by waaytoomuchintothis » Wed Oct 29, 2014 10:19 am
There is one gigantic foundry/factory network in China that makes all the parts. The parts go in piles according to tolerance. If its 15 thousandths out, that's in a pile, if its 1 thousandth out, that's another pile, and all in between. Plants that assemble in the US, like Jet, Steel City, Porter-Cable, Powermatic, and some others get parts from the best pile and assemble here with very little machining, which allows us to buy replacement parts quick and easy. The vast majority of what is sold here is completed in China, but from the graded parts piles according to whatever their contract is, and how closely they watch the untrustworthy Chinese factories. This includes names like Grizzly, Woodtek, and Micromark. HF gets the machines made from the bad parts pile, re-machines them to usable tolerances and ships direct from China for large machines, and to a warehouse here for the rest. This is why occasionally you hear about junk from HF, and other times quality from the same place that rivals the US tools from the 1960s in the US (when we still made them). Bosch and Hitachi are in countries that still make their own steel and the quality is wonderful consistently. Makita uses a mix of parts, as do several other names you see at the big box stores. A new plastic handle for Makita is in a warehouse here, but the armature for the motor takes weeks to get here from China.
One of the most important differences is what has been said here already, that bearing parts also vary in quality, or even whether or not they are even there, then there's the alignment and installation of these vital parts.