Proudly assembled in the US with Chinese stuff

[Shawn]

How many Made in China Stickers did you find on your Meade equipment...
I found 3, plus one molded into the plastic, whats goin on.?,,,whilst the optics are great, some of the rest, in particilar assembly, is dubios. Screws holding on be 1 or 2 threads in Aluminium,,!!!!, The three bolts that hold the wedge together are magnetic, makes the compass always points North .. "Easily changed by taking a screw out...when I was boating that was called swinging the compass.... No machined surfaces between the wegde assembly parts, still have cast draft angle. Oh yeah and heres a good one,,,those cute litle vibe damp pads you get with them, dont put one under a 14" One of mine exploded under the weight, near S#@t myself.
The Dec Gear assy had under it a piece of foam backing, it could not stay still, I think it is an attempt to stop the noise. It didnt work, I shimmed mine with aluminum, Rock solid now. and quieter.

And yes I hate to bring this up again, but you can surf the net all you like but,,,It will take an age to find out that the Ultra Wedge is useless at less than 23deg S or N.

Thats my ***** for the night because my finder just fell off because of item 1 on my ***** list....

Stiff upper lip old chum:)

Anyone had similar greif.

[Shawn]

Anyone got a finder 8x50 Meade for sale, or shall I take this to buy sell trade...Boo hoo hooo

[Shawn]

Adding to my own Thread, Maybe being assembled in China would have been the go. Could have been a lot cheaper, and more attention paid to detail...
Anyway Im off to buy a Humber. American oh ha ha ha...

[asimov]

Interesting. Any pics of this chinese/American beast?

[Shawn]

Yup, its under post a pic of you kit, very recent,,,you think my post is a bit harsh ???

[asimov]

Hell no, the truth is the truth. I'd be more than bloody annoyed if bits started falling off my scope too!

[GrampianStars]

It's all made in China under licence

[asimov]

Are you including Takahashi's there?

[Shawn]

Yup, Ok ,,,good design, good optics, some good engineering, some shocking, overall assembly poor. honestly I think Meade are going the wrong way, The chinese would do a better job if given the task from whoa to yehaa....And I dont like saying that...to be honest.

[Shawn]

Oh Ok now im with it , Proudly assembled in the US means, duh duh duh ...At least now I know why they call them finders,,,,because its real hardto find all the bits when they fit the bricks...LOL

[asimov]

Same thing with a few scopes of mine in the past; reasonable optics, crap build quality overall. Just little things like what you mentioned. Rough casting where it should be machined, instead lets shove a big dob of thick grease in there! etc etc. I'm not saying Meade here, Just generally speaking.

[Shawn]

Hell nt everyone is an engineer, nor has an ounce of nouce as how these things function. but Im sure the same build quality is extended right down the line, how many keen enthusiastic astronomers are going to loose heart because they have no idea how to fix the stuff that should have worked when they bought it,,,hey Rob isnt Takahashi Japanese...Ill buy their stuff any day...

[Shawn]

Sorry asimov, not Rob

[Shawn]

Oh yeah we had a term too for the cheapest manufacturer when I was involved in farm equipment. we called them "Under Liscences".

[asimov]

I still have my gun license :lol: Takahashi is Japanese yep.

[Shawn]

Good one Asimov, Ive got Coxwain , gun , all the moving vificle liscences you can list except bus or at least without passengers, but if I could a liscence to build these machines properly, I would be a wealthy man.

PS Still got a big bandaid on me typing fingers from an unfortunate counterweight rail accident hence being unable to not press only one key at a time.. plse forgive the the typos...


Shawn

Anyway, pleasure to meet you

[mick pinner]

l have an LX200 Classic and have had it apart a couple of times for minor modifications and l must say the build quality of this scope is superb, everything fits together perfectly and runs flawlessly so l suppose the later ones are a victim of inflation, if Meade hope to compete and keep prices to an affordable level then ultimately quality will be reduced. We all get what we pay for like it or not.

[Shawn]

Hi Mick
Well I paid 13k for the whole kit, whilst Im happy, I fear that thing are slowly being degraded because of what you say..I call it Eastern Influence..cheap to get stuff done there, but its not allways done right. the Chinese are good if given the whole job, but supplying individual parts is allway problematical. take chinglish for example

[Shawn]

How long have you owned it mick, maybe the eastern influence is only recent ???

[mickoking]

Most things are made in china nowadays. Some companies will try to fool you by putting a countries name on the product, but that doesn't mean anything. Anyway the Chinese products seem to be getting better by the day.

[Shawn]

Yeah Mick I agree, If they are given the whole job, but this sub-contracting stuff,,,loose term I agree....screws up the end product....division of responsibility results in a poor product..

[Shawn]

Asimov, Did you check out the gear,,,mayby you could help me with my setup, Im getting the crap with 17 deg S....I see your a lot lower..but your kit looks similar..Oh No Im going to have to move out of the tropics. I digress,,,ooops Chinese Stuff Made in America ,,,Duh

[mick pinner]

l think it was built around the late 90's, l've had a chance to compare it build wise to a fairly late GPS model and it is certainly better quality, the most notable flaw on the new one was porosity holes in the casting of the fork arms and base whereas mine is perfectly smooth with an almost machined finish. The use of plastic over the previous model has also increased quite a lot.

[[1ponders]]

Loved my LX200GPS 8" but the wedge was a pita

[asimov]

I doubt I'd be able to help, I have a C9.25 on an EQ5 mount. I know nothing of wedges & so forth. Is your scope brand new? I'm under the impression you haven't even got to use it yet, or am I wrong here..

[casstony]

Shawn, since the 8x50 finder is broken maybe you could replace it with a right angle one?

While I'd be upset to see pieces falling off my scope, I'm not surprised that a few corners are being cut given how much financial pressure Meade is under (according to posts I've read on other forums). I wonder if there is another Chinese company eyeing Meade's great product line-up but poor balance sheet?

Tony

[ballaratdragons]

Back a few years ago when I owned 'Midwest Harley' the Harley-Davidson dealership for Western Victoria I found a MAJOR difference in parts from different countries.

The Japanese after-market Harley parts were garbage and didn't fit well. The Chinese parts were even worse! Often some parts would not fit at all!!!

But if you wanted quality you could always buy the genuine HD factory parts from the American Factory, stamped with Made in Japan, Germany and even Australia (Yes, we make Harley parts here in Oz for HD). Although these parts are 'Factory' and labelled as 'Genuine' and cost a lot more, often the quality is still poor.

As a dealer, I soon discovered the same as many dealers world-wide! Taiwanese is the way to go!!!

Taiwanese parts go by the name of Zodiac and AMA and the quality is exceptional. Every surface of all alloy parts are machined and polished (even on the inside where it doesn't matter), their chrome is flawless and doesn't crack or peel, and everything fits perfectly. Zodiac parts even come sealed in plastic & sometimes wax coated! And the suprising part is that the Taiwanese brands are far cheaper.

Many show bikes around the world are made from Zodiac & AMA parts.

When I enquired about the amazing quality to a rep, he said that the Taiwanese are proud of what they make for the world, whereas in other countries, the workers just 'go to work'. They have no pride in their product.

Could be true, I dunno. All I know is that Asian quality is different in different countries, and Taiwanese is at the top.

[Shawn]

Close to the truth, Its a long story. I ordered a 16" way back in feb March some time, I was told stock was available, about a month later, computer error, no stock available, wait another month or so. patiently waited a month or so. and then .Oh weve stopped production, in favour of more sellable smaller units, pick up again september maybe... In their own defence they did offer to sell me a 16" at considerably less, for the stuffing around they put me thru, thats all well and good if i ever get it..So I ordered a 14R" instead, anyway in the meantime I moved, North. Then a Cyclone, I dont believe in god. but this orcestrated sequence of obstruction is starting to take godlike proportions.It has been a farce so far. Imaging at last,,,,,shame someone else uses that.....:D

[Shawn]

As for build construction, At least I got only 180lb of poorly assembled gear as opposed to 350lb.....ha ha ha ha...
The feedback on this topic has been most intersting..

[Adrian-H]

they dont try to fool you, its just lack of knowledge about the company that you buy from.

it cant be helped most of the time, not knowing about the contracts that they hold for producing or buying and using products from another country with there "company name".

its not like meade is going to annouce that GSO is making there lightbridges with big meade tags all over it.

maybe if you where intersted into what there company really dose, you would know, which products produced by some bad rep company or some good rep company like GSO, its not that they are trying to fool you.

from some of the posts in here, it seems pretty narrow towards china and the eastern region, some of you should really think about what you are saying, this is from an american company, some of the products are manufactured in china maybe? but they are still under meade correct? so vent your frustrations towards meade.

allthough i can understand the frustration of having bad quality products.

[Shawn]

Hi yer
Frustrations towards meade, hmmm. ever tried ;) ..?.. And I didnt say Bad quaity probuct, what I said was poor assembly, not enough attention to detail I guess. The engineering itself is fine what you get is what you pay for on the most part, I would guess its a QA issue, with items supplied not quite being spec, or its close use that screw ,,,approach either way its a QA issue. Im still happy with the scope Its a fine peice of equipment even if bits of it are of eastern origin, Its just dissapointing to have to dissasemble it to reassemble it properly. Looking on the bright side, we havnt had one clear nite up here for the last fortnite,,:) .