Re: (ET) the tools discussion

["David Roden" <etpost drmm net>]

In spite of my father's admonition, many years ago I did buy a few cheap 
tools, thinking as David Robie does that I wasn't going to use them 
frequently.  I soon discovered a few things about them.

1. They never work as well as good tools, even when new.  Things don't fit 
right.  They don't have the power they should.  They're not sharp or 
smooth 
or even as they should be.  They don't fit the hand well.  They make the 
work harder than it needs to be.

2. Even if you think you'll use the tool just a few times, a few years 
later 
you often discover that you've used it *more* than a few times.  You 
realize 
this when you're in a hurry and the d**m thing breaks or quits.

3. Don't even bother trying to fix it.  Spare parts aren't available.

In the last post, I alluded to a cheap strut spring compressor.  Here's 
the 
story.

Many years ago I ordered some strut cartridges for my VW from Recycled 
Bugs 
Inc. (remember them?).  I was planning to rent a spring compressor, but 
the 
order taker sold me a cheap one, saying it wasn't top quality, but was 
"good 
enough to use every 5 years."

As soon as I opened the box, I knew I'd made a mistake.  It was cheap 
Chinese junk.  They were grainy cast metal.  But I was trying to change 
the 
struts, it was late on Saturday, and I didn't want to try to find a rental 
shop still open (this was before the chain auto parts companies started 
renting tools).  So I tried them anyway.  

I got the spring on one strut compressed, all right, and got the new 
cartridge installed.  Then I went to loosen the compressors, and found 
that 
one of the  castings had cross-threaded.  It was seized up.  Couldn't 
loosen 
it to finish the job.

For a while I thought I was going to have to cut it off, and was trying to 
figure out how to do that without releasing the spring and killing myself. 
 
I had about decided I'd have to wait until Monday, borrowing a car to get 
to 
work.  I'd rent a *real* spring compressor to release the tension, and 
just 
remove the cr***y one and dump it in the trash can.  

Fortunately, I was able to free it up by dousing it with penetrating oil, 
chucking it in the vise, and applying a piece of pipe on my breaker bar.  
In 
retrospect I'm lucky it didn't break, sending bits flying everywhere.

I rebuilt the other strut the following weekend, and rented a proper 
spring 
compressor for it.  Lesson learned.  Never again have I bought a cheap 
tool. 
 And come to that I don't think I ever bought anything from RBI again, 
either.

To bring this back round to the ET : many of us are still using 30 year 
old 
tractors because they were built well.  That's one reason we like them, or 
at least one reason I do - they're not cheap disposable tractors like the 
ones sold at the home stores.  ETs' price tags weren't small when new, but 
they're quite affordable now.  

Just as a 30 year old ET is likely to outlast your neighbor's new Toro 
from 
Home Depot, a good used hand or power tool (bought from Ebay if necessary) 
is usually a better deal than a new cheapie purchased from HF.


David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA

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