slice
Active Member
I was listening to an interview with Donald Trump the other day. He was listing things about our economy that China has taken over to our detriment. One of the things he listed was "screws". I didn't think too much of it at the time....
Until yesterday when I was assembling a set of metal sawhorses. It was an inexpensive stamped metal set, but called itself rated for 1000 lbs each.
The components were reasonably well made, the finish was OK, bolt holes lined up well, but the parts that made it a sawhorse instead of loose pieces of metal; the hardware, was complete junk. I would have been better off throwing the included screws, nuts and bolts away and buying my own (which would have cost as much as the entire kit).
It dawned on me then that much of my "some assembly required" items I've bought the past few years have included pure junk for fasteners. You can't even tighten a nut without stripping the threads or breaking the bolt head off.
"The Donald" thought that Chinese made screws was important enough to mention in that interview. The more I think about it, it IS important that our devices are assembled with quality fasteners.
What would we do if all our fasteners failed?
Wouldn't that be an insidious way to take over a country? Infiltrate their fastener manufacturing; cause them all to fail on cue? It would make an interesting scifi story...
If a politician thought as much as "The Donald" about screws, he might sponsor some law against imported fasteners.
But the reason China has taken over our fastener manufacturing is not because there has not been a law in place to prevent it, China took/is taking over because domestic manufacturing has been priced out of the market.
Until yesterday when I was assembling a set of metal sawhorses. It was an inexpensive stamped metal set, but called itself rated for 1000 lbs each.
The components were reasonably well made, the finish was OK, bolt holes lined up well, but the parts that made it a sawhorse instead of loose pieces of metal; the hardware, was complete junk. I would have been better off throwing the included screws, nuts and bolts away and buying my own (which would have cost as much as the entire kit).
It dawned on me then that much of my "some assembly required" items I've bought the past few years have included pure junk for fasteners. You can't even tighten a nut without stripping the threads or breaking the bolt head off.
"The Donald" thought that Chinese made screws was important enough to mention in that interview. The more I think about it, it IS important that our devices are assembled with quality fasteners.
What would we do if all our fasteners failed?
Wouldn't that be an insidious way to take over a country? Infiltrate their fastener manufacturing; cause them all to fail on cue? It would make an interesting scifi story...
If a politician thought as much as "The Donald" about screws, he might sponsor some law against imported fasteners.
But the reason China has taken over our fastener manufacturing is not because there has not been a law in place to prevent it, China took/is taking over because domestic manufacturing has been priced out of the market.
