I recently had dinner with Marc Adams and his family (founder of the Marc Adams School of Woodworking) and he shared a story that makes my head hurt.
Marc uses a Bridge City try square in one of his trade show demonstrations (it is about 25 years old, crusty and beat up, but reliable.) Recently however he could not find his square so he hopped over to a booth that had Chinese made machinist squares for sale.
He grabbed a square in hopes of borrowing it for his joinery demo. The proprietor of the booth informed him that would not be a good idea because that square–and all the others–are out of square. He then informed Marc that he tells every prospective buyer that the squares are off before they pay for them.
Marc asked, “And they still buy them?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because they are cheap!”
If you can figure this out please write me because I really feel stupid.
–John
I had a similar encounter, I went to a co-workers house to help her with a few pieces of trim around a closet door. She went to get her level, it was a cheap plastic torpedo level, and as I tried to use it, I realised it wasn’t level, and told her this. I then asked her if I should throw it away, “no” she said, “I need it to adjust my antique grandfather clock”. Cheap people are immune to logic!