TOOLS I Have A Question

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Germany is more expensive than the United States. Wages, taxes, basic standard of living. Right?

Then please tell me why WILLI HAHN can manufacture screwdrivers and pliers far superior in quality to Snap On or Mac tools that cost WAY MORE then tools that are shipped thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean and marketed here?

There is no USA competition for these tools -- Knipex is considerably more expensive than WiHa. I have no idea where Knipex is made.

There is no other word I can substitute for the following one: The USA is prostituting our sense of integrity of quality for the almighty dollar.

There are a few holdouts. Caterpillar, 3M, General Electric (for medical) and Westinghouse (For large generators and transformers).

Siemens is kicking our *** world wide for electrical assembles and again this is a German enterprise. B*A*R*T*? A Siemens project. The San Diego Red Trolley? Again Siemens.

Too much of what I read on this forum are problems the result of which are due to shoddy design and manufacturing. Too many products have USA brand names and garbage Chinese design.

Why am I fuming? I lost a forty dollar frying pan this morning. An elite brand. The handle came off the hard way with absolutely no way to repair it. Elite USA brand name -- manufactured in China. We canno make a @#$%^&! forty dollar frying pan. Gimmee a break.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

[MEXICOWANDERER]

If folks want a hint I am in pain 24/7/365 and my typing durability is about ten minutes max. Too many mistakes with voice typing. Yet electrical is my passion. See my comments about DMSO Gel.

Try for the Harbor Freight mini torch. The torch on a hose is great but it is like grappling with a squid.

Try soldering 12 gauge wires, just the stripped ends, then when you feel confident use an uninsulated, butt connector and crimp then solder. Work your way up.

[Naio]

Yes, health stuff sure does require a lot of creative problem-solving! And I really appreciate your patience with me, Mex. My brain is like a freaking sieve due to health stuff.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Thanks.
When I read excuses on this forum amounting to "Tell me where to place my feet when you are explaining the correct answer to my utterly brief vague complaint" it makes me curious. In fact it is a direct invitation from many participants to offer just as vague answers and solutions.

The original poster fades away as 27 answers spring forth.

Was it because they got blown away by too much information? If so why didn't they post a note saying so?

My suspicions are they did not end up with a "run to this switch, click it off, run to that switch and click it on" answer and many times it was beyond their interest to even write down a model number and serial number. They will do anything but actually WORK to help diagnose and repair a problem. God forbid the alternative of professional repair at eighty dollars per hour.

Gotten smarter over the years. NEWBIE asks for help I wait until their SECOND post before I take the slightest interest.

Naio it is wonderful to know there are folks who do just the opposite. They work at stuff until it gets fixed.

You know about health and physical challenges. If you cn't do it one way, outsmart it...ask questions.

[Naio]

Thank you for sharing your story Mex. I had not seen it before.

I, too, had good retirement savings that all went to medical care.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

In 1991 I was forced to liquidate everything I owned to facilitate payment of a City of Hope billing of near six hundred thousand dollars. That happens when a person contracts Acute Myleogenic Leukemia and undergoes almost a year of chemotherapy. I wrote this before on this forum what happened to me. My HMO at the time sleazed out of paying the hospital bill by stating I was living in California, while having an address in Nevada. Peter Tomaino my attorney said I could win the case against the HMO but contingency and appeals fees would eat up over 90% of an award. Did I want to undergo the stress? The only asset I held was Quicksilver in Mexico.

The 5 years I spent continuing to rebuilding alternators and doing battery tests did not allow me to donate to my Social Security. The Chemo actually caused more deterioration. Was the alternative a better choice. AML then had a 14% survival rate for 60 months.

Companies do not hire personnel who retire for bed rest five hours out of a nine to five workday. This is less than the rest I require today.

And I will be damned if I will repeat my history again. It was given multiple times on this forum to explain incongruous information. I actually feel fortunate to not have abandoned my family in 1991.

My assets were in excess of 1M in 1991. I had to come up with cold hard cash or be released from care just as the chemo was having a positive effect. Don't ever try to liquidate -- I had two houses in the Antelope Valley, 4 view lots at Donner Lake and almost 200K in negotiable securities. That accrued because I picked and chose wisely.

So I finally stopped kidding myself in 2000. I can do three or four hours of light duty on the bench daily, split into segments. I ran a hotel in Mexico for several years doing none of the work except light electrical, while the kids filled in. I took none of the proceeds.

Should I have forfeited medicine to cash in on the DOT COM boom? What a laugh. I would now be a deceased thousandaire.

Most people with an income like mine live in a senior's flea farm or with relatives. Instead I decided to take another tac. Do the best I can with what I have. A mere $400 per month are devoted for living expenses. The remainder I have squandered on building a casita, and on tools for doing odd jobs. Plus helping my family whenever I can. When I get home I am going to test perhaps 300 voltage regulators per month for a dollar a pop.

Do I feel sullen, cheated, or that the world owes me a living? You must be nuts. I have no time for that. It was a major disappointment when Social Security revealed my monthly "benefit". No work and no SS payments the last ten years really hurt. Tough. I had to make things fit.

Could you do what I did? And have a prosperous life with poverty income? Only you can answer that in halfway honest terms --- in any form. I feel fortunate that I genuinely understand economics, and business capital investments and when a PE report is a con job. My main useful occupation is that I know electrical and can hook into design side jobs down here.

This is the last time for this explanation. It sounds too much like an excuse and it is in my opinion an utter time waster.

[westernrvparkow]

agesilaus wrote:
Companies don't do drug testing because they have moral objections to dope. They do the testing because these clowns come to work stoned, get hurt or killed and then the company gets sued for millions and often loses. One big thing this country needs is a legal policy that YOU are responsible for whatever you do to yourself or others, no one else. But the infestation of the legislatures by lawyers of various stenches would never allow it.

While I agree 100% in principle, the problem arises when a company hires that dope fiend or drunkard and they promptly injure or kill an innocent bystander. Too often the drunk driver emerges from the accident unscathed while the driver and passengers in the other vehicle are killed and maimed. Making an employer liable for the actions of their employees, even if they are chemically impaired, is generally enough of a deterrent to keep those employers from knowingly hiring someone that puts the rest of us in danger. Step number one in preventing that liability is screening them out before they become employees.

[westernrvparkow]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:


Than relatively thriving on a <12,000 dollar per year income. I am around 90% disabled according to Social Insecurity. I only gripe when a wealthy maggot wants a even bigger slice of my meager income. Wealthy maggots do not know how to tie their own shoes. Their trade is theft.

Something is not adding up. You have multiple advanced degrees from Stanford. You have had high powered jobs at major companies. Yet your total income is a social security benefit that is less than $1000.00 per month which is 30 percent less than the average Social Security benefit of $1413.00 per month. Apparently thru all your years of working those high powered jobs you never became vested in a pension plan, never funded a 401K, never set up an IRA and never earned a salary that allowed your Social Security benefits to rise much over the absolute minimum benefit of $848.00 due any retiree who has 30 years of employment credits.
I suppose it is possible that you just invested all your money into growth vehicles and have several million in assets. You could conceivably just be living off a 7 figure cash bank account and not show any income other than your Social Security. But if that is the case, it is pretty disingenuous to claim poverty.
Or maybe, like a lot of people, you just flat didn't plan or save for retirement or made a series of bad decisions, the results of which is your current situation.

[JimK-NY]

I used cast iron for many years. It is a constant struggle to maintain the finish. A teflon pan is at least equivalent and can go in the dishwasher.

[philh]

JimK-NY wrote:
Sorry, cast iron is too heavy for camping. Also difficult to maintain and still will not match Teflon nonstick.

Properly treated and cared for cast iron pans will easily match non stick.

I also have some titanium pans. One thing I've never been able to do in cast iron is slow cook scrambled eggs. They excel at that.

[agesilaus]

Companies don't do drug testing because they have moral objections to dope. They do the testing because these clowns come to work stoned, get hurt or killed and then the company gets sued for millions and often loses. One big thing this country needs is a legal policy that YOU are responsible for whatever you do to yourself or others, no one else. But the infestation of the legislatures by lawyers of various stenches would never allow it.

[RobWNY]

2oldman wrote:

larry cad wrote:
. The USA economy over the last few decades has been horrible and as a result,

It hasn't been horrible for the last 10 years, regardless of what the president says.

larry cad wrote:
They interviewed 600 applicants to fill 150 positions and failed because of mandatory drug testing.

They're going to have to rethink this requirement if they really want workers.

If you're stoned on the job, yeah that's bad. If you smoked weed last night, no, that's not bad. If you got roaring drunk over the weekend, no problem.

Where I live, there are a few factories left. There used be dozens! I spoke with one HR guy recently who said they bring in 100 potential temporary workers every month with the hopes of finding 1 or 2 people they can eventually hire permanently. Very few can pass the drug test. People need to understand that the company makes the rules. Either abide by the rules to get and keep a job or don't and keep looking for work. Pretty simple really. I always find it amusing when people that use drugs and alcohol complain they can't get or keep a decent job. It never dawns on them why that's the case. LOL

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Hyperinflation in the US is about as likely as having an asteroid come through your front drapes. In order to keep the discussion relatively intelligent, I eliminate the near impossible theories. Hyper inflation demands totally out of control spending versus virtually zero exports.

Difference: With speculator driven economy ONLY and I mean ONLY, an economy in recession meaning less demand for petroleum will decrease the price of finished stock. A speculation driven economy is not a market driven economy. The instant bulk inventory increases speculators do not exit stage left. They manipulate the market as much as they can to sustain artificial prices. Go ask sugar beet growers why their non food sugar beets are ignored by the alcohol industry.

Confusing speculator induced inflation with fundamentally insane hyper spending troubles me. That error should not have entered the picture here.

BY THE WAY, I chose Channel Lock compound diagonal pliers because they are not junk. They last, their operation is flawless, and their price is competitive with Wiha. Channel Lock products are made in the USA. Too bad their complete line is not complete by a long shot.
Energy affects all principal products with the exception of unorganized labor.

And as far as Wiha is concerned, they SHIP raw material to Viet Nam, for labor (8,000 miles?) then ship it again another 9,000 miles and STILL outperform USA pricing is a testament to how far skewed our industry has become. Viet Nam has no chromium, no vanadium and no molybdenum. Imported materials with German forges and electric furnaces and heat treating is about as Viet Namese as Stolichnaya vodka is American because the label is in English.

My master's thesis was based on Forensic Auditing. Which is a hell of a lot more involved than punching keys. I did not pursue the discipline because of the atmosphere I found waiting for graduates. Indeed the best of opportunities was presented to me by the FBI. Half of FBI retirees seem to die of stomach ulcer complications due to backbiting and fiefdom politicks. Not for me.

If health and a shady HMO had not interfered my financial posture would have been more inclined to be

Do you RV?
No I have people that do that for me...

Than relatively thriving on a <12,000 dollar per year income. I am around 90% disabled according to Social Insecurity. I only gripe when a wealthy maggot wants a even bigger slice of my meager income. Wealthy maggots do not know how to tie their own shoes. Their trade is theft.

[OH48Lt]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:

When a near-new pair of Snap-Off flush cutting diagonal cutting pliers went bad on me last January it stopped dead-in-it's-tracks an important job until they can be replaced. Larger Snap-Off dykes are OK but a pair of 1/3rd the price Crescent compound pliers just beats the snot out of the red handled dykes. And there is nothing from japan, taiwan or korea that can vie with Wiha performance or durability.

The Wiha diagonal pliers, like many of their tools, are now made in Vietnam. Designed in Germany. actually forged and manufactured in Vietnam.