Thread: Very nice China Tool I think everyone should have!

I'm starting to wonder just how many tools an incra renders redundant...

I know they are poisonously dear but if you add up all the tools I don't need to buy because I have one it's gotta be more than the price of entry...

Bridge City sold to Harvey, who are well known for quality machinery. The owner of Harvey is, to all accounts, serious about maintaining the quality of BCTW. Indeed, I believe, he has been building them for Bridge City for some years already. The quality is not going to drop. What will be upsetting for many who "invested" in these tools over the years is that they are being made in larger quantities, and sold around the world: Lee Valley and Carbatec are just two stores that stock them. I think Axminster do as well.

I have my sights on the Harvey G700 dust collector in the future.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I received mine about 3 or 4 days ago. It comes in it's own box. It looks to be of high quality.

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Bridge City sold to Harvey, who are well known for quality machinery. The owner of Harvey is, to all accounts, serious about maintaining the quality of BCTW. Indeed, I believe, he has been building them for Bridge City for some years already. The quality is not going to drop. ......
Derek

So true, and it's not just Harvey.

I was in Shanghai last October and stumbled into a four storey tool shop - hand tools and electrical tools up to about a 400mm bandsaw and a quarter-sheet CNC.

All the signage was in Chinese, none of the staff apparently spoke English, but a really good vibe. It hummed. Stock was obviously very carefully selected, and I was very impressed by the range and apparent quality - none of the crap sold by "BigChains". Some items that I particularly remember include:

• Bevel chisels that look remarkably like Lee Valley and Blue Spruce. When a salesman noticed me putting two chisels back-to-back to test flatness, he smilingly took one from me, pencilled hatchmarks and then very lightly rubbed it on a very fine diamond stone - it was flat! He then guestured for me to select any chisel from the racks, he pencilled hatchmarks and I rubbed it on the diamond stone - both also were flat. As I said, good vibes, and the tools were our only common language!
• Brass and aluminium sliding bevels that looked and felt almost as smooth as those amazing ones by Chris Vesper,
• Small cordless drill that looked like the Festool CXS. Like the Festool it felt vibrationless when running and had a pleasant sound - not like the ozito grind!
• Push-pull table saw similar to the Mafell Erika. It looked, felt and sounded like a high quality item.

All my perceptions are from a salesroom, handling and running the tools, but not actually cutting/making anything. All interface with salespeople was by gestures, nodding, smiling; no other common language.

I think China is following in the footsteps of Japan, Taiwan and Korea. They started making crap and quickly moved to quality products. Much is quite innovative.

I suspect that there will be a lot more Chinese products in my life. This may happen quite quickly if the buyers for "BigChain" ever realise that they do not have to buy crap - good products are available for not much more.


Graeme

I made the comment about 3 yrs ago, China is no different to how japan made products 40 yrs ago, it didn't take long for the quality to increase, just look at some of the prestige cars now made in China. What will change is the production costs as the general population becomes more affluent, some companies have already relocated to India and Vietnam because of this.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

This may happen quite quickly if the buyers for "BigChain" ever realise that they do not have to buy crap - good products are available for not much more.
Graeme

It is certainly true that China can supply any level of quality you're prepared to pay for. Unfortunately, as Graeme points out, too many of our local retailers put far too much emphasis on price to the detriment of quality.

Chinese quality varies as we know, let me tell a tale of woe or more likely frustration over many years. A mate of mine imports camper trailers from China and he has changed suppliers many times because of the suppliers not delivering what they promised and built initially when he asked them to build trial samples. He has to go to China before every shipment to QC the trailers before they are packed in the container. Every time he changes supplier the first builds are excellent then after that the quality falls to abysmal levels and if he does not reject them in China he has to fix them here. The Chinese just shrug their shoulders and pretend not to understand what the problem is when they know exactly what is happening and why.

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

Chinese quality varies as we know, let me tell a tale of woe or more likely frustration over many years. A mate of mine imports camper trailers from China and he has changed suppliers many times because of the suppliers not delivering what they promised and .........

Hi Chris

I have heard quite a few stories similar to your mates, but I think it is just a sympton of a developmental phase.

Japan had similar problems from pre-war through to the early 1960's. Their solution was to create the incredibly powerful MITI - Ministry of International Trade and Industry - and to "encourage" exporters to use the sogo shosha - the ubiquitous trading houses who rigorously enforced quality control. These included Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Marubeni and the minnows like Nisho Iwai and Sohbu Trading.

Chinese companies certainly need to deal with consistency of quality, and to a certain degree it may be a case of big company vs small companies. Virtually all Apple products are made and designed in China and few doubt their quality.


Cheers

Graeme

I'm having a hard time telling the difference...

kerf-maker.jpg

Mine arrived Monday 11th. When I bought it 6 weeks ago they said it would be here on the 10th so spot on really.
Well made and in its own case and can’t be attacked by woodworm 😂

Originally Posted by Lappa

Still waiting. Expected arrival is 10th Nov so over a month to ship. Not a patch on Aliexpress I’m afraid.

You can’t log out after logging into “banggood” ( a frequency asked “ how do I... question), they annoy the #$&@ out of you with emails, their website is crap, ask a question on their site and the question becomes something to buy, etc. etc

Mine came today 2 days late which I thought was pretty good and it was in a tin with a hinged lid!! As for Banggood I haven't had a single email etc since I bought it.

still waiting for mine. I saw on Banggood that it had "been delivered", yet no sign. so I contacted the couriers and they told me they tried to deliver on Oct 19th but no one home so they took it to a storage facility. where they said I could pick it up from. I asked if anyone was going to tell me? and then said, seeing as 1. they didn't leave the item, 2. they didn't leave a card, that they can bring back to me. Fast way couriers - absolutely useless. have a look at their rating, its 1.3 out of 5. one bloke went so far as to say "I actually score them zero but system wont allow me to mark as that"

The only customers who review courier companies have a complaint. You never hear from the tens of thousands of satisfied customers. It's pretty pointless quoting satisfaction ratings from such a flawed sample. I acknowledge that your experience hasn't been good.

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

As for Banggood I haven't had a single email etc since I bought it.

I get a minimum of two per day. Time to hit the Unsubscribe button for a service I never subscribed to in the first place