we have it.

If I can avoid it, I don't want my money going to countries or companies that have factories full of child workers, slave labor, or factories that have anti-suicide nets installed around the building because so many workers were jumping to their deaths. It doesn't matter how cheap the tool is or how good the quality is for the price. I agree with one of the other posters, US run factories in China are often somewhat better, but some money is still going to a government that hates us in the process, or to a US based company that will often put money before US ideals even within the US. I'm also not interested in supporting governments that regularly make citizens they don't like disappear, have black market prisoner organ harvesting programs, millions of people in active concentration camps, huge hacking and data theft operations used to steal intellectual property or resources from other countries, etc.

The people of China are mostly good people. I know quite a few, and several puposefully moved here to escape the oppressive Chinese government. Even if you are someone that doesn't care much about others, the Chinese government itself represents pretty much the opposite of the values the US was built on, so if you care at all about your current freedoms, intellectual property rights, etc. some of you might want to re-think your care-free attitude before it's too late. It's up to you, but small decisions do add up and they do cause future consequences. For instance, all it would take for the world to slowly move away from slave labor and human explotation, is for a large number of individual customers to care more about avoiding products made in that manner.

It all comes down to who you care about. If you only really care about yourself, you likely to have a "every man for himself" or a "survuval of the fittest" mentality. If you can get something cheap at the expense of others, you will because you can, and often it won't even bother you to do so because you consider other people's problems to be either their own or their own fault. If you care at all for others or for the general average well-being of everyone on planet earth, you likely care more about where your tools come from and who benefits from your money any time it leaves your hands. Everybody is interconnected and all decisions have consequences, no matter how much a person wants to think or pretend otherwise.

Thanks for elaborating. At first, I thought the problems you mentioned were domestic, which I concern the most.

Your main concern seems slave labor, child labor, and the oppressive government of China. As I grow older, I become less interested in the political side of things. The earth is circling around the sun just fine with or without me.

My last visit to China was about 4 years ago. I was impressed by their physical infrastructure (for example, high speed trains), digital infrastructure (for example, a cashless society), social infrastructure ( for example, personal safety). In some aspects, more advanced than our country. Not sure how severe or wide spread in terms of slave/child labor problems in China, which are basically poverty issues.

Without physically visiting China, you can get a sense of what the daily lives like in China by searching for videos on YouTube, for example, "American living in China", "Canadian living in China", "life in China",...., There are haters and lovers. The truth is always in the middle.

I did some searches on the topics of child labor and slave labor in China. These two sites seem to be associated with government think tanks.

1) Child labor:

10 Facts about Child Labor in China - The Borgen Project

As the importance and prevalence of child labor in China has been acknowledged, they must now work on raising awareness and implementing policies and regulations.

borgenproject.org

"Child labor in China is minimal in comparison to other industrialized nations."

2) Labor freedom scores:

Economic Data and Statistics on World Economy and Economic Freedom

Explore and download economic data and statistics used in the Index of Economic Freedom to rank countries of the world based on various measures of economic freedom.

www.heritage.org

US 87.1
Japan 79
UK 73.2
Canada 72.4
China 64.9
Taiwan 60.4
Germany 53
France 44.8
India 41.3

Not sure the exact definition of "labor freedom", but sure sounds like the opposite of slave labor.

Merry Christmas!

 

[john.k]

The pipe fitters would either weld the adjuster or grind a piece out of it to make the wrench quick adjust ........I dont like to see that with a quality wrench ,so Chinese was just fine.

 

[zendriver]

Sure, I’ll give a boot to the dead horse

Recently purchased the icon, rechargeable LED magnetic work light.

The worst thing I can say about it, is that it is probably easier to break it to Fort Knox than it was to get it out of its retail packaging.

Ain’t ripping that baby open in the store

 

[john.k]

Only reason the battery is still there.

 

[zendriver]

It’s almost like poking a fat chick, but I’ll fess up .



Seems to be a pretty nice battery charger.