Looks like vise grips will be made in China now, the complete factory is up for auction. I emailed Irwin to see what they say. Let's see if they reply.
Remove 333 from email address to reply.
I saw that auction too.
Maybe they wil be made in India. I think that Harbor Freight vise-grips will now be better value for the money.
i
Good grief!
Will nothing be manufactured in the US anymore?
"Social workers" (an oxymoron), the US is very good at producing "Social workers"...
I can't tell if you're being serious or just garnishing a gripe , but, in case you *are* serious, US manufacturing actually hasn't done badly. Except for the blip caused by the rise in finance, its share of GDP hasn't declined much. Our total manufacturing output continues to grow:
Here's something that seems to surprise everyone: US manufacturing output lies between 2.2 and 2.5 times that of China.
-- Ed Huntress
All of the above was a revelation to me.
i
I have gotten a large number of vise grips through ebay. One or two here and there, some larger numbers than that. Except one, all of them were in good to excellent shape. Use the term "vice" grip, also, as there will be some listed that way. C clamps, also. I have gotten the 11r's for $6. They last, so the current US produced tools will be available for a long time. I would never ever go to a store and pay what they want for a new pair.
Steve
Right. As our friend Hamei says, who has employed many Chinese manufacturing workers in China, it takes about 10 Chinese to produce what one American worker produces.
I think he's exaggerating because they exasperate him. But their productivity does run between 5% and 10% that of the US.
-- Ed Huntress
I believe it's dollars, Jon. I'd have to go look. But dollars are the basis of trade, so it doesn't matter much.
-- Ed Huntress
I have seen a private label with plastic coated handles and a square(er) looking frame that looks interesting. Can't recall if it was Sears or HF.
And they have an order of magnitude or so more employed in that sector.
That is an interesting economic statement.
Is that measured in USD, or some other unit of measure?
Jon
On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:12:38 -0500, the infamous Ignoramus24590 scrawled the following:
Have they fixed the quality problem with the adjuster screw stop yet? I kept having the stops go away with early vice grips from HF, where the actuator rod bypassed the stop and stuck itself between the rolled housing and the adj screw.
-- The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
Almost everything I have bought from Harbor Freight has been worth at least as much as I paid. One of the exceptions was a pair of vise grips that I bought many years ago. The only purchase from Harbor Freight that was not useable.
But the vise grips from Harbor Freight that I acquired more recently are good and have no problem with the adjusted screw jamming.
The only recent purchase from Harbor Freight that was a bit disappointing was a 4.5 inch angle grinder. The actual grinder is good, but the included abrasive wheel glazed over immediately. So if you get a small angle grinder , buy some replacement wheels. The replacement wheel from Harbor Freight are good.
Also the 7 inch by 1/16th aluminum abrasive cut off discs from Russia are excellent. The 7 inch by 1/8 inch are not bad, but cut a wider slot so do not cut as fast.
=20 Dan
It is to many people. FWIW, the range of US vs. China manufacturing depends on how you count processed commodities, like basic steel. The most pessimistic ratio is 1.7:1 for the US v. China. If you use the more common definitions, it ran around 2.4:1 before the economic downturn. It's probably in the same range or a little lower now, as China's exports have been suffering along with the rest of the world's, and their domestic consumption was a pretty low percentage of total output, compared to that of the US. Japan's output has fallen below that of China, but they're number 3.
But the impression that we don't manufacture anything anymore is dead wrong. We produce about twice as much as China. As you can see from the output graph I linked to above, the total output numbers for the US keep climbing. You can see what segments are doing what from the Census Bureau's Economic Census. And really fine product detail is available if you want to work a little harder.
We just see a lot of Chinese goods because they cater to the low price/low cost end of the market. The US excels at building the sorts of things that Caterpillar and Boeing make. But not things like vice grips.
Very true. Actually, the US excels at making vise grips, too, but not at a competitive price. If China succeeds in getting its domestic consumption up to "normal" rates, the balance of trade could come much closer to balance.
Not that "balance" is the holy grail, either. The idea should be to encourage our own economic growth. That's what the Chinese are doing, with exports, so it's a tricky job to keep things on a path that benefits both.
A negative balance of trade is not necessarily a bad thing. Declining employment is a bad thing. One does not necessarily follow the other, especially in the medium- and long-term.
And damn hard to automate to the point we are price competitive.
I've never seen people fired due to automation in any plant I worked at but what has been lost is slots in hiring. We bring in automation, typical attrition for various reasons lowers the head count and we end up making more product with fewer people.
The US is getting less and less job friendly to people w/o skills. Just being a hard worker gets you a long time as a temp, then a shot at being factory floor labor if it works out and you don't piss someone off.
A good education is required to navigate the current job situation. Weak minds and a strong back get you no where. Especially when poor border control undermines those with a good work ethic, strong back, and willingness to do the dirty jobs. Not every child is a College candidate.
Wes
Right. But as always, I can't imagine where the good jobs are going to come from. I think I've mentioned before that I tend to be overly pessimistic about that, but the flat, or declining, real incomes of workers are starting to show us where the limits are, I think. This whole capitalist program depends on ever-increasing wages, as well as ever-increasing GDP.
It's a worry.
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