China made Lyman

[floydster]

After 6 casting sessions my Lyman Big Dipper pot burned out--no more Lyman products for me.
My friend has two Lee pots he has had for 18 years and still going strong, hench I ordered a Lee pot.
Just a heads up.

[Jammer Six]

Sorry to hear about your pot.

I doubt it has anything to do with China.

I prefer equipment and weapons made overseas.

[Vance]

It has everything to do with China. Lyman has chosen to have their stuf made in a Chinese factory now and the Chinese are notorious for using low quality parts to make anything.

Lyman has raised their prices also instead of lowering them because they are now getting cheap junk from China.

[Jammer Six]

I'm a retired general contractor.

Over the last ten years, we bought equipment, hundreds of thousands of dollars of it, from different manufacturers. Some made here, some in Taiwan, some in China, some in Korea, some in Brazil.

The equipment that came from overseas not only met our specs, it exceeded expectations in the majority of purchases.

The lower prices overseas frequently made the difference between "we can do this" and "no, it's too much."

That difference kept us going.

Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese and other foreign companies meet specs.

If those specs are low, the product is low end. If those specs are high, the product is high end.

If you have a product in your hand that doesn't do what it was advertised to do, the nationality of the factory has nothing to do with it. What matters is who wrote the specs.

And for that, you should look closer to home.

The rest is fear, arm waving and xenophobia.

Carry on.

[m&p45acp10+1]

Have you contacted Lyman about your problem? I am sure there is some kind of waranty. Usualy part of the high price is the waranty.

Oh and I have one of those China made Lyman Big Dipper pots. I have been putting it to use, and it works just fine. I would rather have a Lee I will attest to that. The Lyman came from a trade, and it was all the guy had worth trading for so I took the deal. If I were paying up money from my pocket I would purchase the Lee as to the fact that most of my reloading stuff is Lee.

[Vance]

I speak from experience also. Everything I have ever bought that said "Made in China" on it regardless of brand has been junk. It does not last very long ( 1 year, 2 at the most), is full of glitches and not worth the money spent on it. Unfortunately, most of the products out there are made in China and you don't have a choice if you want that particular item. Can junk be made in other countries? Yes, but 90% of it comes from China. If I have a choice of brands A or B where brand A is made in China and brand B in any other country, I will choose brand B.

[Jammer Six]

Xenophobia.

[ScottRiqui]

Jammer - I agree with you totally, it's all about the specifications and how willing you are to hold the manufacturing facility to them.

All of Apple's products are made in China, and if you look closely at them, the workmanship is impressive. Seams so tight and uniform that they're practically invisible, laptop cases CNC-milled from solid blocks of aluminum alloy, glass screens where other manufacturers may use plastic, and all of the markings are either silkscreened or laser-engraved, rather than being painted on (or even worse, labels.) Everything is held together with fine-pitch stainless steel screws fastened into metal-threaded inserts, rather than coarse-pitch mild steel fasteners screwed directly into molded plastic threads.

There's no inherent "goodness" or "badness" in a product that comes from where it's manufactured. China's manufacturing capacity is as good as anyone's, but like any manufacturer, you have to do your part by providing them with a good design and holding them responsible for meeting your specifications.

[hornetguy]

Xenophobia

Perhaps a little judgemental?

If he has had bad experiences with Chinese products, and has arrived at his decision to not buy products from China based on those experiences, then xenophobia doesn't even enter into it.

If he had never purchased any Chinese products, and didn't like them simply because they weren't "made in Amurrrica" then your observation might have some validity.

I've had one Italian made car that was mechanically sound, but the electrical system was trash. I've heard similar reports from numerous sources about other Italian made cars.
If I choose to not buy an Italian made car, am I being xenophobic, as well?

[floydster]

Jammer, ya I hate strangers and foreigners, I could say you are a stranger to me, but I won't.
I think you owe me an apology

[Vance]

Apple products. Made by slave labor.

[snuffy]

Floyd, good luck trying to get warranty service from Lyman. They'll fight you tooth and nail, then take months to replace the pot IF they deem it to be defective. Be prepared to ship it back to them, then wait a L--O--N--G time for the replacement.

There's places on the internet where you can get heater coils that can be bent to accommodate the shape of the pot. Repair might be the best option, because the replacement might just burn out again.

Even buying parts turns into a waiting game. I won a bid on fleaby for a lyman 450 sizer. I paid too much for it, then when it arrived found the pressure screw shaft to be stripped. The piston was the old brass piston ring design, so I order all new guts including the bottom plug and all "O" rings. It took almost three weeks for the stuff to get here, no notice of receiving the order, or that it had been shipped.

[ScottRiqui]

Apple products. Made by slave labor.

Way to miss the point completely...nicely done.

[Vance]

OH. I got the point that you like Apple product because they are good quality. Your choice if you want to promote slave labor. And yes, I have had three different I-Pods go bad on me. Each lasted a year. All I ever did was listen to music with them. They were never dropped or abused.

[ScottRiqui]

Well maybe you just have crappy luck with consumer goods, then. With literally hundreds of millions of iPods alone in circulation, you just happen to go three-for-three in killing them within a year.

[pgdion]

With very few exceptions (like maybe 1) products made in China continue to disappoint. Many do not work properly to begin with and must be 'fixed' before being even usable. Those that do work have poor service life and require regular repairs to keep them going. None of the Chinese or other asian parts hold up anywhere near as well as the US products do. As far as specs, we routinely get product from China that does not meet it's published specs. Quality is generally poor there, you can spec it but it doesn't mean it will be made that way. You can't always avoid China but it is always a last choice for me and then only if I need the product. Sometimes I'll just do without or make my own. I always buy Made in USA or Canada first, followed by European, followed by any place but China. And the companies that manufacture here in the US will always get my dollars first (just ordered $50 worth of Xcelite screwdrivers for instance).

Oh yea, and my one exception, I have a mini Lathe. It's not great, but it's pretty good and has held up well. I do plan to buy a mini-mill to go with it. So far it's my one 'cubic zirconia' in the rough.

[Jammer Six]

The myth of Apple products being made by slave labor has been dispelled, long ago.

[Vance]

You obviously don't watch the news then, do you?

[floydster]

I see logic is not one of Jammers attributes

[floydster]

They won't do anything for me on the warranty, it was one week out of the one year warranty--so it goes in the trash.
I am 76 years old and have bought many Lyman products over the 60 years I have been reloading--I can remember the old Lyman ( American) Gunsight Corp., there was none better, how things have changed!!

[GP100man]

Hey floydster do ya turn it wide open until it melts the lead then turn it down ??? If ya do then they ain`t 1 on earth that will withstand it for long !!

Had Lees for yrs. & had steady problems with thermostats & elements (probably no more than usual) until I stopped turning em wide open (initially) to get the lead melted .

& my troubles lightened when I finally bought a thermometer, instead of runnin hotter the better.

& my take on the imported stuff is, we would be hard pressed to try & buy all "USA MADE" to make life go on.

Sad ,but true

[floydster]

GP, yup,that,s what I did, don't remember anything in the manual not to do this. Thanks for the tip. The Lee pot I ordered is 500 watts where the Lyman pot was 850, so maybe that will be better.

[Cascade1911]

Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese and other foreign companies meet specs.

Maybe yes, maybe no. I've had the opportunity to test the composition of various castings made in China. Maybe half of them meet the spec they were ordered too. My wife worked for company that would buy pipe flanges in bulk from India. Every one of them had to be re-threaded because the threads were cut incorrectly. Even though these products were wrong the companies buying them choose to ignore it because they were cheap, at least to start with.

Oh, and I just love lead and melamine in food products and toys. Does that meet spec?

We just love to impose all sorts of health/ safety/ wage and environmental regulations in this country and then buy all our products from places where those regulations don't exist.

Was looking to get a furnace, now I know it won't be from Lyman.

[Jammer Six]

You enforce specs, they meet them. If you don't, they don't.

Just like Americans that way.

[floydster]

No more comments from me on this thread, some of the posts are beyond my reason