Actually, it didn't. Go look again. All the first post is, is a photo of a box that says Starret, made in Suzhou. Ooooh oooh ooh, bad bad !
It's purposely inflammatory, there is no indication this item was better, worse, or equal to what was made in Athol, except we are supposed to assume that it's worse just by looking at the box. Check the title and first post.
Then of course we get the expected plethora of pissing and moaning and jingoist crap about how wonderful Starret was when they were Made in the Wonderful USA. Well, here's a clue, guys. They weren't. Traditional Starret was okay, nothing so special, and mittymoto is nothing special either. If you want good, you buy Etalon.
The problem is not that things were offshored, the problem is that the entire economy is now dedicated to grabbing every little centime out of everything. Bottom line for everything in the US is now money. Money money money. When you make money into your god, then everything else gets sacrificed. And that's what has happened.
Has nothing to do with where anything was made. You can make good stuff at the South Pole if you wanted.
That is true, the first post didn't really say much of anything. But I was referring to the start of lamentation, not so much the thread itself. I wouldn't call the first post inflammatory at all, I think you are sometimes a little oversensitive to the issue in that respect. If the post says nothing at all except "have a look" you are reading more into it yourself if you feel that it's inflammatory. I don't know if you have a history with the OP or if he has a habit of posting inflammatory content that I am unaware of, perhaps that has something to do with it?
I'm not going to argue about the quality of Starrett tools either. Many are admittedly workmanlike, but of solid enough quality to do the job and do it well; and for a long time. Some of the Swiss brands are like jewels in comparison, to be sure. But the Starrett stuff has absolutely declined lately, and you are completely correct, it's because of the drive to lower cost and price. Here, that is driven by the mass consumer and there isn't a whole lot any individual or small group can do about it. It's sort of like a school of fish. Where they go, they go. Path of least resistance. The companies have no choice but to lower their prices and usually that means quality, or they won't survive. A better option would be to increase efficiency and keep the quality where it was or even improve it, but that is expensive and very few go that route. For many of them they might go bankrupt if they tried. The cheap labor overseas where all these lower quality tools are made is the problem. It will continue to be that way until the cost of labor in these places rises to a closer level to the "first world" countries. Eventually that will happen, but it will take a while.
The problem for those of us who do know the difference between quality tools and clunkers is that we are in the minority, and we don't drive the market. There is very little we can do to influence what kind of tools are made and/or shipped here. I think a lot of the complaining done here about the cheap import tools is due to that fact. Many of us in that small minority are very frustrated that we can't get the quality tools that we used to buy from brands that we used to trust. In this profession, just like any other, there are a multitude of average people working that may not even realize the difference in quality of the tools that they use. Many of them don't appreciate those differences. They are the ones that drive the market, because they're the majority of the workforce. How many people have you worked with that you felt were exceptionally good at what they did vs. how many total people you've actually worked with? Speaking for myself, that is a very small percentage. And that small percentage are the guys like us that are perfectly willing to pay more for the better tools.
And like it or not, the import makers of the tools are going to catch a lot of the blame for the crap quality, whether they deserve it or not. Some of them may be working right to the blueprint that they were given, but many do not. I have worked with many an import piece of tooling of my own and others' ownership that does not meet its quality specs. For instance the cheap milling vises that are supposed to be parallel and square within .0005" or what have you. After using a good solid vise those things are absolute crap. I can literally feel them flexing when I tighten the vises - they feel like a sponge. A quality vise locks up tight and solid, with very little handle movement. I have also reground almost a baker's dozen of those import vises for people to get them square and parallel. They very frequently absolutely do not meet their specs. Contrast that with someone like Hermann Schmidt. They spec their vises as square and parallel within .0002" - and that is MAX. My own checked on the surface plate with a tenths indicator doesn't even flutter the needle. And the finish is very good indeed.
Speaking of that, there's also the finishes on those cheap imports. For example, tooling that is supposed to be ground to a precise diameter or height/width that has a finish that looks like it was gnawed on by a rat. A little bit of time and use and that size is history. And compare several pieces that should be almost identical: the finishes will be all over the map. Or how about edges that aren't deburred and will lay an unwary hand open like a scalpel. That never happened on reputable makers' tools until production moved overseas. I could certainly go on. Some of this is absolutely the fault of the manufacturers not doing proper QC - either because they don't care or because it would be too expensive to reject all the crap - who knows.
So I guess many of us are very worried to see yet another old line manufacturer that we came up through the trades with going down that road. It always seems to lead to inferiority. I guess I'm happy that I have a healthy collection of old high quality tooling, and I'm always on the lookout for more. And yes, I too have always got my eye out for the Swiss tools.
And wow. I did not intend to write that much.
