"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 15 Jan 2017 17:51:21 -0800 (PST), wrote:

Hi folks,

Please trim your lines to 72 characters. My word wrap is turned on
but your lines all go off the page into the 3rd screen.


I was just looking at some old Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogues from
the early 1900s. Here's an example of a page:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138493...posted-public/

That 20" bandsaw costs $31.65. If you figure out a current
equivalent price (multiplier of 27), it comes to around $855. Seems
cheap for a 300 lb cast iron machine to me, as do the other machine
tools. A Jet 20" bandsaw now costs $3556.00:
http://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/93252591

Equivalents to the other manufactured products in the catalogue are
mostly cheaper today (this guy has some interesting examples from
the 1970s: http://cafehayek.com/2006/01/working_for_sea.html)

But what about machine tools? If they are more expensive, what's the
cause? A rise in the cost of skilled labour, or less local
competition among small foundries and machine shops? What do you
think?

Yes, your reasons, then add in unions, branding, and corporate greed
(possibly caused by attorneys who are pawning it off as feeding
shareholders). These aren't just price hikes, they're multipliers.

When the Chiwanese knockoffs can be sold for 1/4 the price of
domestic
units, it isn't just quality of materials.

The 1940's 6" Sears/AA metal lathe is similar to today's low end hobby
lathes, maybe better in some ways and worse in others like the
too-flexible spindle nose.
https://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70009
It's $31.95 price (in 1950?) equates to $319.97 in 2016 according to
this calculator:
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/