Why does nobody talk about how useless those USB bore scopes are for turbine inspections?

I dropped $75 on one of those cheap USB endoscopes to peek inside a PT6 compressor section last week and the picture was so grainy I couldn't tell a crack from a dirt streak. Another mechanic on shift said he's had three die on him within six months each. Has anyone found a handheld borescope under $200 that actually holds up to shop use?

2 comments

2 Comments

averywright5d ago

Are you really expecting a $75 tool to do a $10,000 job?

lane.angela5d ago

I mean, the phrase "$75 tool doing a $10,000 job" really nails it. Thing is, sometimes a cheap tool can handle like 80% of what the expensive one does, and for a lot of people that's plenty. Like if you're just drilling a few holes in drywall to hang shelves, a $30 drill from a garage sale works fine. But if you're framing a house all day every day, that cheap drill is gonna burn out in a month and cost you way more in downtime. So it's not really about the tool failing the job, it's about matching the tool to how often and how hard you're gonna use it.