I generally try to fix everything that breaks. Not like the AVe guy,
but I enjoy fixing stuff, or trying. What I have found over the years
particularly modern history, is tools today are designed to fail. Often
you will find the part that broke even in a good item, was crap. For
example, my wife had a jeep grand cherry and the power window broke.
Jeep wanted $400+ to fix it. It took me 30 minutes to replace the
window regulator. The regulator was one unit, including the motor. You
could not buy replacement parts. What broke was a 50 cent plastic gear.
The only reason to have a 50 cent plastic gear instead of a $1 steel
gear was built in failure. I replaced 3 more regulators @ $100+ apiece
with exactly the same problem. Researching on the internet I learned
this was a VERY common problem.
Similar problem with a White-Rodgers zone valve on my furnace. Valve
quit working and when I ripped apart the valve mechanism, it was another
50 cent plastic gear that broke. No replacement parts for that either,
had to replace the entire $125 valve mechanism.
HF tools are amazingly cheap, and more often than not, the things that
make them fail do not amount to all that much, and it seems to me with a
few more dollars they could be make stuff to last a LOT longer for not
much more money. Good example would be the Drill AVe reviewed and
according to him, the lousy heat sink and placement would be the major
failure point. I bet they paid some engineer extra to design in that
failure point, so it cost them more to make an inferior design...
Personally, I think manufacturers could make good stuff for a lot less
than they charge, and they simply price items based on how long before
you will be buying another rather than how much they cost to make. I
know there is a correlation between cost of parts and selling price, but
I know it is nowhere near proportional.
--
Jack
Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.
http://jbstein.com