Let the hijacking continue...................it's all Mike's fault I'm sure........he started this thread.

Some of us are old enough to remember back in the '50s when "cheap junk" usually meant that the piece or package said "Made in Japan". But as the years progressed and the Japanese became more aware and financially able their quality improved............improved to the point where, at least in perception if not reality, their products became the world standard. Cameras, bicycles, electronic gear, automobiles, you name it. Fast forward a bit and the "Made in Taiwan" cycle began much the same. Today, the higher quality hand tools available are made in Taiwan.............if rumor is to be believed, even the vaunted Snap-On produces there (provable in their JH Williams industrial brand for sure). Some think that Taiwan and China are the same thing, but of course they are very different. So now we're to mainland China. There too if you are willing to take a closer look the cycle continues, with a proviso. My opinion is that the communist mentality will likely hamper, if not completely squelch the historical cycle that the other countries mentioned enjoyed. Perhaps not, depends on how the market pushes them.

Earlier this year I got tired of layered tools in my old 41" stacked tool box and opted for something larger to allow better organization. In the search I did plenty of online research. Those of you who have tried this realize what a mine field that can become. There's lots of good infor, mixed with lots of opinion that ranges from useful to completely useless and foolish. While I would have loved to have had one of the higher end tool truck boxes at this point in life it just didn't make sense financially. Some online brag about the good deals available on those boxes used, say through Craigslist. Well, that must be a regional thing because the ones around here that were of a size an style I wanted rarely seemed to go for under $3k. Were I more patient I might have been able to go for months in the hope of finding "that guy" who was just desperate enough to grab a lowball offer, but during the weeks I looked no such opportunity presented itself. Looking for larger size boxes then became an exercise of comparing import boxes, almost all made in mainland China. There are a ton of people who inhabit a site called Garage Journal, and many of them brag on the "quality", features and price of the large roll around at Harbor Freight. Man do they gush. Many disagree, but from an analysis point of view, they mostly seem to be the tool truck customer professionals who were perhaps snobish, perhaps trying to justify the high dollars they spent. Admittedly there's a significant difference in useage and motivation between a pro and a hobbyist, so that muddies the water too. Anyway, when I went down to HF to check out this miracle of marketing that can provide both high quality and low price reality raised it's familiar head. Those guys have different standards than I do, maybe driven by where we each are in life experiences, but different none the less. When I pull out a drawer I like to feel what I would call "substance". A certain weightiness that implies heavier grade materials. I don't want the roller slides to feel like there are tiny bits of gravel in them, they need a level of smoothness, even when the drawer is unweighted. Sorry guys, that HF box don't do it for me. I did end up with a "made in China" box that did in fact have a much higher quality feel. Smooth drawer slides (that got even smoother once the drawers were loaded), 18 gauge drawers rather than 20 or 22, and so on. As "good" as the Snap-On Epiq? Not likely, but good enough for who it's for................................which could be said of the lesser boxes as well I suppose.

The point of that longish story is that "Made in China" probably won't remain a curse term forever, but will evolve into a layered quality supply source much as the others are and were. The new demon will change, perhaps "Lower Slobolvia" or someplace like that. And the argument about supporting American jobs is pointless until we change the way and who of our election choices.