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Ever wonder why it's tough to find US made bearings for your LBC these days? This interesting read may explain it: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/14/...o-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
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U.S. Made Bearings
- Thread starter HealeyRick
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I think that applies to a *lot* of things that were once made in USA.
TR3driver
Great Pumpkin - R.I.P
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Ross Perot warned us that if NAFTA was passed, there would be a "giant sucking sound" of jobs moving to other countries. He may have been a little off on time scale, but he was absolutely right about the overall effect.
I find it somewhat amusing that the NY Times insisted he was wrong. Apparently, they've changed their minds, now that it's too late ...
RP was right about another thing; as their wages go up and our go down, some of those jobs will come back. We're not quite down to his (I assume arbitrary) figure of $6/hour, but we're getting closer. ($6 in 1992 is about $10.50 today.)
I find it somewhat amusing that the NY Times insisted he was wrong. Apparently, they've changed their minds, now that it's too late ...
RP was right about another thing; as their wages go up and our go down, some of those jobs will come back. We're not quite down to his (I assume arbitrary) figure of $6/hour, but we're getting closer. ($6 in 1992 is about $10.50 today.)
OP
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Agreed, post wasn't meant to be political but to illustrate how it comes about that manufacturers leave the US. If the Boss thinks it's offbase, my feelings won't be hurt if it's deleted.
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Paternal grandfather was a millwright for a PA steel company, my dad and his brother worked for the same company, dad had 43 years' service (they counted his time in Army service during the war!) and my brother and I worked there for a short time as well. I inspected the tubing that Timken used to make their bearings. Link as well. And a lot of the material that went into nuke subs. Saw the direction it was all going and bailed to go back to the Porsche dealership, to be a wrench. And set sights on Florida! Too many of the folks working in the plant I was in were naive enough to think they were going to be able to go to retirement in there. I saw that as a pipe dream (if you'll pardon the pun) and made other plans.
OP
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Doc,
When I changed my Healey front wheel bearings I thought I'd be getting US made by ordering Timken until I did some research. What a shock to find many are made in China now. Same with many of the other US brands: https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...untry-origin-do-you-care-what-you-buy-285311/ I ended up asking Peter at NOS Imports for some NOS US Timkens. This is an issue that's been going on for awhile and I'm sure other countries can make good quality stuff, but it's figuring out which parts are good that presents a problem. As a boomer with parents who worked in the aircraft industry during WWII I grew up on the story that American industry played a key part in winning the war. I'm concerned about exporting all that capability out of the country. Maybe things like ball bearings don't seem too important but it seems to me we spent a lot of effort bombing those ball bearing factories in Schweinfurt.
When I changed my Healey front wheel bearings I thought I'd be getting US made by ordering Timken until I did some research. What a shock to find many are made in China now. Same with many of the other US brands: https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...untry-origin-do-you-care-what-you-buy-285311/ I ended up asking Peter at NOS Imports for some NOS US Timkens. This is an issue that's been going on for awhile and I'm sure other countries can make good quality stuff, but it's figuring out which parts are good that presents a problem. As a boomer with parents who worked in the aircraft industry during WWII I grew up on the story that American industry played a key part in winning the war. I'm concerned about exporting all that capability out of the country. Maybe things like ball bearings don't seem too important but it seems to me we spent a lot of effort bombing those ball bearing factories in Schweinfurt.
Gliderman8
Great Pumpkin
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That was a sad story indeed. I used to work for a German company here in the US. They ultimately left the US and outsourced mfg. to China as well.
It's not just US Companies.... it's the almighty bottom line.
It's not just US Companies.... it's the almighty bottom line.
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