Long Term Impact of Trade War on Woodworking Tool Prices

[Handplanesandmore]

Harvey Tools has been around for some 20 yrs, also selling other brands we know such as Sorby, Veritas, etc. Its innovative Gyro Air is something I've been paying attention to.

Simon

[TGW]

There are always exceptions but for most tool or machine makers who move their production to China it is purely a way of cutting costs and relieving themselves of the burden that production and production machinery and buildings are percieved as by modern economists. 

The Chineese manufacturers are specialising in making standardized machines in slightly diverging varieties to be sold under foreign brands. As cutting costs is the main objective they cut as many corners as they can. If you specify something better than the standard model some parts are better and the worst manufacturing errors sorted out but rest is likely the same. There is a reason why many machines sold under different brands often look alike.

Of cause some are a bit better than others but for me being accustomed to the mechanical quality you find in elderly European stationary machines of which I have rebuilt quite a few and used quite a few more their modern Chineese counterparts seem to be somewhere halfways between a joke and a failiour. Bad designs made by engineers with no experience of which parts that tend to break or wear in use. Castings not properly seasoned. Plenty of casting flaws. Way too thin castings and too thin shafts and too small bearings. Welding flaws. Bearings with no way for the old grease to seep out when you greae them and often they cannot be greased at all. No oil holes nor oil cups nor grease nipples on any joints. Awful machining. Undersized motors with undersized windings and not enough finger space for rewinding them when they burn out. No hand fitting at all even when the machining is bad enough to require it. Plenty of stamped sheet metal and plastic where it should be either proper fabricated or proper cast parts. Undersized electric wiring. No possibilities to compensate for wear and/or hand fitting.
Pretty much the same quality standards as some machines made during the post-war shortages when Finland was bankrupt and bombed out.