Proudly assembled in the US with Chinese stuff

Shawn · #1 28-06-2006, 06:17 PM

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 · #2 28-06-2006, 06:21 PM

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

Shawn · #3 28-06-2006, 06:31 PM

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 (John) · #4 28-06-2006, 06:40 PM

Interesting. Any pics of this chinese/American beast?

Shawn · #5 28-06-2006, 06:45 PM

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

asimov (John) · #6 28-06-2006, 06:55 PM

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

GrampianStars (Rob) · #7 28-06-2006, 06:58 PM

It's all made in China under licence

asimov (John) · #8 28-06-2006, 07:00 PM

Are you including Takahashi's there?

Shawn · #9 28-06-2006, 07:01 PM

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 · #10 28-06-2006, 07:07 PM

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 (John) · #11 28-06-2006, 07:10 PM

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 · #12 28-06-2006, 07:15 PM

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 · #13 28-06-2006, 07:16 PM

Sorry asimov, not Rob

Shawn · #14 28-06-2006, 07:18 PM

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

asimov (John) · #15 28-06-2006, 07:22 PM

I still have my gun license

Takahashi is Japanese yep.

Shawn · #16 28-06-2006, 07:29 PM

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 · #17 28-06-2006, 07:29 PM

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 · #18 28-06-2006, 07:34 PM

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 · #19 28-06-2006, 07:39 PM

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

mickoking · #20 28-06-2006, 07:48 PM

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.