When you "Make Things", it can be for any of several reasons. You can just "make" stuff. It looks rough and wobbly. Full of scratches - but hey ... It was hand "made". That kind may have started with an attempt to beat the "commercial" price. You might make things that are unavailable elsewhere. And make them good or poorly. You might attempt to make something "superior to" the commercial variant. It will take longer to make something which is not commercially available, made well, and ..... If the maker has ferreted out a few secrets and "better ways " of doing things - you can get a fine product for your wait.

On some molds I recently made ... I used a nice grade of commercial handles. Now - I don't like the slap/clap version of molds where everything is supposed to "find" it's way to registry once jiggled closed on a flurry of clatter. I like precision. In the pics - you will note that the handle arms - which are supposed to be dead flat and straight - are twisted and uneven. As revealed by the first pass of my surface grinder. I wish I'd have thought to take a pic of the previous set. They were twice as bad. You see here, a progression of pics as I grind slowly. I eventually wind up with flat precision ground handle arms, and a nice fit into the milled slots in the mold blocks.

You don't see any of this if you don't know to look for it. It all takes time you rarely get paid for. I can't know how bad each commercial handle is going to be before I attach it and begin precision surface grinding. This is one reason I have designed my own Barnes Forward Bearing handle sets for my commercial long term molds. Not required. Just better.

It's usually what you don't see that makes the difference. .

Thks for reading. Gary.

Learned something new, thanks Gary.

Very nice precision tool. The extra effort will be appreciated for year's. ...

If it looks right, it'll work right. Right?

Interesting, you cannot assume anything purchased now a days will be accurate even though it "looks" like is!

Any one notice how many shafts on equipment are no longer faced? Simply saw cut and chamfered. Skipping one step of machining to save the few seconds it takes on a CNC to spit out production.

Pedro

I have noticed that, but then not every shaft end NEEDS to be machined perfectly flat either. Saw cut by modern machinery can be pretty smooth and consistent, it's not like they're being hack-sawed by hand.

The thing that really bothers me is when they sell angle iron or I-beams that were cut by a high-speed friction-type bandsaw, the slag/burr it leaves behind is sharp as a knife, I've cut myself pretty deeply a couple of times on that.