The Log Carrier

[jackellis]

A cautionary tale of sorts. The item in question clearly says "Made in China" but it could have been made in any number of places.

LOML bought me a log carrier for Christmas (she's into buying practical gifts for the house which is fine with me). This morning I attempted to assemble it and found the following obvious manufacturing errors:

Axles were not the same size.

Washers did not fit one of the axles.

Other axle had a burr on it. The axles appear to be made of machined sheet steel rather than a solid piece of steel bar.

Several of the tubes also had burrs on them, which could cause minor injury if somone ran their hand along the tube.

But the corker was the welding. Only four of them but lots of voids and in one case, what appears to be either contamination or abysmal technique or something. The "weld" looked like a honeycomb. I'm certain that particular weld would fail as soon as the carrier was loaded with wood. The others had gaps that would provide excellent sites for corrosion, even though the whole thing has a black coating (of dubious quality).

We bought this one at Orchard Supply and it's obviously going back.

I don't think everything made in China is crap or that everything made in the USA (or Japan for that matter) is top quality. Just an anecdote and a heads-up to look things over carefully before you buy (IF you can).

[cabinetman]

I bought 4 of the folding adjustable roller stands at HF. Finding out the details of lack of quality control may not be obvious until you get the product home and open up all the parts bags.

I have no complaints about the stands, but rather they work great and were a good buy. On two of the four, there were washers that weren't itemized on the parts list, and didn't fit any of the connections. There were extra pivot axles that didn't fit the holes, and were just in the bag. So, the question in your case might be do you try to correct the problems to make it work, or just take it back? If I can't live with the quality, there are options. Of course, the options or alternatives may not be any better, and could be worse.
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[Uncle Cracker]

It's a conspiracy. The Chinese are patiently waiting for the day when all able-bodied Americans are frustrated, distracted and engrossed in trying to assemble HF equipment, at which time, they're gonna sneak over here and take over the whole country...

[Ed62]

If I go to Harbor Freight or Big Lots (rarely), I look things over the best I can before buying. I also try to stick with the items that carry the "Good Buy" label from sites like this one. I'd rather not have to take things back.

Ed