Are Really Well Made Things Made Anymore?

[500N]

Chainsaws. Another thing where old models are so much better than the modern crap.

What is interesting is old, broken, not working models are highly sought after and go for good $$$ on ebay or gumtree
and a bloke who serviced mine said that will always be the case.

[Beaufort]

Interesting point you make about chainsaws. Over the years I've owned Stihl and Sachs Dolmar, various sizes from 14" bar up to 36", when they gave up the ghost and needed replacing I found a German manufactured machine called 'ForestPro', I had never heard of them but they had good reviews from professional tree surgeons so gave it a go. The only fault I can find with it is that that the choke feels a little plasticky and therefore possibly vulnerable. I've had this machine over two years now and have been very pleased with it. This has a 20" bar and as for price was about a fifth in comparison with the aforementioned makes.

[500N]

Good to know, thanks.

I have a Stihl 041 that a farmer bought for me at a farm clearance sale.

Not used much now but great little saw.

[dubbleyew eight]

Question though: why don't you like OS X? Just curious.

if you drown your iPhone in the ocean by falling off some rocks and you replace said totally non water resistant iPhone with a waterproof samsung galaxy 5.
you can get some software to migrate your address book.
the samsung software loads ok.
don't need to use it again so delete it off the iMac.
then you find...
you don't have access to your root password.
that means instead of change user to root, change directory to the root of the software and remove the directory tree. 3 commands with options effectively.
apple requires that you remove all 700,000 files off the machine. you format the disk and reload the entire operating system.
you also find that the samsung software is installed with privileges higher than yours as the machine owner.
none of the apple software can be used to remove the samsung software since it didn't come through the apple store.
the asinine stupidity of OSX has to be seen to be believed some times. other than that it is great.

[dubbleyew eight]

I have to say that I have something made in china sitting in front of me that is superb.
it is a dolphin brand calculator.
10 digits.
sine, cos , tan, hyperbolic functions, binary, octal, hexadecimal, decimal.
good tactile feel to the keys.
works superbly. in fact it returns the exact same answers as my hewlett packard RPN calculators.
it was $5 in woolies.

[Ancient Mariner]

Really well made things are still available, you just have to pay the price.
As for things being better made in them olden days? Bollocks, they were crude crap who's only redeeming side was the ease of which they could be repaired due to their simple construction.
Would I like to substitute one of our new cars with something we owned in the 70/80/90'ies? Would I hell!
Per

[dubbleyew eight]

my father was marvelling at my little mazda 121 jellybean.
I drove it for 300,000 km without significant failures.( a petrol pump wore its bearings out)
at 300,000 it was still not burning oil and still using just 5.4 litres per hundred km.
my father looked at it and shook his head.
"back in my day if you wanted to keep a car it would need a total engine rebuild every 50,000miles (80,000km)"

[om15]

Motorbikes are, my oldest current bike was manufactured in 1961, every trip requires painstaking preparation, tightening everything, replenishing fluids and so on, and on completion the various defects have to be rectified, in the main these aren't particularly age related, more design and build failures.
My newest bike is a 2012 Hinkley Triumph, reliable, extremely well made, high quality materials used, very cleaver technology used in the design, so yes really well made things are still made

[Slasher]

requires painstaking preparation, tightening everything, replenishing fluids and so on, and on completion the various defects have to be rectified,

Yep. Same goes for sex over 60.

[om15]

Same goes for sex over 60.

Yes, I remember back then

[500N]

screwdrivers

I had to get my Stanley kit out the other day, 12 or so screwdrivers which I think my bother gave me for my
18th or 21st Birthday. All still going strong, most well used.

I think every screwdriver I have purchased since then - normally cheaper one's - for "other applications" like water sports etc has at some point bent the tip or worn easily.

Do they make the same quality tools any more ?

Spanners are the same.

[om15]

Yes, actually the range of good quality tools is better now than ever, when I started building up my tool kit (aircraft hand tools), the choice was really crap British stuff like snail brand, Britool, King Dick and huge drop forged spanners, or ruinously expensive Snap On stuff.
Now there is a range or really good quality spanners, sockets and so on manufactured in France (Facom), Germany (Stahwily), USA (Craftesman) all readily available on the internet, the old British rubbish tools have now been replaced by a new Britool and King Dick with slim well made tools of high quality.
I have no real nostalgia for old things mechanical, it's nice to see hundred year old steam engines and so on, but in general most things mechanical benefit from advanced technology, better materials and good old competition.

[Ex-Ascot]

Speak for yourself Slasher.

I think that my Leatherman and Mrs Ex-Ascot who are both always with me can be counted as a good products. One is a bit older than the other. No guessing at which please otherwise there will be trouble.