Tom,
No problem, no diverson at all
Yes I know what you mean by looking into the past....that's what I tell those college kids in those history classes I teach.....yes, even with all the typos I have....but hey, thank God for spell checker!
I grew up having history all around me, my mom was in London during the Blitz and many of my relatives here in the good ol' U.S.of A were in the PTO and ETO.
I don't think Americans have forgotten how to manufacture anything....it's just that globalization is luring anything made in America off shore for the quick buck. It will be topsy-turvy until equilibrium is established, in which a person with a certain skill set makes the same amount as anyone else in the world regardless if they live in Peru, South Africa, Guatemala, US, France, etc etc.
But I do wonder how fast the Chinese can catch up to the Japanese level of quality, in big ticket items such as cars.
Sure they have done pretty good in the machine tool industry and they are making inroads everywhere, but it appears many Chinese mfg firms are more concerned about pulling a fast one on the consumer with shoddy items, instead of tacking quality head on like the Japanese did from about the late 1960's onward.
Just the other day I bought a power planer off of Ebay..or feebay as you say.
Well that thing was a cheap-o and of course it was Chinese...it lasted a total of about 30 mins before a cheap rubber belt crapped out...well of course you can't find a replacement belt anywhere and the information inside and outside of the box was not about to say where you could get spare parts for junk....I threw the thing in the trash can and went and dropped a Benjamin on a Bosch power planer, well worth it more torque, not made in America but hey the quality was much better its even quieter and has a nice blade adjustment knob with very positive spring detent indexing for blade depth....it doesn't gouge the wood as you leave the board end....the geometry of the handle helps you to keep the plane flat as you leave the board end.
If nobody has a power planer yet, but is looking for one, check out a Bosch
