Cheap stuff

Perhaps Steve should have put a warning on the front of his video, that it may offend those who feel it's an attack on how much others spend in their pursuit of 'I want it now', which also can be translated into 'I can afford it / look at my wad.'

So trolling can go two ways and actually no one has quite the same point of view as you or car boots wouldn't exist.

I did briefly consider making some youtube videos of my own to help amateurs (if its a scale with complete novice at one end and expert at the other, I reckon I'm almost a third of the way up it now) but to be perfectly honest I don't think i'm mentally robust enough to deal with the sheer tidal wave of criticism I'd be likely to attract. Like all of these things, detractors shout louder than supporters.

I'm helping some novices get started at the moment, I'll stick with one to one support as it makes me feel less vulnerable!

Jon, don't be put off by detractors. If you have a skill then i am sure there are lots of people who would benefit from you experience. Me for one. I have learned a lot from this forum. It's really on here that i sometimes get that happening. Probably my own fault for being such a bad speller & not always saying the right things.

If you post on youtube , then you will find a lot of your subscribers will give you good comments. Which will give you a sense of giving your knowledge to others. Remember , you cannot take it with you.

Steve.

Yes Bob my spelling is not too good. But you could be correct on rich parents or maybe not quite.

My Mum was a cook at a local school. My Dad was a Carpenter & later opened a small shop repairing TV & Radio equipment. We were brought up on a Council estate I did terrible at school.

But i did not spend money in pubs or eating out. Always repaired my own vehicles, so managed to save some for old age. Again i am not a rich kid. If i was would i be doing video's of building a workshop for little money.

I think it's my big mouth & not pre thinking what my fingers are doing on the keyboard that is my downfall.

Again i do apologise if i was miss leading.

Steve.

C'mon girls, less of the scratching and hair-pulling.

We all like to do things our own way. The sin is to think that our way has to be the right way. Personally, I get a (possibly perverse) kick out of getting things cheap. There's a pleasure to be had from ownership, which is presumably what drives collectors. It's no sin, I try to convince my wife, to accumulate stuff that may get little use, but which nevertheless provides pleasure. She says that's why she keeps me. Most of my gear is top-quality stuff, bought second-hand, for bargain prices.

Hi, it's horses for courses really, I've bought cheap tools at times knowing they won't last long, but were used on rough jobs that didn't have to be to any tolerance per se and I wouldn't what my better tools getting messed up on such things. I have bought decent second hand tools from boot sales and some years ago now, there used to be a local one every Sunday, where one guy had nothing but tools, most of which were of the categories that our hobbies use and despite what Dave (SOD) said, you could get almost anything on your shopping list, just about any week you went. The guy was doing it for a living and his prices were very fair and he had well respected makes and much cheaper than new prices, but he did have a few odd things that had hardily any use and were a bit higher price, but still fair. I have had one advantage during my working life, while working at my long term job, as all the hand tools needed, including welding hoods etc. were provided by the company and were ours when we left, so in my last twelve years of work, I didn't need to buy very many replacement tools at all for the rest of my day jobs. When buying second hand tools though, I much prefer a boot or market sale and the second hand ones that are very often at the Model Engineering Exhibitions or at rallies, where you can inspect their value rather than trust a picture on a screen, but don't see many garage sale near my location.

Regards Nick.

When and where was does this chap appear Nick? I want some please! He's never at the Compton Martin Flower and Dog Show, I can tell you!

Same problem round here with scrapyards. Apparently some forum friends are surrounded by benevolent scrappies happy to sell desirable metal at bargain prices. Not round here they aren't! None of my locals allow the public to buy scrap or to explore the yard. It's protected by razor wire and irritable Alsatian dogs. Been that way for about 20 years...

Dave

I never visit boot sales.

I suspect far too much of the stuff is nicked.

I've worked at places where toolboxes have been stolen Given the amount of engineering "bargains" at these places I think it naive to think its not dodgy.

Same goes further trades tools sold at boot sales

Jim

Great video, I enjoyed watching it, thanks! =)

Well Sir you are more than welcome.

Since posting this video i have had,,, The items you bought were stolen. MMMM . Were they really. You have bought junk & will have to buy twice. & lots of other c**p.

Yes C**P.

All the items i buy from booties & autojumbles are top quality items. Not cheap import stuff.

Unless the Albright chucks are no good , or the Micrometres made by moore & write & Mitutoyo. Spelling error possible.

I am a registered buyer on a well known liquidation sale site too. I buy a lot of tooling from those sites. I cannot name them for obvious reasons. But the gear i buy is for nothing & worth a small fortune. It is not stolen. Or maybe it is , as i steal it for not much money.

An example is a Mitutoyo 18" height gauge series 570 digital. Also a 18" vernier scale Mitutoyo height gauge. These were bougt for £34 for both. After cleaning & repainting they are as new. Look them up. Probably in the region of £400.

It is easy to knock others for buying cheap. Not sure why.

I please employ you guys who are so negative to stay that way. So we who are not can still grab the bargains.

Steve.

Edited By JasonB on 14/05/2022 20:04:01

Hi Stevie. Your latest post prompted me to go back and I found I had missed your previous reply to my post about the Mitutoto/Mitutoyo spelling. So sorry for barking up the wrong tree there. Yes indeed they were a screaming deal at that price as the genuine article. Well done! You are a man after my own heart. If I lived in the UK I would be that clearance company's best customer I am sure. Sadly nothing like it in the post-industrial Australia these days for the smaller workshop gear.

Hi Dave, sorry for not replying earlier, but only just seen your post. The chap used to attend car boots in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire areas that I knew of, but that was 15 to 20 years ago and I believe he has retired altogether now.

Regards Nick.

Steve lad, keep thi gob shut. Let them as wants to pay throo t' nose gerron wi it.

What I find amusing is the lengths some will go to to try to achieve NASA and RR standards of accuracy in our hobby. I often wonder how LBSC and our previous metrological lepers managed to get anything to work without working to four decimal places and how do you calibrate a pair of calipers to these limits?

Regards Ian.

.

Given the range of interests covered by “our hobby” …

I tend to find such efforts admirable rather than funny

and equally, I respect the skills of a bloke who can “fix anything with hammer and a bread-knife”

… I suppose it’s the mediocrity in the middle-ground that bores me.

MichaelG.

All most forty-years ago I bought a cheap, and even then used, Nu-Tool bench drill thinking it would get me through until I could afford a 'proper' Startrite/Meddings/Fobco. This was at a time when the model engineering press was full of dire reports about the quality of Taiwanese imports. Well, it's still going strong and is as accurate and convenient to use, with its rotating table and rack and pinion table mechanism, as it ever was. By the time I could afford a 'proper' British machine they had all gone out of business (I think Meddings now sell Spanish made products under their brand name). I have quite a few Taiwanese and Chinese devices, dividing heads, chucks and vises etc., they didn't cost the earth and they have all proven themselves to be reliable and accurate for my purposes. You pays your money and you takes your choice as they say

Edited By Chris Crew on 14/05/2022 19:51:23

In the early 1980's I bought a Taiwanese made Alpine drill from Graham Engineering in Birningham, MT2 spindle with rack feed rise and fall and rotatating table. When bought it was fitted with a good quality drill chuck which I still use on a Bantam lathe. The drill spindle is still good with no play and still using the same belts !!!!!

Emgee

Well not tooling but with the emphasis on Cheap Stuff its surprising what you can find if you search. They say that good quality you have to pay for BUT not always, I needed a tiny geared motor for my Class 22 loco and managed to find the one pictured below. It came from a well known auction site and yes its from China. Its 12 volts - 600rpm and all metal gearbox. The picture probably doesnt do it justice but when I unpacked it I couldnt believe the quality, the gearbox and in particular the tiny steel gears look superb. Its super quiet and very smooth and all for £4.70 with free delivery in 5 days, so less than a fiver, I would have happily paid 3 or 4 times that having seen how good it is.

Edited By Ron Laden on 15/05/2022 08:10:50

An excellent example, Ron

… and probably one of many

The Chinese can, and do, make millions of good products which are often built into mass-market devices.

Amortising the design/development cost of that delightful little geared motor is easy when the ‘real’ market for it is paying the price … The joy comes when we can grab the crumbs from the the big man’s table.

Imagine what it would cost if the market for it was just a few hundred hobbyists.

MichaelG.

Posted by Emgee on 14/05/2022 22:21:09:

In the early 1980's I bought a Taiwanese made Alpine drill from Graham Engineering in Birningham, MT2 spindle with rack feed rise and fall and rotatating table. When bought it was fitted with a good quality drill chuck which I still use on a Bantam lathe. The drill spindle is still good with no play and still using the same belts !!!!!

Emgee

Your machine looks identical to mine except that the 'badges' are different. You even have the same vise. I am pleased I am not alone in experiencing excellent performance and longevity from this cheap 'junk' which so many seem to want condemn simply because, it seems to me, it is made in countries and by people who they simply cannot accept have advanced so far ahead of their own in technology, efficiency and industrial production.

Edited By Chris Crew on 15/05/2022 10:40:18

Though mostly they do it by not paying their workers what we would call a living wage.

Ps that drill looks like the Nearok hdy13 that I bought at around the same time as you, the spline looked like a dog had chewed it. But it did drill holes if a little noisily.

Edited By Dave Halford on 15/05/2022 15:20:56