[TheForge] Chip forge

[Demon Buddha]

Mike Porter wrote:
> Jerry,
> An excellent summation, but maybe it can be fined tuned a bit.
> 
> My rant: It is quite true that broken ceramic chips are what commercial 
> 'forges' use. They can be ordered from Flamefast in England for this 
> very purpose. However, after a lifetime of watching perfectly good 
> tooling replaced in the market by c**p, with no other virtue than the 
> fact that by cheapening the product, it allowed more sales meetings in 
> Hawaii, I for one do not consider "regular industrial grade" 
> manufacturing practices as a badge of honor, but rather as something to 
> be viewed with suspicion if not outright contempt.

	I understand your sentiment, but you should realize that in most cases 
it is baseless.  All things equal, one is going to base a decision such 
as this by weighing costs against benefits.  If it pays to use machinery 
that lasts no more than two years, then that is what you will do if you 
are smart.  This is ever more important in this day and age with 
resource costs going through the roof.  If I use a machine that will 
last forever but eats 8 times the amount of fuel that a crapily 
built-not-to-last machine consumes, the cost analysis may tell you that 
replacing the junk machine every two years will be more cost effective 
than keeping the old one.  If it produces the same or better results on 
a per unit basis, you'd have to be a fool not to take advantage of it.

 > I need hardly point
> to our own famous examples: Big tail fins and chrome, while the rest of 
> the world retooled and made better cars; or how about hydraulic shears 
> because they could be sold for more money, in spite of the fact that 
> they break down constantly, and were never appropriate technology unless 
> the shear was combined with a press? Or, the much smaller example of a 
> one-dollar "U" shaped rubber welding lens seal being taken off the 
> market so that the company's $2.50 folding hard plastic seal (with light 
> leaks all over the place) could be sold more easily. I think any man who 
> worked the trades since world war two can match these with a hundred 
> other stories.

	Well, I certainly cannot argue that many companies make poor decisions 
such as those you cite, but the real test of such choices lies with the 
market.  If there is a demand, sooner or later someone will pick up on 
it and meet it.  I cannot really think of any significant market demand 
that has not been met, save for some freakish ones such as that for hard 
drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine.  But even those 
demands are largely being met, though illicitly.  If the government 
ended the drug war tomorrow, there would be a booming business emerging 
in short order.
>