Andrew VK3BFA wrote
William Noble wrote

nonrepairable is not the same as planned obsolescense.
A new product may be impossible to repair because it
uses custom electronics and special assembly techniques
but that doesn't mean it's planned to quit working in 3 years.

Yes it is - your wrong.

Nope.

Theres actually an engineering discipline devoted to this
subject - its called "Stress Engineering" ie how many
cycles can the door open and close before ir breaks

The reality is that that isnt done with domestic appliances.

- or, how many hours will the just adequate component get
stinking hot before it desolders itself from the circuit board.....

That aint designing it to fail just outside the warranty.

all things that most technicians are intimately familiar
with - (their called "bread and butter" faults..).
we used to make a living from them....

They werent deliberately designed in. Just lousy design.

the technically difficult repairs that took EONS you did
for self satisfaction and lost money on - that was ok
when there was enough of the other stuff to make a living.

The whole societal mindset has changed - most of my customers now
are "mature aged" and have the life long expectation that when thing
breaks, it gets fixed. The younger ones - don't even bother, they
EXPECT it to break soon after the warranty ends (thats BONUS time!)
and will not even think about getting it repaired....

Because it makes not sense to spend a high percentage of the cost of
a new VCR repairing an existing one. The new one gets a new warranty.

Modern manufacturing methods - them too - snap together plastic
assemblies designed for easy assembly with no thought for subsequent
servicing (hey, nuts and bolts cost MONEY) - done by unskilled, low
wage workers to whom a screwdriver is probably a complex machine tool.

And most of that stuff just doesnt fail, most obviously
with plug packs and molded power cords.

Modern circuit boards - SMD components, machine assembled,
wave soldered - give VERY high reliability due lack of "operator error"

Nope, due to the technology.

but again, virtually impossible to repair without specialist equipment -
fine if your in aerospace, or medical, or industrial where you have
the margins, but not domestic stuff. (and thats assuming the
complex in house LSI IC is even available - it usually isnt...)

And they hardly ever need to be repaired too.

And the manufacturers too - theres no money in servicing, 10,000 TV
sets can be ordered, delivered to the customers distribution centre
straight off the boat all from one person sitting in front of a PC -
no warehouses, spare parts stock, skilled staff to manage the
spare parts, service data to manage, field service staff to
control, cost of running a service centre....

And those arent designed to fail just outside the warranty.

Same for service data - costs too much. Its easier to replace
something under warranty irrespective of the fault, crush it, and
claim it as a tax loss than maintain a service centre with skilled techs,,,,

The reality is that costs a lot less to stamp out another in the
asian factory than it can ever cost to have a first world tech fix it.

Sooo - this leaves people like us - slightly demented, do it
yourselfers, who machine bits out of aluminum to replace a broken
plastic bracket (thats why I got into this bizarre metalworking world)
- people who will spend DAYS chasing a generic replacement, who,
when they see something of a similar model in the dumpster, will
rescue it to take home for spares.....

Do I complain - yeh, fer sure. Would I do anything else - no way,
I enjoy the challenge. Learning new skills, being rat cunning and
devious, figuring out how to beat the obsolescence game....its fun
(mostly) Pity it barely pays the bills - fortunately the house is paid
for, the kids are off our hands (mostly) and I dont lust after a turbo
Porsche...(now, more tools - thats different...)

And they are dirt cheap now.

And when my generation goes - thats it, cant
see anyone choosing to do this to make a living.

Corse they wont.

Sitting at a service station console taking money for gasoline pays better.

And so do almost everything else too.

The only industries where you CAN make good money servicing a-

1.Where the machine itself costs LOTS of money,
so the repair is a small part of the cost
2.Where people are standing idle because the machine is down

Even that is arguable, an operation like that should have decent redundancy.

3 There is some sort of "voodoo mystique" about it (medical is a good example)

Ah, that feels SO much better ..........

Andrew VK3BFA.