On Wednesday, August 22, 2012 10:20:03 AM UTC-5, Tim Wescott wrote:
On Wed, 22 Aug 2012 05:38:36 -0700, fredhababorbitz wrote: Is there any federal trade commission or other regulatory agency requirements to mark HSS/HS on tooling that is sold with this stated sales literature? I've bought 2 metric dies recently on eBay, that the add stated as HSS, and testing with my rockwell hardness tester indicates Rc=55 and less. I'm trying to get eBay to stop the minions of sellers from stating this without it being marked on the tool. Every HSS tool I have is marked. I'm trying to build a set of low cost metric dies (have the taps). ignator With or without the FTC getting involved, if you want to buy stuff that you can trust, buy it from a reputable source. There are good folks selling on eBay, but it's the internet equivalent of an abandoned parking lot full of guys selling stuff out of the backs of their pick-up trucks -- "buyer beware" is the rule of the day, and try not to get robbed on your way out. So being an eBay vendor is somewhat anti-reputable right there. I wouldn't look for good quality on eBay unless I recognized the vendor's name and knew them to be honest. -- My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook. My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook. Why am I not happy that they have found common ground? Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software http://www.wescottdesign.com


I have never had a problem with buying inexpensive HSS dies. I'm not doing serious production, but 25 years ago, I was making bolts from 1/2" rebar, and threading 1/2-13tpi on each end. I was still ignorant to tooling, and thought that those hex dies that I could get at the farm supply store were real good. After destroying 4 of them, I talked to the local machine shop that sold tooling also, this old gal said, "those are rethreading dies carbon steel" her price was 4x the rethreading version. I got some China HSS made ones from her, bought 3 but only used one to make 45 of the bolts. And that was with mystery metal in the rebar. So I learned the value of HSS. I'm looking to get a set cheap, but if every vendor thinks they can say their dies are HSS, and believe this, is theres some sort of truth in advertising going on here. eBay is pretty hard over about misrepresentation. So now I ask if they are marked with HSS before. Well I'm back to $12+/die (small ones) from Enco or some other vendor. It don't take too many to get out of hand.
Even the sets on ebay ~$100-$160 the sellar's say are not marked HSS, but their vendor tells them they are.
And as I said, I've always seen HSS marked, and when I test them they are Rc=65 or so.
I HATE the "NEW" google group. It don't work with IE8, I can't tell where this is going to be posted. Ya, I should spend $120/year to pay for a newsnet provider. That will buy have a set of cheap tooling.
ignator