Hagen Brothers farms,Goodrich ND | bwire - 2/15/2012 09:44
Hi there Chris, The reality is that most of the products from asia are produced for US manufacturers and to the spec's required by those US manufacturers that put there name on the products and sell here. This has been the model for several decades. While we have indignantly turned up our noses because of the lack of quality the products are being produced for us by out own (US) companies. There are very good quality products manufactured in asia. If you want 100,000 somethings made, write the specifications required, pay for the QA and sell the products where you can; the level of quality is your concern.
Two "Black & Decker " branded products I have used really have me wondering where they originally came from?
30 ? years ago I had a B&D 4 inch paddle switch grinder with gray plastic case. Mine was getting pretty worn from much use and B&D dropped that model.
The Harbor Freight catalog arrived, and sure enough, they had a grinder for sale that looked identical to my old B&D unit, but about 1/3 the price. I ordered one just to see what they were.
The units from B&D and HF appeared to be identical except for the color of the plastic case.
The HF / China unit seemed to be every bit as good as the B&D grinder, I used both for years and later ordered more of the HF grinders, I ordered 5 on sale with shipping to my door for $100. Their so reliable that they will see me out.
Later when both the original gray case B&D grinder and the red HF unit got pretty well used up, I made one from the best parts of both. Not only did they look identical, they WERE identical, as internal parts interchanged.
I have always wondered, were they always made in China and sold as a B&D grinder, or are they an exact clone of an American designed product.
Same question about another Black & Decker product bought from the local hardware store and used hard for many years. This time it was a 14 inch chop saw Branded Black & Decker and marked "Made in Italy". Used that old guy to cut up a train load of steel through the years, but the drive gears were worn razor sharp and starting to flake off the gear teeth. B&D offered no parts supply, or even another saw of the same model. Were thinking we would have to buy another brand / model, but hated to try a different unproven product.
Got to looking through the latest HF catalog, and here was one that looked exactly like my old Italian B&D chop saw, under the "Chicago Electric" brand for less than my old saw cost 20 years earlier ?? We ordered one, it works as well as the original now for going on 5 years.
Edited by Jon Hagen 2/14/2012 21:08
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