[TheForge] American home shop mania

[rw]

Thanks Ries, I love to hear this kind of news.  I hope its true across the
land.  We need some good news.  It gives me hope.  rw

> People tend to forget how incredibly big the USA is. Even though
> everybody complains about how much of our industry is moving to china,
> which is true, there is still an amazing amount left. In just about
> every corner of the country, there is small scale manufacturing tucked
> away. Not to mention the huge swaths of real manufacturing towns. We
> still have lots of steel mills, machine tool manufacturers, boat
> builders, car factories, and all kinds of other really big industry. We
> also have little one man shops that are so well equipped you cant
> believe it. I read about a guy recently way up on the slopes of Mt
> Ranier who singlehandedly runs 3 big CNC machine tools, putting out
> several hundred thousand dollars worth of parts for Boeing a year. This
> is not that unusual. I can count 20 or 30 1 or 2 man shops in the woods
> in my little county of 100,000 people. There is a guy building a land
> speed record car, another who builds world class stringed instruments,
> a dozen blacksmiths, a machinist who makes $2500 fishing reels, vintage
> auto restorers, a dozen boat building shops, and on and on.
> We also have a pretty egalatarian distribution system. It wasnt always
> that way- when I first started making things in the seventies, I would
> constantly find that the supplier who had just what I wanted wouldnt
> sell it to me. The often wanted to sell only to retail stores, or to
> people who would buy a minimum of thousands of dollars a month. This
> has changed enormously over the last thirty years, and now, even though
> I do have all my business credentials, and I often buy small but
> reasonable quantities, I still can find anything I want, usually charge
> it over the phone, and have it delivered in a few days. Business in
> america has really streamlined, computer technology has certainly
> helped, as it is not such a big deal to set up an account anymore, so
> companies are willing to make one cash sale for $100 now, where they
> wouldnt before. UPS and Fed ex help a lot too, as do credit cards.
> I think the UK is probably just a little more old fashioned in that
> respect, whereas here, if you can afford it, they will sell it to you.
>
> ries
>
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