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I just bought a lathe to lock in prices before tariffs cause them to rise. Its a hobby I've wanted to get into for a long time. There are no manufacturers of s
by xenadu02 2y ago
I just bought a lathe to lock in prices before tariffs cause them to rise. Its a hobby I've wanted to get into for a long time.
There are no manufacturers of screw cutting lathes (a variant of engine lathes and what most people think of as a manual lathe) left in the USA. If you look at old 60s/70s catalogs of lathes the basic models would cost around $15,000 in adjusted money. The Chinese imports are $3000.
Could someone make a competitive lathe for around $3000 in the USA? Perhaps. But it will take significant investment to make that happen. I'm not sure where that investment will come from as Wall Street has no interest in such things.
- bitmasher9 2y agoA lot of manufacturing doesn’t have the market cap to gain investment in the US, lathes included. The total annual lathes sales are <$50b/yr, so you’d have to corner the global market to make it into the Fortune 500. Maybe you could get investment, but you would need killer patents and a working prototype first.
- xenadu02 2y agoThat's true and unfortunate. In the past many more banks were local and there was greater appetite for investments in small and medium businesses, without the expectation that the business had to make the Fortune 1000 or it wasn't worth doing.