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Possible reason for the prevalence of foreign rather US made bearings these days.
- Thread starter 7HC
- Start date
Same ol story, different subject. I noticed this morning that my apple sauce was imported. Can our own apple sauce industry not keep up with demand? Or do our American apples just not make a sauce as tasty as foreign apples? I find it hard to believe that apple sauce can be made overseas and shipped here for cheaper than we can make it. Doesn't seem like a very labor intensive process, compared to assembling iPhones and Nikes.
The problem is a mindset - folks demanding to get paid $10 to make a widget but expect to turn around and buy it a Wally World for $5
With a few exceptions, most people cant afford themselves.
With a few exceptions, most people cant afford themselves.
I totally agree, I was at work on a Saturday cleaning up some work and a guy comes in and wants a 'quick' job done. Remember, it's Saturday and I'm supposed to be at home, I should be charging overtime. I charged him $40 for a half hour job and he complained about it, meanwhile, he had driven up to the shop in an $80,000 Escalade.
As a side note and actually more to the point, I heard that there are no longer any bearing manufacturers in the US or Canada. Think about it, the world greatest military(the US) is likely getting most of their bearings from China. In another instance I read about some one needing a special gear and had to get it from India because they had bought the last of the gear making equipment from the US.
I thought some Timkens were still made in the US. Maybe just the special stuff?
I personally blame a lot of purchasing departments in companies that it is their job to find cheaper parts. Shopping around is good but they rarely seem to factor in quality in the decision process. It was amusing to spec a part I knew was single source and see the purchasing people complain cause they couldn't shop around (China or India)
I personally blame a lot of purchasing departments in companies that it is their job to find cheaper parts. Shopping around is good but they rarely seem to factor in quality in the decision process. It was amusing to spec a part I knew was single source and see the purchasing people complain cause they couldn't shop around (China or India)
I am wondering myself. I appreciate our workers (as long as they are not sitting in the lunch room, paid for simply showing up) and I would like to buy American, but I recently went looking for an emergency stop mushroom button STSP switch. The US models ran from $55 to $180 (!) while ebay had Chinese models for $10 to $20; the higher priced items included postage. All the switches had the same certification UL, CE, etc. I certainly would not mind paying 2X the price for US quality, but not 5 times. Five times seems excessive. It is incomprehensible to me that the difference for the equivalent item would be 5 times. Even industrial and commercial purchasers are not going to pay a factor of 5 times more (understanding that OEM prices are heavily discounted).
Also, we all need to recall that not everything the US manufactured during the "heyday" of American manufacturing prowess was of superior quality. I have some 1950's -1960's hand tools that were crudely forged and some raunchy die cast tri-squares that can be compared to the junk that has been dumped on our shores in later days.
When I buy a bearing from a bearing house I say, I want a bearing made anywhere then China. May have to spend more, but I figure the few dollars extra for the bearing is cheaper then the labor to re-due it when the cheap bearing fails.
(OOPs....I forgot about the rules...that was easy o fix)
(OOPs....I forgot about the rules...that was easy o fix)
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