Other day I was using a few copper bell standoffs on some pex. I like to keep tension off any junction and try to let it rest in a natural posture.
It was a somewhat tight loop then heading straight up thru a beam so there were some odd pressures involved
and as I was attempting to tighten the screw on the slotted side of the strap the pressure of the screw kept pushing the strap out.
Now I realize sometimes I’m not the brightest stone in the pile and couldn’t figure out why this was happening
denying that a manufacturer could ever be in error but there it was. Working from a scattering of parts some standoffs came in plasticbags and some without.
Those without had a Made in China stamp on the strap and had the friggin’ slot cut on the wrong side of the strap so it wouldn’t tighten on itself when turning the screw. The plastic bagged ones from a US manu. were fine.
A simple thing like a clamp they can mess up let alone threaded fixtures.
Told a buddy about this and he went off on a rant about making a quick stop for cooking supplies at a local supermarket and buying some garlic bulbs
only to get them home to find China on the label. Wouldn’t trust it and thru them in the trash.
A nowheresville midwestern Ohio town selling garlic bulbs grown in China.
That’s it, as long as it’s within my choice I’m not buying China products anymore.
Edited 2/10/2009 11:35 pm ET by rez
Replies
Amen brother! Garlic produced in china sold here is just plain stupid. And if they are stupid enough to do that, would you eat it?
I'm growing some in the back yard this year. There is absolutley no reason not to.
And if I recall correctly those pretty white bulbs dry and shrivel up in no time flat compared to homegrown.
eat a dog today
Homegrown is always better.
Same here.
The stuff in the supermarkets is low grade chinese shid.....our good stuff gets exported.
The reason it looks so 'perfect' on the shelf is they bleach it......along with all the other nasties they spray on the stop fungus etc.
We grow our ownPeople talk about insanity like its a bad thing........
Seems I'd read a thread here a while back where some were discussing the misaligned threads on Chinese plumbing fixtures resulting in sloppy results.
Stuff like that along with the melamine debacle and this strap deal makes one want to join a crusade. Where do I sign up?
Stuff that was always 'good' and bought without even thinking about it suddenly went 'bad'...........cos some armhole saw a way to make an 'extra' 10 cents by sneaking low grade chinese in.
We always used 12mm reinforcing steel as standard............then outa nowhere it went to 16mm being specified.
I asked how come?...............was told that our 12mm worked fine, then they got stuff in from china and it wouldnt take the bends without fracturing and making it weaker. So in order to maintain strength they upped the spec to 16mm as a compensation.
So how come nobody just sent the cheezy 12mm stuff back and told them to make it right or poke every stick up someplace dark?????
And why is it the last screw on a chinese toilet roll holder always shears off just as it gets snugged up tight?
How come the towel rails are always one screw short?
How come if you need 4 screws to attach the whatever it is......3 will be philips heads and the critical 4th will have a mystery smoosh head that no known driver will fit??
Buy stuff made there without doing some serious homework and you get what you paid for.....buy food from there and you are gonna definitely get what you paid for.
People talk about insanity like its a bad thing........
A few months ago I spent the better part of an afternoon trying to diagnose a motion sensored light( I had put 3 in series). After checking all the wires I had pulled through conduit, ended up being that the hot and neutral wires were reversed in the lamp (manufactured that way - not how I wired it). Guess where it was made?
"Guess where it was made?
The Southern hemisphere?
Jon Blakemore RappahannockINC.com Fredericksburg, VA
and when you bill someone for the time spent trying to make a piece of junk function properly...........they act like your the one ripping them off.
On a big job last year......sparky was asked to take the lights off the quote cos he was going to supply his own.
Sparky arranged for a purchase from his supplier of a good quality light for about $35 each.
Tightwad said he had found some for $12 and wanted to use those. Sparky told him they were not worth the trouble, would take more labour to install, would fail in a year or so etc.
He said 'but they only cost $12'
He got his cheap lights. The extra labour was the same as the difference in price between the good ones and the shid.
In about 6 months they will start eating up bulbs at $6 each..........then the transformers will fail and the whole unit will have to be replaced. I think that $12 will end up costing him $100.
But you couldnt tell him anything. He is an accountant as well.
I'm pretty happy he isnt doing my books if his adding up skills are that bad.People talk about insanity like its a bad thing........
Thought about making a mini manifold out of the Watts Pex fittings then read 'Made in China'
so went to Sharkbite instead even tho' they don't make those type of fittings yet
but at least made of brass and I'd rather throw the dice on UK made.
heh Had to check the Chinese bell standoffs as long as I was there.
Some were slotted for clockwise, some were counterclockwise. Maybe the laborer had been tokin' on an opium ball.
Did you buy them at Lowes? I bought two there about 6 months ago that did the same thing... Talk about frustrating... I feel your pain...
Well, don't know about pain but had to hold the bracket clamps together with channel locks while screwing it down.
It's not really right but not being that important of a malfunction it'll work. Just an eye opener was all.
Yep, cross China goods off your list.
Edited 2/11/2009 9:02 pm ET by rez
I never buy Chinese anything if there is a way out of it. It's getting harder all the time. Mexico plumbing parts are not any better.
I've seen some pretty questionable cast fittings from India as well... Guaranteed to leak threads.
"I realize sometimes I'm not the brightest stone in the pile "
Come on now, don't sell yourself short. You shine as bright as any stone I have ever seen!
So sad this is what the public demands, not bad quality but rather low prices, the thing is we know low prices produces low quality. Thank you Wal-mart, K-mart, Depot, so much junk out there. Of course people are trained that everything is disposable and accept it because its affordable, and the circle continues.
No one should regard themselve as "God's gift to man." But rather a mere man whos gifts are from God.