I have watched Chinese tool steel and heat treat ability improve massively over my career. The steel went from chineseium to the cheap usable option in a shop.
Tool and alloy steels are a basic measure of a country’s industrial ability. That genie isn’t going back in the bottle.
The gutting of US manufacturing and unions has been a crime against blue collar folks that most don’t understand. Few new machinists stuck through the recession of the aughts. There are few machinists in my age bracket. There is no magic switch to rebuild manufacturing in the USA. It takes years to create competent machinists and we don’t have enough competent machinists to do the training. The apprenticeship programs have mostly been eliminated, the guys that taught me had journeyman’s papers but those programs were gone by the time I came up.
I’ve been lucky enough to grow three machinists, green to competent, in my career. Had to fight with management/corporate to do that much. I know of one that has already left the trade.
I have watched Chinese tool steel and heat treat ability improve massively over my career. The steel went from chineseium to the cheap usable option in a shop.
Tool and alloy steels are a basic measure of a country’s industrial ability. That genie isn’t going back in the bottle.
The gutting of US manufacturing and unions has been a crime against blue collar folks that most don’t understand. Few new machinists stuck through the recession of the aughts. There are few machinists in my age bracket. There is no magic switch to rebuild manufacturing in the USA. It takes years to create competent machinists and we don’t have enough competent machinists to do the training. The apprenticeship programs have mostly been eliminated, the guys that taught me had journeyman’s papers but those programs were gone by the time I came up.
I’ve been lucky enough to grow three machinists, green to competent, in my career. Had to fight with management/corporate to do that much. I know of one that has already left the trade.