"You get what you pay for"

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GaryMadore

GaryMadore

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Joined
Jan 25, 2007
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Location
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
"You get what you pay for" ...

... I hear that a lot, especially concerning tools.

"You get what you pay for" they say, "good quality tools cost more, but are worth it."

"You get what you pay for" ... You know, if that were true nobody would ever get ripped off. Think about it.

My point? You don't always (or even most of the time) get what you pay for. The key is research, and not price.

At any rate, a couple of things brought this to mind. One is the recent thread on table saws, and the other, more recent, thing is one that just now curled my hair and made me want to spit....

I just mounted a new set of jaws on my Teknatool SuperNova2 chuck. You know, the expensive ones from New Zealand. I just noticed for the first time, as I was looking closely at the back of the chuck a small inscription thad reads:

"Made in PRC" ... as in "People's Republic of China"

And to think of all the comparisons made between the "top-of-the-line" Teknatool series and the "cheap Chinese knockoffs." PHUQUE: It appears that the SuperNova2 is nothing more than a cheap Chinese knockoff of itself.

"Buy a SuperNova2" they say, "you get what you pay for."

I guess I didn't get what I paid for, and could have snapped up a Chinese-made Barracuda2 for a lot less.

Caveat emptor indeed.

Oh well, live and learn.

Cheers!

Gary
 
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Well, the difference, Gary, is that Teknatool still seems to make a quality product, despite moving to China...the Chinese factory is owned by the New Zealand company - they're not outsourcing to the cheapest factory in China...that's why you're not seeing "Nova" chuck designs pop up all over the place

I think they tend to oversee the whole process, whereas I doubt that PSI really cares much about quality control to the level that Teknatool might...

Jet is made in China also, as are Milwaukee tools and Dewalt tools as well...my Hitachi drill was made in China, and my bosch angle grinder was Mexico, I think...

Country of origin doesn't mean as much as quality control - I don't care where it's made, as long as it's quality!

I think Oneway is made in Canada, though...but I'm very happy with my Supernova - Chinese or not, it's a quality tool!
 
From their website:
We have 3 manufacturing facilities around the world, 2 specialised manufacturing units based in New Zealand and the USA and our main manufacturing plant, based in Qingdao , China . This facility is 100% New Zealand owned and is run in support by some of our New Zealand staff, to Western quality standards and western manufacturing systems, using state of the art CNC machines.
Click to expand...


And from another site - summed it up quite well, I think...
if a factory is set up right from the originating company, with tolerances, good supplies, training of employees, and high degree of automation and quality control, then it matters not where in the world a factory produces products, except that in the end, the cost of production is lower due to labor cost.
Click to expand...
 
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I am with Andrew. China has come a long way production wise. Some of my favorite machines (Powermatic and Jet) are made in China and I couldn't be happier.

QC does spell the difference. US, Germany, Italy, etc. also produce junk you know. :wink:
 
I'm truely sorry to disagree, but I feel that classifying everything made in China as a cheap knock off is seriously inaccurate. As a veteran of many years of purchasing a variety of products from China I agree that "you get what you pay for." If I go looking for the very lowest price in China I get products that are cheaply made, they are made cheap because I asked for them to be made cheap. If I ask for higher quality I pay more and I usually get what I paid for.

The SuperNova2 may very well be more cheaply made than it was in the past, but the blame is not with the Chinese manufacturer, the possible blame lies with the outsourcing purchaser who went looking for a low price without regard to quality. It is very possible to purchase high quality products in China, and it is also possible to purchase cheaply made products in China and every other country. It is always best to judge quality by performance, not by country of origin.
 
I think the the point that Gary was trying to make is that people said to buy this particular chuck over a different chuck because one was made in China and one wasn't supposedly making it better. And so he does and finds it was made in the same exact country. For what its worth, I agree with most of the people that posted but I think that some missed his original point.

On a side note, how do we know that these other chucks are made cheaply just because they are made in China? I watched a special on China and some of the plants they showed looked more state of the art then here in the US. And just because a website says that the product is "made in a state of the art facility to Western specs", do we know that to be true?

Just some things to think about.

(And I tend to buy based on price and not name myself, lol.)
 
Something else people don't often realize is that manufacturers don't throw something away because it doesn't meet the buyers specs. Often them make a larger run and the primary buyer takes those items that meet his quality requirements. Then the next buyer comes in, and the next, etc. Needless to that, the primary buyer pays a premium for getting the first cut.

So when something looks just like the top line (except for a paint job) don't assume that it is just like it. It's not that you get what you pay for, but that you pay for what you get. Sometimes, if the primary buyer just took the first 500 and grabbed his hat, you may get a bargain. And sometimes you don't.

Marc
 
You nailed Rob - It was a mosly tongue in cheek rant meant to illustrate the fact that names don't mean much anymore.

I had a ball turning a goblet tonight and my chuck works pretty well - no matter where it was made :)

Cheers!

Gary
 
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