machine tools in the USA

[ronsmith100]

Which brand of manual machine tools are still manufactured "soley" in the USA? Not counting CNC machines. I'll begin with Hardinge chucker. That's the only one I am fairly certain of.

[precisionworks]

Wells-Index

http://www.wellsindex.com/

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Barry Milton

[Smtty58]

I believe Harding still makes the toolroom lathe, as well as Bridgeport knee mills. Supposedly in Elmira. I was told the Bpt. heads are still made in CT., except for the casting which is import.

[Alistair Hosie]

What about greenleaf and Gilmour I bought some of them on ebay recently seems they are nade in the good old USA or am I mistaken.Alistair

[rockrat]

Does Monarch fit in the list? I know that they are still in Ohio, but I don't know where the equipment starts.

[Milacron of PM]

I think Monarch pretty much just pretends to still make 10ee's. They mostly retrofit and rebuild older ones. I suspect any new ones they make are made from older machines.

There was a guy posting on Practical Machinist's Monarch forum, a while back that worked for a company got bought a brand new 10ee maybe 4 years ago, and darned if they weren't having accuracy issues with it. If I spent $80,000 for a new manual lathe and it wasn't "perfect" I'd be PO'd too I guess.

One point to be made of course is that even if not for the Asian invasion of manual machines, there would be very few manual machines made in the USA simply because production demands have moved almost completely to CNC. The market for manual machines these days are folks like those reading this forum that aren't in a million year gonna pay the prices for new USA built manual machines. If Birmingham or other Chinese machines didn't exist, most HSM types would buy used or just do without or buy CNC new.

So, as far as "new" in USA all that "matters" really are CNC machine tools. I'm no fan of Haas, but Haas is kicking butt in that regard..doing very well.

[Ries]

Somebody posted this topic on Practical machinist a few months ago, and there were 70 or 80 posts in answer- but the end result was 3 categories-
A very few companies hanging on making manual machine tools- Wells index, Bridgeport, Hardinge and South Bend are still in business. A new South Bend heavy 10 costs 16 grand, and a new Monarch EE costs 80- so really , Bridgeport is about the main survivor. Standard Modern still makes manual lathes in Canada.
A bunch of companies make oddball machines that arent small lathes or mills- sheet metal machines, grinders, welders, shears, ironworkers, fabricating machines. Niche market machines for various manufacturing industries.
There are a few American manufacturers of CNC machines, Haas being the most well known. Then there are a bunch of foreign CNC manufacturers that have built plants here, just like the japanese and german carmakers have.

But Don really hit the nail on the head- with CNC, one VMC replaces 2 dozen bridgeports in a row, so the demand in domestic manufacturing for manual machine tools is almost nil. And with the low prices of chinese stuff, and the market full of used machines from plants going bust as their work moves to China- who would buy the machines anyway?
Its true that in the early 50's, we probably had a couple of hundred machine tool manufacturers, and now we may have 2 dozen. But more stuff gets done faster with modern machines.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

Is Clausing american made? I was under the impression that it was/is. I think they still make new Lathes?

-Adrian

[Mcgyver]

I’ve been told by someone you claims to have been in the factory there, the bports are made in Taiwan now

[This message has been edited by Mcgyver (edited 06-09-2005).]

[Milacron of PM]

Re Clausing, I believe the only machine they make in America are the standard drill presses. The Clausing Colchester lathes are made in either UK or Tawain, the Clausing Metosa lathes are made in Spain.