More garbage from China

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I removed a lot of posts in this thread because I don't have the time or desire to edit them. If you guys, and you know who you are, want to have a discussion about ethnic issues, then take it elsewhere or to PMs.
 
I can use my grinding station as a sample here (in terms of origin). Two 1350 watt grinders, one belt drive.

Both from taiwan. Total cost of the super strong grinders? $500 for both, $375 for a high speed belt grinder attachment. I couldn't buy one grinder domestically for the same price. I do have a separate baldor bench grinder, but am not convinced that it's quality is better than the bench grinders mentioned here, and though it's a much smaller grinder, its street price now is about the same cost as the two import grinders.

2700 watts of power in import grinders in total, 375 watts in one domestic grinder. I wouldn't want to make a demand of domestic goods only and give that choice up.
 
I wonder how much a 12" table saw would cost to manufacture here?
How much would a 3ft sq casting cost??

Then a 2" steel square frame to mount it on.

To proto type you could nick the internals of a site saw before improving it?

Cheers James

How long has it been since table castings were made in numbers in the UK? Delta says they make some saws here, but I"m not sure where. Powermatic made table top castings here for years, but that's shut down. Once that goes away, it doesn't get turned right back on at the same quality. Small casting here is kind of a boutique thing now in "rogue" areas like Maine, or in some cases rural areas where they make cast iron cookware.

The cast iron cookware is very poor quality (but it's still made in the states!!). The grain is too coarse to use the pans the same way as the old ones.
 
I'd be supprised if you couldn't get decent castings in the UK.

However the price wouldn't be competitive with China.

However would the public pay the extra for quality kit???

Cheers James
 
I'd be supprised if you couldn't get decent castings in the UK.
These days a lot of high quality castings are imported, yes we do have a few foundries left but our H&S makes life very difficult so it is easier to get them made abroad where they don't care if they are working in sandles and straw hats. I believe this is what finished Record, again to expensive to comply with the safety aspects so gone, now made abroad.
 
I should add that everything goes in circles, so whilst we are heading into 3rd world status, the Asians are ramping up, making more rich people and more wanting better lifestyles so their cost rise and then ours become cheaper so eventually we will be manufacturing for them as we will be the cheap labour. We probably peaked some thirty years ago if not earlier and then started on the decline.
 
Remember, when Japanese motorcycles began being imported into the UK they were mostly dismissed by British manufacturers as being far inferior to their products ...

The British manufactures were the only people who did.:LOL:
I remember when I was about 14 years old someone I knew bought a Honda 50, the step through frame type, and British motorbikes ruled the world. By the time I was 18 years old Britush motorbikes were on their way out.
 
I'd be supprised if you couldn't get decent castings in the UK.

However the price wouldn't be competitive with China.

However would the public pay the extra for quality kit???

Cheers James

I think Sedgwick are about the only surviving UK woodworking machinery manufacturer I know of.

Their website says all their machines are "Designed and built here in the UK". I always presumed it was all "made" in the UK but does the "built" in the UK hint at the fact the castings are maybe made elsewhere?

http://sedgwick-machinery.co.uk/?page_id=148
 
I suspect relative energy costs have also played their part as well as H&S. Whilst we build windmills and solar stations, China opens more new coal-fired power stations to burn cheap coal from Australia. The extra energy costs get passed on.
 
I remember when I was about 14 years old someone I knew bought a Honda 50, the step through frame type, and British motorbikes ruled the world. By the time I was 18 years old Britush motorbikes were on their way out.
I think the Honda 50 has been around since the late 50's/early 60's in various forms with production running into the tens of millions. Cheap and dependable!
 
The Honda 50 or to give it its proper name the Super Cub has been in production since 1958 and is the best selling vehicle in history with over 100 million sold to date. There is a company in China (run by two guys from UK) that has started to produce conversion kits to make it electric as well. Video below


enjoy
 
I suspect relative energy costs have also played their part as well as H&S. Whilst we build windmills and solar stations, China opens more new coal-fired power stations to burn cheap coal from Australia. The extra energy costs get passed on.
Their use of cheap coal has a horizon though - their announced intent to be carbon neutral by 2060 has a few wealthy lads with australian accents rather paniced.

The really interesting part (in the sense of "may you live in interesting times") is the effect coronavirus (and more explictly it's effect on the global shipping industry) has on all of this. When there's a base minimum cost for buying something due to logistics and that base cost jumps the way it has in the last year, does it reduce the advantage the cheaper goods had? If you have to pay a 10 quid for a cheap tool and 100 for the good tool, it's an easier choice than if you have to pay 80 for a cheap tool and 120 for the good one. Ramp up the logistics costs and suddenly it's harder for the really cheap aliexpress specials to compete. And given the sort of lives the workers there have in those factories, maybe that's not such a bad thing.
 
A few years ago I bought a set of "Jacobs" chucks from China. There were 4 in the set and cost £24 post paid. Using them I cannot tell the difference between them and a genuine model. A top notch product.

One of my sister in laws runs a bridal dress shop. She says that all of her stock comes from China as the quality of any UK made dresses is nothing like as good.

The Chemical company I worked for moved nearly all its production to India and China 15 to 20 years ago, The products were identical to what we used to make and they were much less expensive.

People should realise that many / most goods that originate in China or Asia are as good or better than English / European equivalents. Made in China does not have the same meaning as it used to and unfortunately neither does made in the UK.

AQ
 
I should hope Made in the UK doesn't mean now what it did in the '70s.:)

An acquaintance was a (£100,000+ p.a.) salesman for an international firm 10 years or so ago.
He mentioned to his boss that a customer wasn't too happy with their manufacturing moving from this Country to India and his boss said to tell him not to worry, the tolerances they were working to in India were a tenth of what they worked to here.
 
Their use of cheap coal has a horizon though - their announced intent to be carbon neutral by 2060 has a few wealthy lads with australian accents rather paniced.

That's going well, isn't it? From today's Times -


China — by far the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gas — has held back from a commitment to cut emissions within five years, in a step that has dismayed environmentalists.

The country accounts for 26 per cent of global emissions, compared with 15 per cent for the US and about 1 per cent for the UK.

President Xi Jinping said last year that China would reach net-zero emissions by 2060, and climate experts hoped his new five-year plan, which sets out the nation’s strategy from 2021 to 2025, would reveal how that would be achieved.

Li Keqiang, the prime minister, was widely expected to announce that it would reach peak carbon emissions by 2025 when he unveiled the five-year plan to the National People’s Congress on Friday. Instead he gave details of an industrial strategy that leaves China reliant on burning coal.


It has consumed more coal than the rest of the world put together every year since 2011. While it has committed huge investment to wind and nuclear energy, it is still building enough coal power plants to provide 247GW of power — enough to supply the whole of Germany.
 
The day-to-day popularity of Super Cubs continues around the world, and with later evolutions still flowing out of factories Cub production passed 100 million (yes, 100,000,000) in 2017.
I had the bigger brother, the C90. I bought it new and it took me to work for nearly 10 years and never let me down. I only stopped using it as I couldn't face another winter of cold and wet. I remember it was quite rusty when I got rid of it but the engine ran perfectly.
 
I had the bigger brother, the C90. I bought it new and it took me to work for nearly 10 years and never let me down. I only stopped using it as I couldn't face another winter of cold and wet. I remember it was quite rusty when I got rid of it but the engine ran perfectly.
I had no idea they were that popular. I bought a 10 year old C90 in 1978. Its still in my fathers garage, not used much these days. better dig it out after lockdown. key is H8708. It was great fun but cold in the winter and the indicators barely showed up on cold mornings, had the odd near miss.
 
Back
Top