Tungstens made in China now???

[torker]

Robert... I think you are onto something.
I just looked at my new boxes of Zirtung and 2%...new Prostar...all made in China. I have a bunch of old boxes of 2% and Z...sold by Liquid Air in Canada...no mention of where it's made.
The old ones are never a problem...the new ones...now that you mention it...some act very weird...they seem to have bad spots sometimes.
Hmmmm.

[Ken_Shea]

Russ,
That does not really surprise you does it ?

Ken

[torker]

Ken...I guess not.
I'm a little choked tho...God only knows what they put in them.
2% is bad enough for you to grind ...gotta be careful with that.
Make them in China and put radioactive drywall dust in them...
Is there ANYTHING that isn't made there now?
Gawd...even the stuff I manufacture right here in good ol' Canuckistan...is actually made in China...the steel all comes from there.

[Ken_Shea]

We have truth in lending, exact contents in packaged food, danger warnings on anything / everything but no sure way of assuring where something is made or how till after the fact.

Ken

[Ries]

Is it really true that all the steel you buy in BC is from China?
Here in the USA, we import around 3% to 5% of the steel we use from China, although it might be higher for 2008, its still below 10%, which would be our highest ever.
We import almost as much from Japan and Germany, although those are higher grades of steel.

We make around 80% of the steel we use in America, in America.

I see rebar from around the world- Indonesia, Korea, Brazil, India, and more.
And pipe also seems to be pretty multicultural- in fact, black pipe is about the only thing I can think of that I have gotten lately that actually said "China" on it.

I use a lot of stainless, and that can come from Russia, or France, Taiwan, or India. You never know.

But in general, I very rarely get steel, stainless, or aluminum in from my suppliers that is made in China.

[torker]

Ries...in the last year...every piece of steel I've bought has China all over it.
This is from two different suppliers also.
I did get in some galvanized fencing pipe that was made in Malaysia tho...it was very nice stuff compared to the crap I've been getting in from China.

[Teenage_Machinist]

Gah. Think you get less of it than us as your country has not gone as tariffophobic as us.

[J Tiers]

I have gotten some plumbing fittings that said china..... Most of them leaked in ways that no amount of pipe dope could fix.... and long cheater bars were no help either, you would wind them on until they welded themselves, and they'd probably still leak.

One was porous...... the rest just had the worst threads ever cut, I think.

QC on anything chinese is an issue...... who knows what's in it, or how it was processed. Generally "whatever is cheapest", and "as cheaply as possible" would be the answers....

[quasi]

Torker, it is probably cheaper to ship steel from China to B.C. , than from Ontario to B.C.

[Mcostello]

Had trouble with chinese fittings leaking on hot water tank. 1/16" of teflon tape would not stop the leak. Tried everything I could think of, what finally worked was Indian Head gasket shellac, let it set overnight. Been on there about 10 years now.

[Duffy]

Torker, why are you surprised that your tungsten electrodes come from China? MOST of the tungsten in the world is MINED in China! Way back when China was a BAD PLACE in the eyes of the US, they bought most of their raw tungsten from Hong Kong where, apparently, there were truly ENORMOUS tungsten mines! AECL bought most of its tungsten, (they used to use a lot of it for radiation shielding,) from Britain and THEY pipelined it in from China.