Why is Chinesium so soft?

  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
Betonhaus

Betonhaus

Irrefutable Rationality
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Mar 30, 2023
These metals have a very distinct softness, but what exactly are they made from? Is there a specific alloy that Chinese shops use to make something really shitty and cheap, or is it just slag?
 
Solution
Night Crawler
It's just cheap shitty metal. I think they call it pot metal.

Back in the late 2000's I briefly got into retro gaming and collecting retro games. But I just wasn't a collector that liked to look at his stuff and brag about it. I wanted to play my retro games. I also got into the care and maintenance side of it. If you have ever dealt with old video game cartridges the contacts get all corroded and the batteries inside that backup your save games die. A lot of these cartridges have security screws in them because they don't want dumb shits taking them apart. If you want to really clean the contacts and replace batteries, you need what's known as a game bit or security bit. I bought one on Ebay for a few bucks. It took weeks to get...
Sort by date Sort by votes
It's just cheap shitty metal. I think they call it pot metal.

Back in the late 2000's I briefly got into retro gaming and collecting retro games. But I just wasn't a collector that liked to look at his stuff and brag about it. I wanted to play my retro games. I also got into the care and maintenance side of it. If you have ever dealt with old video game cartridges the contacts get all corroded and the batteries inside that backup your save games die. A lot of these cartridges have security screws in them because they don't want dumb shits taking them apart. If you want to really clean the contacts and replace batteries, you need what's known as a game bit or security bit. I bought one on Ebay for a few bucks. It took weeks to get delivered from China. It didn't even make it through 2 cartridges without getting stripped. The metal was so shitty and cheap it couldn't even take the security screws out of a plastic video game cartridge without stripping. I ended up having to go to some website and buy one for like $30 or $40. It was better quality though. It also never stripped.

I got sick of the ridiculous prices for old video game junk, so I gave that hobby up fast.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
pot metal is used the world over.it's based on zinc. die cast stuff is "pot metal". It has a specific purpose

Chinesium refers to the low-grade steel made in Japan. Incorrect smelting, wrong carbon percentage, being dumb in general is how Chinesium makes it's way out of the manufacturing process
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Night Crawler said:
you need what's known as a game bit or security bit. I bought one on Ebay for a few bucks. It took weeks to get delivered from China. It didn't even make it through 2 cartridges without getting stripped. The metal was so shitty and cheap it couldn't even take the security screws out of a plastic video game cartridge without stripping.
Click to expand...
For future reference for anyone who's bought or been gifted these cheapo bits - bake them in the oven, 220C for 2 hours. I usually toss thm in in a tin when something is cooking anyway. Let them cool naturally then heat the business end with a blowtorch to glowing and drop the bit in any old oil - even cooking oil works. Basically retemper and heat treat.
It doesn't make them perfect, but you'll get much longer life out of them.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
All Chinese metal is shit not just that pot metal garbage. Chinese copper is the fucking worst. The shit is so thin and flimsy. Same with their brass. I've actually had a brass fitting warp and deform under a torch on low heat it was so bad. I've had Chinese flare nuts split and fail after a year or two. There was some batches of Chinese copper a while back that was so bad it actually became porous over time.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom