[ODDJOB UNO]

im not gonna argue usa vs jap precision tooling. i will argue chinese/korean/taiwan vs usa mfg'd.

99.8 % of all our tooling and precision tooling sold was MILITARY or NASA or DARPA contracts.


and the vast majority were STARRETT MADE IN ATHOL MASS USA precision tools. MANDATED BY CONTRACTS!

start putting alot of ZEROS after the decimal point like 78millionths. and it kind of gets INTENSE!

going into space? OH BOY yer tolerances better be dead nutz perfect. thread the shuttles exploding fuel cell bolts..............and tell me all about tolerances. if a Q-TIPS single strand of fiber grabbed a burr on a single thread under a magnifying glass, the entire lot was rejected until reworked and then NASA rechecked them. and yes they were starrett thread pitch gages used.

i still have some buddies at garrett/honeywell and by the time they get the part to machine................its already got $250K worth of machine work done to it already! before they even TOUCH IT!

if i remember the calibration room TEMP was set at a constant 72 degrees F with a certain number relative humidity CONSTANT! basically like an intel clean room for checking tolerances. mega filters on a/c units etc. everything lasered off. starrett surface plates cleaned every shift. and i mean BIG AZZD SURFACE PLATES THAT WOULD CRUSH A CAR IF DROPPED!

i made 16 ZILLION TRW airbag triggers out of 304 low leaded stainless. 37 QC checks on each one before sodium azide(EXTREMELY EXPLOSIVE) was installed and then shipped to auto mfg's. NOT a GUBBERMINT CONTRACT and ALL PRECISION TOOLING WAS MANDATED STARRETT USA! if that damn airbag trigger dont go off in a pico second, everybody from TRW all the way down to manufacture of that airbag trigger was SUED INTO THE STONE AGE!

it all depends on what yer making, if its aerospace, they kind of have it down to a science here in the usa. offshore.....................well its SCAREY!