New member, first build

[Bob Cleek]

...

 

[Bob Cleek]

I don't think I've ever seen the word "quality" in the same paragraph as "Temu" unless it was prefaced with "questionable". Did you get paid for this endorsement?

The usual disclaimers apply. I don't even own stock in TEMU. I do believe in giving credit where credit is due. Until recently, I had the same "take" on TEMU that you have. I figured the quality of everything sold on the TEMU platform was just as cheesy as most all of the Chinese ship model kits that have flooded the market. I'm old enough to remember when "Made in Japan" was synonymous with "cheap junk" ... until it wasn't. China has a way to go to upgrade its "brand" to the degree Japan has, but don't kid yourself, China is moving in that direction a lot faster than Japan ever did. A CNC robot doesn't know the difference between working in China, the United States, Japan, Germany, or South Korea, the world's five largest manufacturing hubs in descending order. China may not always be making the best of everything, but it sure has the price point dialed in.

TEMU is the Chinese analog to Amazon. The main difference is that, for the moment, TEMU is more interested in building a loyal international customer base to give Amazon a run for its money in the market share race than in making a profit on sales right now and it's cleverly playing the low value and direct mail to consumer tariff exemptions to legally avoid the large scale import taxes. I suspect another reason TEMU's "business" model allows them to survive is that the manufacturers TEMU represents may often be heavily subsidized by the Chinese government which is known for its support of "product dumping" as a competitive sales tactic. Regardless of how one might feel about that or even about the prospects of your new tools having been made by a twelve year old Uyghur girl chained to a workbench (... shades of the Chinese "pirated" ship model kits controversy...,) TEMU has yet to be shown to violate any international trade laws. This is because TEMU denies any responsibility for policing it's products. TEMU simply operates a platform which offers a catalog of items for purchase directly from the manufacturer. TEMU then "does the paperwork" of collecting payment and facilitating shipment from the manufacturer to the consumer, thereby excluding middlemen entirely.

Is TEMU the "House of Junk?" Decidedly so! That said, if you know what you're buying and what you need it for, there are a lot of incredible deals on perfectly suitable tools and modeling stuff on TEMU. The key is knowing what's a "quality" item and what's "junk" on TEMU. "Quality" is a relative concept. For example, TEMU has loads of jewelers' files and broaches at extremely low prices. You can compare jewelers' files of quality identical to what MicroMark or ModelExpo is selling (in the case of many products, made by the same factory in China,) and you'll probably see prices that are way more than the TEMU price (plus "shipping and handling," which is often not an add-on for TEMU.) This is because you are buying the products for the price the manufacturer can afford to sell it for wholesale direct to the consumer. Are they the top quality? Highly doubtful, but, for example, if you are going to use them on wood for modeling ships to "hand-work" tolerances, they're entirely adequate. If you are going to do a lot of tight-tolerance metal work, you'd probably want the "industry standard" quality needle file. You can get Vallorbe or Grobet needle files from a jewelers' supply house like Otto Frei beginning at just under forty bucks USD ... per file and they're on sale right now for 10% off. [https://www.bing.com/search?q=Otto+Frei&form=ANNH01&refig=69e123ac8bf341f5853e82b79969c4c0&pc=DCTS] If you want plastic needle file handles, Otto Frei has "Glardon-Vallorbe Condor Needle File Handles" for $17.45 each! [https://www.ottofrei.com/products/glardon-vallorbe-condor-needle-file-handles-2-4mm] TEMU has what appear to be completely adequate needle file handles for $8.20 for three. With that price spread, it's just a question of how much you think the difference in quality in something like a needle file is worth paying for.

It's definitely a "caveat emptor" situation buying TEMU stuff, and TEMU's product descriptions sometimes border on the deceptive. You've got to be able to separate the fly specks from the pepper. I sometimes think they use children's hands to hold the products in the photos so the product will look bigger than it really is. However, TEMU is pretty good about giving the dimensions accurately, but you have to read the entire listing to find them. If you just remember that you are buying something that's sold by the manufacturer, not TEMU, and you're not spending more than you'd be disappointed having spent if the product wasn't what you expected, you'll stand to save a lot of money. Generally speaking, the "Harbor Freight principle" applies, "Don't buy anything that runs on electricity and understand that you're not buying the best tool available, but that you're at least buying a tool that will get the job done." These days, just about anything CNC-machined from metal is going to be "good enough" in a non-commercial non-production environment unless you're an amateur watchmaker or rocket scientist. Are you really willing to pay ten times more for collets rated at less than .001MM runout than for collets rated at .001MM when your spindle isn't capable of holding tolerances of less .005MM? If you're building the average ship model kit, do you really need to buy a Starrett for $328.00, a Mitotoyo for $483.00 accurate to .0005 or one of the many on TEMU with an accuracy of .001 that average about a tenth the price?

 

[Philski]

The trick with getting thread through the holes is to trim the thread end at an angle then wet the ends with some CA. They'll be stiff enough to push through.

 

[Bob Cleek]

The proper tool for enlarging an existing hole is a tapered cutting broach.
TEMU has a set of 10 for about $1 US each View attachment 590449

Looking at them -they probably could stand to have a rubber handle - either that rubber stuff that is dipped into to form a coating that hardens or take one to a local hardware and find a size of Tygon tubing with a push fit bore.

A reamer has an aggressive taper better used on a hole in a plate.

While at TEMU take a look at fly tying tools - interesting threading tools and clamps.

Oops! We goofed, Dave!

I had ordered a set of these "10 Broaches Cutting Tools Size 0 Watch Tools" pictured Dave's post above and my subsequent post. In fact, the operative, and only, words in the listing are, "Size 0 Watch Tools." What came were really truly "watch tools" and now I know what "size 0" means. I guess a watchmaker would have known. I didn't even notice the "Size 0 Watch Tools" description. It's really obscure. Since they were listed with all the other larger broaches and needle files, I thought they were the same scale. "Not so, Grasshopper!" The ones pictured in Dave's post above come up on my 'puter screen at just about full size in the picture above!

This is one of the problems with TEMU. But easily solved.

What got delivered to me today!



So, unless you want to enlarge a hole no bigger than the size of a small sewing needle, don't order these ones! I suppose they are perfectly fine, except that if I were rigging through holes that small, I'd probably be using fine wire instead of fiber thread. Not to worry. I'll just stick them back in the package, go to TEMU's "returns" page, tell them I ordered them by mistake, and they'll credit my payment back to my PayPal account. Then I'll drop them off at the UPS store in the envelope they sent them in and UPS will scan the QR code from my cell phone that TEMU sent me and it's fixed. Then I'll buy another set of larger broaches and make darn sure I've got the right size.

Note if one is so inclined to want broaches this small, you will need a pin vise to hold them when in use.

BOB CLEEK

 

[Roger Pellett]

And, a set of pin vises should be one of the first things that a beginning model builder buys. They have lots of uses holding anything that you don’t want or can’t hold by your fingers; specifically, wire sized drills, reamers, files, small parts that you are working on, etc. A set usually includes three or four allowing you to chuck things from less than .010” to about 3/16”. Here, I believe that it pays to buy quality. My set was made in the USA by a company named Mooney.

Roger

 

[DAWarden-(Jaager)]

Oops! We goofed, Dave!

HAL 9000?

Then the search is on for larger cutting broaches,

It was #70 range I was aiming at. I was thinking small wooden blocks and how small the hole is. Since the OP was complaining about drill bits breaking off when used to do the job of a broach I was imagining small.

At Amazon for $16

FindingKing 10 Broaches Cutting Tools Size 0 Watch Tools​

Rufus says: they come in a range of sizes from 0.7mm to 3.6mm diameter. These are five-sided broaches with a regular taper, designed for precision watch repair and small mechanical work."

If I am reading the Pocket Ref correctly the range is #70 to # 28 Is the largest equal to #28?

If you were envisioning a much larger size, I get why you jumped all over it. That would be a deal.

About TEMU - I see the present Chinese business model as not being sustainable. I figure that they aim to undercut the competition until most go bankrupt. When they are the only game in town, then the prices go up. For this to succeed there cannot be another hungry country ready to undercut them.