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Posted by Tony on April 10, 2007, 12:54 am
you never hung drywall
> Awl--
>
> So my neighbor is cleaning out his garage, and ahm Mr. Popularity in my
> neighborhood now, with my long-bed pickup truck.
> So he's giving me all kinds of stuff, barbell weights (chrome plated!),
> beach chairs for my shop, tools, among them, a near-new Rotozip.
> By no means an RCM-type shop guy, even he dismissed it as junk, and indeed
> he was correct.
>
> But what *inneresting junk it is*!
> Perhaps under the subtitle, Shoving it in so artfully you don't even feel
> it....
>
> It comes in a big-assed injection-molded case, so poorly designed--despite
> its apparent sophistication--that after quite a time of tryna figger out
> just how to get all the parts to fit in this big-assed case, I found a
> more suitably sized and infinitely more practical and useful shoebox,
> dumped the 'zip and parts in, and was amazed at the shrinkage in sheer
> packaging volume.
>
> To wit:
> The volume of the rotozip case calc'd out to 1,824 cubic inches.
> What makes that significant is that a full *cubic foot* is a mere 1,728 cu
> in.
> What makes this even more striking is that a 5 gal bucket of joint
> compound, paint, etc. is only 1,155 cubic inches.
>
> So a cubic foot is no small volume.
>
> The box I wound up putting the whole of the Rotozip kit in was 250 cu in,
> and could have easily fit in a better-proportioned 200 cu. in.
>
> So lessee,
> 1800 divided by 200 is 9.
> Thus, the inflated the volume of this product by a factor of 9.
>
> Which is about the same factor by which the infomercial peeple inflated
> its usefulness.
>
> This inflated-volume technique is widespread in Costco, Sears, Sam'sClub,
> HD, etc, where "509 piece kits" of whatever super tool is at hand, when
> all dumped in a paper bag, fit into a very small paper bag indeed.
> Yet the display is enormous, for artfully good reason.
> And which, even for a perenially PV'd cynic and semi-experienced shop rat
> as myself, are enticing and at times near-intoxicating.
>
> I was more struck by some of the brilliant engineering that goes into this
> stuff, and into many near-useless consumer products, spanning the spectrum
> of consumption. I'm amazed by some perfume bottles.
> I wish I had the skill, talent, insight, and training to be able to
> manufacture on this level.
>
> And yet, not only is brilliant engineering thrown down the toilet on
> uselessness, it also shoots itself in the foot with fatal flaws.
>
> Which is really sort of ingenious as well, because these flaws are
> essentially moot:
> The product is near-useless, and 1 in one million will be used to the
> extent where these flaws will actually manifest.
> And, under real/normal usage, they are *guarownteeed* to manifest.
> This thing, and various parts thereof, is *guarownteeed* to break, or
> break off.
>
> I was also struck by the sheer complexity of this item and all its klugey
> attachments.
> I got a near-$80,000 near-8,000 lb VMC in my garage (cnc milling machine),
> with four *very* thick looseleaf binders jammed with documentation, which
> took considerable effort to sufficiently digest so's I could actually use
> this machine.
>
> I can tell you right now, having toyed with all crap in the rotozip kit,
> and having thumbed through all the disconnected and discombobulated
> paperwork in this rotozip kit, that it would take a *significant fraction
> of the time/energy/effort* it took me to get that goddamm VMC going (not
> counting the ordeal of pert-near burning it down), to get this rotozip
> going.
> A extraordinarily disproportionate fraction.
>
> For a product--an oversized Dremel--whose sole purpose in this universe
> was to thin out our wallets.
> Considerable CorPirate board-room discussion went into this hustle, as
> well as all the other Informercial Hustles out there.
>
> The only use I see for this over-hyped crap is as a grinder heftier than a
> Dremel, but not as hefty as a true die grinder.
>
> Yeah, I imagine some hobbyist might be able to do sumpn with it, altho I
> can't really imagine what.
>
> But here's the fundamental problem with all this ill-designed over-hyped
> crap:
>
> When all the infomercial-ed choreography and contrived scenarios are over
> and done with, you are left with a ""tool"" that pretty much dictates to
> YOU what you can do with it, and how you can do it. It in fact dictates
> your whole goddamm *strategy* of hobby-ing.
> You are, imo, hamstrung with all its fragile peculiarities.
> IOW, you must adapt to the oddities of a supposed do-it-all tool, which
> will maybe indeed do it all, if you are adept at standing on your ears.
>
> Visavis a tool that can *realistically* adapt to what you want it do.
> Like a goddamm drill.
> Or router.
> Or sawzall.
> Or even the crappiest jig/sabre saw.
> Etc.
>
> Another piece of Merkin Sleight-of-Hand Marketing, but another reason to
> love this country.
>
> All epitomized by the 9:1 inflation of its packaging volume.
>
> The absolute apex of the Fleecing of Merka (short of the 100's of
> $$Billions that Bush/Cheney's Halliburton is raking in from Iraq) is Tony
> Little's fantasy fitness products, and Michael Thurmond's BluePrinting Yer
> body shit.
> Goodgawd.... but another post.
> --
> ------
> Mr. P.V.'d (formerly Droll Troll), Yonkers, NY
>
> Stop Corruption in Congress & Send the Ultimate Message:
> Absolutely Vote, but NOT for a Democrat or a Republican.
> Ending Corruption in Congress is the *Single Best Way*
> to Materially Improve Your Family's Life.
> The Solution is so simple--and inexpensive!
>
> entropic3.14decay at optonline2.718 dot net; remove pi and e to reply--ie,
> all d'numbuhs
>
>
>
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