Do Quality materials matter?

Well it hasn't been that may years that Japan was the new world power, a little shake and bake took care of that one.

I don't think that we import much more than coffee from them but the strongest economy in the world right now is actually brazil. Get a firm grasp on both cheeks my boys you'll be learning Portuguese before long.

We should no doubt be more involved in our own destiny, but I can tell you all from experience that there are loades of products manufactured right here in the good old US of A that are equally as bad as those cheap Asian imports. The location of the mill is not the problem it is who is minding it that is the problem.

 

young'n'poor, very well said! We all bitch and want someone else to do something!

~Alden

 

Maynerd G. Krebbs could count to 21 naked..

 

We still make a pretty good atomic bomb, so at least we have that going for us.

 

Or 23 if you count the jiggly things. But the real question here is was he really made here and did they use quality materials or just plain old blue collar crap.

And what 9 month old bridge would that be, uh the one that collasped? Was it a failure of the materials or did the PE just forget to get the old slide rule out?

 

Wow:
Somebody's Wheaties must taste like Piss. Could only be the reason for this post ! Somebody got pissed on.

 

At the base of the Bay bridge is the Oakland Ship yards where the equipment and space exist to make cut and weld all the steel that the bridge needed. For castings the best foundry in the world (according to Harry Miller Hall Scott and the Ruxstel company) Was the Macaulay foundry closed in 1996. Only a few miles from the bridge. It's not that we cannot compete it's that we lack the desire.

 

Actually we cannot be competitive, there is no way that you can compete with a country that does not have a minimum wage law.

You probably shouldn't use very many cast parts on a bridge anyway, maybe a few forged parts would work for some of the joints. Cast parts just don't make for real good structural pieces.

There are some powers that you are overlooking here, a lot of what we buy from foreign countries have to do with our foreign policy. To actually get down and discuss it would be political and not appropriate for this site but it is still something that one should consider before embarking on such a large topic as this. Of course that brings us back to usless history, doesn't it.

I think that it would be a good project for you to get right down and reopen those two businesses that you just mentioned, talk is cheap. I am sure that you could make either one fly and be competative on a world market.

 

"It's not that we cannot compete it's that we lack the desire."

I couldn't disagree more. Replace the word 'desire' with 'ability to make an obscene amount of profit', and I'm with you. I'll assure you, on behalf of those who make, fab, weld, and erect, steel and iron, there is absolutely no lack of desire.

 

Just curious, how do you get into this type of field? I am really good a breaking stuff, so I think It would be a good job for me.

 

Slowmotion I could not agree with you more. It all comes back to money when one is talking business, money and ability. A tried and true craftsman is not cheap and if you find cheap you find poor quality.

A real craftsman will cost you and that ranges from materials production to final assembly.

None of this has a damned thing to do with the original discussion it is just a red herring thrown out there to draw attention to something other than the original poorly thouight out statement.

 

So true beaner, sad, that's just the way it is these days.

Hell, let's just get back to talkin' cars and f'getabouthishit.
Somebody stick a fork in this one....

 

And I bet you don't ever use any of that useless math in your processes do you?

 

Let it go man ! It will be stuck in your head and keep you off focus for days !

 

What about the quality of the O rings in those HF jacks?

 

The problem with American education is not that the math is useless it is that the educators do make the links to real world problems. Today we are looking for the proper brake shoes for a 1936 Desoto. Two sets were sent and they were 1/4 off each if installed they just might have caused an accident. Real world problem real world math. The parts are not what is on the box but the guy shipping it had the "right" part number. Given not everyone is an expert on 1936 DeSoto Brake shoes but the difference is clear.

 

"I'm gonna start a thread about how old American-Made stuff is better than new stuff"

Well la-di-freaking da.

 

<style>@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }@font-face { font-family: "Lucida Grande"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> History tells us that resonant frequency contributed to the destruction of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940. Useful thing, history&#8230;

 

its done for me. I have been argueing the finer points of gasserness and making "new friends" in the process.

 

here we go again

 

Using quality materials doesn't mean you'll necessarily have a quality product; but using inferior materials automatically guaranties that the product will never be anymore than inferior.

Back in the late 80s early 90s I was working in a structural steel shop. We just started seeing foreign steel shipments. I was laying out some huge columns (w14x132 ) for a building. When I cut the beam to size, dropped about 9" off the end of it , the sub broke into two pieces. The flange broke right off the web. Nice huh?

 

I like 4X4 or 8X8 wood blocks as jack stands. I have the same HF jack for 11 years. Musta been made wednesday right before lunch.
It never held a car up, but its lifted a bunch.
Hey, that kinda rymes.

 

Carbon Maker, are you just bored or what? Pebble Beach unobtanium, now a rant about cheap crap jacks or stands or whatever.
How about you contribute something relevant to this forum - like traditional hot rods otherwise, go annoy someone else on another forum with your rubbish.
I think the majority are no longer interested.

 

Cat's say meow...

 

Thank you.

 

Carbon, allow me to make a few statements regarding this picture, which I strongly feel by the way is not your best defense.

That said, aftermarket or replacement part manufacturers can't copy a set of original brake shoes exactly as manufactured by the O.E.M. when new. They design them to be replacement and compatable parts, yet not a copied part.
Although the parts you have shown would seem different and not compatable to the novice, a experienced mechanic might just replace the parts without batting a eye. The replacement will not and can not be a mirror image of the original.

You are also showing what appears to be a leading shoe and a trailing shoe. These also will be different from one another and will not mirror each other, as they are different all together.

You also have given a very poor example for us by NOT creating a ARC that would be included in the design of the shoes under normal install and operating conditions. You would need to place a wheel cylinder or create the distance of the cylinder in between the two oposite shoes, AND equally space apart the oposite ends to simulate the correct ARC or circle that would be or simulate the I.D. of the brake drum.

The differences you see in your example are MANUFACTURING differences to avoid any legal issues with manufacturing the replacement part. It seems odd that BOTH sets of shoes are wrong, even though as you say the numbers on the box are correct.

I have tried to be respectable and hopefully help you here, with a very limited and not so clear example.

 

I am going out on a limb here and say that you probably didn't understand algebra, it makes perfect sense to not understand algebra as it is not always logical, but it is the base that you build on to be able to work calculas, trig and geomerty problems that do have real world applications.

They even have applications for us in hot rodding and building of custom chassis etc. As a matter of fact one cannot even have a usable understanding of applied physics without all of the above. All of which we all use on a dailey basis whether we know it or not.

Here is a list of usless math for you:

<TABLE border=1 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5><TBODY><TR><TD></TD><TD>speed</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD>rotation velocity</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD>gear ratio</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD>tire size - radius</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD>effective gear ratio</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD>tire size - diameter</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD>crawl ratio</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

and here is another way to look at it.

Where ​

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=center><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD>speed</TD><TD>= </TD><TD>MPH - miles per hour</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD>tire radius, tire diameter, rim diameter </TD><TD>= </TD><TD>inches </TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD>gear ratio</TD><TD>= </TD><TD>if ring and pinion ratio is 4.10:1 use 4.10 </TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD>rotation velocity</TD><TD>= </TD><TD>RPM - revolutions per minute </TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD>effective gear ratio</TD><TD>= </TD><TD>determine new gear ratio after a tire size change</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD>crawl ratio</TD><TD>= </TD><TD>four wheel drive rear axle differential, transfer
case low range and transmission ratios

</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD>section width</TD><TD>= </TD><TD>millimeters</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD>aspect ratio</TD><TD>= </TD><TD>unitless</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

All this makes perfect sense to you and you can build the equations and manipulate the numbers to make them work for you correct?

This is all just simple high school level math that is applicable to the world that we live in.

I am not trying to be mean to you, I think you are mean enough to your own self without even trying, I am trying to get you to learn to put your thoughts together prior to throwing them out to the world so that you don't have to back up and regroup. If you want to teach anything to the young people that you claim to be teaching the first thing that you want to do it teach them to think. One of the ways that you do that is with worthless math, let them learn what you did not and figure out how to apply it to the world that they live in. If you teach them to think they will not need you to be there to hold their hand through life.

 

Damn that worthless math Benno, and they say that 5 out of 4 people can't even do fractions.

 

Convert them to decimals that's what I do.

I taught my grandaughter to convert to decimals at the dismay of her math teacher. She called the other day and asked me if 2/4 was equal to 1/8. I said what do you do with fractions and she said "Convert" then converted and said, "nope 1/8 is 1/2 of 1/4, thanks grandpa." Smart kid, she really had to work at school, but she did every damned day.

Problem with fractions is that my micrometer is not marked in decimals.

 

P-N-B, heres how I fiqure: CRAWL RATIO= Volume of beverage in C.C. X % of Alchohol Content X Speed of Pour, DIVIDED by # of lap dances MINUS Amount of Cocktail Shrimp per Hour { C.S.H. } consumed.