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Saturday, September 18, 2010

Crap From China

I bought an electric grease gun. It cost $200. It is an 18 volt and develops something like 7,000lbs of pressure. I broke it within an hour.
I bought the grease gun because my grain drill has 58 grease zerks that need to be greased every day. Some of them are in hard to reach places and I just don't get it done like I need to.
I tried the grease gun out on the plow. Some of the grease fittings don't take grease very well. The gun pulled down a little but it was pumping. Then I noticed grease oozing from a crack in the casting on top of the gun. I kept using it and it didn't get worse. But the grease hose would come unscrewed if I tried to grease a plugged fitting. So, I sent it back.
It came from a local supplier and I bought it through the Brother's so it was all a family thing. The Uncle thought it was an Alemite but it was a Plews. China likes to buy up old brands and use the names on stuff that is absolute crap.
In other China news...
I bought a Pyle radio for the 2-135. It was $50. I bought it because it has dual shafts like a radio should have. I figured I would be able to change stations and volume while the tractor was bouncing along, instead of being directed to some computer menu on a stupid radio.
The radio is incredibly cheap. It has slots for USB or a memory card or a mini jack for an iPod. But, no station presets. I have not installed it yet.

They still used the Pyle brand and font on the packaging but the instructions are in Chinglish.
I also bought LED headlights for $40 from Northern Hydraulics. They are pretty cheesy as well.
The fellow who brought out the grease gun said the cheap LED's are not very good. I suspect he is correct. I did not want to pay $100 for a headlight.
I bought the LED light because they only draw 1.3 amps. Supposedly they put out as much light as a halogen. I have a lot of lights on the 2-155 and I thought that replacing two 8 amp halogens with 1.3 amp bulbs would help on the current draw.
We shall see...
Yesterday we brought home the silage chopper.
I oiled it and greased it and hooked it to the 2-135. Everything works. All the electric controls, the reversing gearbox, the metal alert makes a horrible shriek and stops the feed rolls unexpectedly, and I guess that is what it is supposed to do. I think the metal alert may be a problem. I think it is only supposed to shriek when metal is near the feed rolls and not just at random.
We shall see...

9 comments:

  1. I was reading "Chinglish" directions once and they instructed me to put nut E on happy bolt D. The problem was, there were four bolt D's, and for the life of me, I couldn't tell which was the "happy" one!

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  2. Sounds like Harbor Freight Tools store here-- cheap stuff from China. I know better, but sometimes I just have to give them another try.

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  3. Its true, sometimes the bargain stuff is not reallly a bargain. Reminds me of an old timer's comment when he was shopping for hack saw blades in the local hardware. The clerk asked if he wanted the cheap blades or the expensive blades. The old timer replied, "the expensive ones are the cheapest". I've never forgotten that but haven't always managed to live by it.

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  4. I'm fighting off the urge to try out one of those Honda knock-offs on a tree elevator. $150 is more attractive than $400, but downtime with a crew standing around and a pissed-off trucker is not attractive. I think back to the Briggs & Crappin days and will likely shell out for a Honda.

    We've had no complaints with our Lincoln gun, but I've heard that Alemite is better. Ours survived being run over by a forklift, but the replacement plastic cover was priced pretty high.

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  5. Reminds me of the Harbour Freight band saw I bought once. I thought as I was putting it together I would just buy US bolts and not deal with the metric bolts it came with. Then discovered that the bolts that came with the saw were US thread with metric hex heads ???

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  6. Remember when we complained about Japanese junk instead of Chinese crap? Hmmm....no, some of you may not!

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  7. Doing a 2000 mile cross country biff-off between the made in China iPhone and an Android unit built by our friends in Taiwan. 30 day trial then one gets voted off the bandwagon.

    Chan's peppered shrimp is indeed delicious. Nice to catch up with you, Mrs. Sheppard & daughter.





    C

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  8. You Bad man slander China products! China #1 you Lazy Farmer person Number 10!! I spit on Lazy USA product and on on your Lazy person!!

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  9. Anonymous, it is because I am a running dog of capitalistic imperialism!
    But you bring up a good point. Why is China products such dog poo-poo? It is like they are made that way on purpose. I understand they must be made cheap but I know we have been sending them some good quality scrap metal. perhaps they are not given the same formula for cheap plastics or there is this one key ingredient left out of their cast iron. Why?

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