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I bought a weight set that included a rack. Of course they're all made in China so you have no choice.

While I'm putting together the rack I notice that their 17mm bolts are so far out of spec that the 17mm socket fits so loosely that I'm afraid it's going to strip the cheap Chinesium metal they're made out of, and of course 16mm won't fit. But that wasn't the worst of it. The retarded moron who designed the thing put the bolt holes so close to corners that you can't fit a wrench on the bolt. Dude, this is like comical Kindergarten-level engineering.

Then the dumbbells themselves. Ho-lee-shit. The "20 lb" ones weighed in at 21.5 lbs. each, but the 30 lb. ones were 29 lbs. Every weight was off by 10-20%.

You'd think that's all that could be wrong with a set of dumbbells, but you'd be wrong. They were also rubber coated, but the rubber stank so bad I couldn't bring them in the house. First I tried washing them with soap and water. Then I tried leaving them in the sun for three days in 90+ degree weather to bake off the smell. Then I left them sit in the garage for a week and they still stank up the whole garage. After the week several of the weights started developing cracking and peeling rubber.

So I had to return that set and went looking. Every fucking weight I can find at any store anywhere is similar junk. I found some plain cast iron dumbbells at a local sporting goods store, but of course they're made in China. Some of them have knurling on the handles and others don't. Some of them have sharp metal burrs on the handles that would cut your hand. Some of the heavier ones had the weights detaching from the handle, or had rust.

WHAT. THE. FUCK. Why can't they just make something even half way decently without some white guys standing over them to supervise they way Apple has to?

I bought a weight set that included a rack. Of course they're all made in China so you have no choice. While I'm putting together the rack I notice that their 17mm bolts are so far out of spec that the 17mm socket fits so loosely that I'm afraid it's going to strip the cheap Chinesium metal they're made out of, and of course 16mm won't fit. But that wasn't the worst of it. The retarded moron who designed the thing put the bolt holes so close to corners that you can't fit a wrench on the bolt. Dude, this is like comical Kindergarten-level engineering. Then the dumbbells themselves. Ho-lee-shit. The "20 lb" ones weighed in at 21.5 lbs. each, but the 30 lb. ones were 29 lbs. Every weight was off by 10-20%. You'd think that's all that could be wrong with a set of dumbbells, but you'd be wrong. They were also rubber coated, but the rubber stank so bad I couldn't bring them in the house. First I tried washing them with soap and water. Then I tried leaving them in the sun for three days in 90+ degree weather to bake off the smell. Then I left them sit in the garage for a week and they still stank up the whole garage. After the week several of the weights started developing cracking and peeling rubber. So I had to return that set and went looking. Every fucking weight I can find at any store anywhere is similar junk. I found some plain cast iron dumbbells at a local sporting goods store, but of course they're made in China. Some of them have knurling on the handles and others don't. Some of them have sharp metal burrs on the handles that would cut your hand. Some of the heavier ones had the weights detaching from the handle, or had rust. WHAT. THE. FUCK. Why can't they just make something even half way decently without some white guys standing over them to supervise they way Apple has to?

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[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

Understanding how the Chinese buy parts to make things is the key. I have a relative that tried to have furniture manufactured in China. Eventually it was a disaster and they had to stop and the following is why.

Lets say a chair requires 4 different kinds of bolts. They will send someone down to one of these Chinese markets and look for bolts, any bolts it doesn't matter if they fit the spec or not, just something kind of close. They will then make the chair with these random bolts they purchased. Next month when they have to fill an order for 10000 more chairs, they'll do the same. Of course the random bolts they buy next time will be completely different and will not match the previous month's production. And those bolts might also be crap or made out of Zinc and end up breaking. Specs don't matter much. A blueprint is a suggestion to them, not a mandate.

(These markets are huge by the way and vendors are selling literally anything and everything. However its always whatever they managed to get ahold of, or had extras of, or whatever. So no way to predict what they'll have in stock.)

Everything they make is like that, they don't produce much to spec as much as buy whatever random stuff they can get at whatever price. They'll change out plastics, casters, the upholstery even for different colors, etc. Making anything consistently is impossible.

The only way you can make a quality product in China is if you own the factory and you make or source all the parts yourself, in order to make sure all the parts will always be the exact same ones and to spec. Otherwise expect to get whatever random stuff they bought at the nearest market.