J. Clarke wrote:
Gary DeWitt wrote:


"Pounds on Wood" wrote in message
...

"Wally" wrote in message
...
Club Members:

We have great news to share!


You know you're ****ed when management opens with that line.

There must be hundreds of similar stories just in the lurkers of this
NG.
My wife worked for Cadam, a cad subsidiary of Lockheed, mid 80's.
Lockheed sold Cadam to a FRENCH aeronautics co, dassault systems,
which kept it going only long enough to sell bits of it to the highest
bidder.
Why would a company buy a company they don't want, and really are not
going to make a killing selling? I just don't get it.


Sometimes they do it to eliminated a competitor and sometimes they do it
because there's one specific technology or patent or technique or facility
or customer that they want.


The way I feel about Millwaukee, having used their excellent tools
over the last 35 years with NEVER a breakdown, is just sad.

Here's an idea: form up a Historical Society style group who's purpose
is to preserve american companies who make good products, especially
tools. Seems to me with enough legal clout and expertise, you can get
just about anything done here in the USA. Part of the expenses could
be covered by targeted companies' employees. Anyone have an opinion
about how this might work and save at least the last few holdouts
here?


The North American woodworking tools industry is moving to China because
the consumer has voted with their wallets. People would rather spend
$100 for a tool than $200. The difference in quality (if any) is not
sufficient to make them shell out the additional $$.

I just purchased a General TS (#650, made entirely in Canada). It was
$2200 CDN, vs $1400 for a 'King' import. Jet was somewhere in between,
Delta was a bit more than $2200. The King would have sufficed, but I
splurged and got the General. I can see that for most people the
difference in perceived quality does not justify a 50% price premium.

If North American industry wants to compete and sell tablesaws for
$2200, then they need to innovate and stay ahead of the Asian high
volume/low cost commodity manufacturers. After 50 years, General still
offers a sloppy cast iron rip fence that doesn't really work. Expensive
to make, it would be better for them to innovate and offer a really
accurate one. The same could be said for depth of cut, blade tilt and
anti-kickback blade shield. (Any time you see an active market for
'after-market add ons' you can bet that the major manufacturers are not
satisfying needs and are in trouble.

There are a few companies that make innovative products (Leigh, Jessem,
Woodpecker, Dremel) who are doing fine (I hope)