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Machines Made in The USA

csharp

Stainless
Joined
Sep 24, 2009
Location
PA
Are there any machines other than HAAS that are made and owned in the USA?

I toured Mazak in Kentucky and it appears as though they make some.

Thanks
 
The high end lathes from Hardinge are made in Upsate NY yet.

Most of (all?) the MAG group is US. (fadal, G&L, Cinci, etc...)

I think quite a few of the saws are US too - Beringer, Marvel...

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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
"The high end lathes from Hardinge are made in Upsate NY yet."

"I am not sure Hardinge still makes HLVH's. Anyone know?"

I think the decision was recently made not to make any more "major" machines in Elmira. They will probably continue to make workholding & some tooling there. Beyond that, Elmira will become an assembly operation but the parts, castings and large scale machining will be sourced...and most likely not on shore. :bawling::bawling: My straight edges are cast in one of a group of foundries that *used* to do Hardinges castings such as the BP's. As I understand it, that business left the USA during this past year. :bawling::bawling:

Keep in mind, for as small as it is, Hardinge is an international company. They have plants in China & Taiwan, and sell to the Chinese. In Europe they own Hauser, Trippet, Tshudin & Kellenberger outright and the grinders are probably what has kept the company afloat over the past couple years. IIRC, Hardinge may sell more overseas than in the USA these days, which is not bad for a US machine tool company. Too bad the political climate and understanding over the past decade has not been conducive to keeping (relatively) competitive US companies manufacturing on shore.

smt
 
All critical components in Hardinge lathes (spindles, collet closers and turrets) will still be manufactured in Elmira. Large machining of bases, sheet metal and etc is to be outsourced. Final assembly will still take place in Elmira on high end machines. Workholding, rotary products and repair parts will also remain.
The HLV is still currently in production however will be phasing out in the near future.
Tom
 
US Machine builders both forming and chip making:

MAG Group (Cincinnita, G&L, Fadal, Lamb, etc)
Ingersoll Machine Tools (Large Mills and fiber placement machines)
MegaFAB: W. A. Whitney (punch/plasma machines - punching machines), Piranha & Bertsch
Bardon & Oliver (CNC lathes)
The Monarch Machine Tool Co. (Cortland, NY: CNC VMC)
The Minister Machine Tool Co. (large presses)
Cincinniti Inc. (press brakes, CNC laser cutting machines)
Bourn & Koch (gear making machines - special machines)
The Gleason Works (gear making machines)
Vermont Machine Tool (owners of Bryant Grinders)
Seneca Falls Machine Tools (CNC lathes and speciality machines)
Fryer Machine Tools (CNC mills and lathes)
Hardinge
Haas
Stripit
Saginaw Machine Systems
Lucas Precision
Cubic Machinery
Hurco
Moore Tool
DoAll

There are more, but these are all I can think of right now. The problem is, no body hears of U.S. machine builders other than one or two of the big guys. There are a lot of small companies that make saws, iron workers, plasma tables, and speciality machines. And a lot of these companies listed above are hurting bad right now (like a lot of us).

This is always a good thread from time to time to remind machine users who is left build U.S. designed and built machines. I hope others can add to the list.

John
 
Milltronics


Cinci Milacron - carbon fiber 5 axis laminant machines. (Not sure if that fits under one of yours mentioned or not?)



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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
Wells Index mills are still made in the USA from US made castings.
How many do they sell per year...one..two ?? Have never heard of anyone actually buying a new Wells Index mill in the past decade....maybe the government buys a few ? Have not seen them at any trade shows in decades, no ads in magazines, etc. I suspect their sale figures are so low as to be a moot point for this sort of discussion.
 
US Machine builders both forming and chip making:

MAG Group (Cincinnita, G&L, Fadal, Lamb, etc)
Ingersoll Machine Tools (Large Mills and fiber placement machines)
MegaFAB: W. A. Whitney (punch/plasma machines - punching machines), Piranha & Bertsch
Bardon & Oliver (CNC lathes)
The Monarch Machine Tool Co. (Cortland, NY: CNC VMC)
The Minister Machine Tool Co. (large presses)
Cincinniti Inc. (press brakes, CNC laser cutting machines)
Bourn & Koch (gear making machines - special machines)
The Gleason Works (gear making machines)
Vermont Machine Tool (owners of Bryant Grinders)
Seneca Falls Machine Tools (CNC lathes and speciality machines)
Fryer Machine Tools (CNC mills and lathes)
Hardinge
Haas
Stripit
Saginaw Machine Systems
Lucas Precision
Cubic Machinery
Hurco
Moore Tool
DoAll
Re actual USA manuf...Fryer, Cubic and Hurco are highly suspect in that list..esp Cubic.
 
If it has crank handles on it or change gears, it probably isn't made in the US (or other developed country such as US or Western Europe). If it has steppers or servos, it may be. US companies basically don't make 19th century technology, anymore (a few exceptions noted below). Quite a few make 20th century machine tools. Manual lathes and mills are basically 19th century steam engine/treadle power technology with an electric motor tacked on. These are made in developing countries, primarily China/Taiwan.
Don't get me wrong, I like the old stuff. It is just hard for a US company to compete on price on low tech.

Sherline makes manual lathes and mills in the US. Actually not bad if your work is the size of a postage stamp. These are hobby/model making size. CNC is an option, but it is kinda a retrofit job. Taig manual lathes and mills are made in the US, but again these are tiny. CNC is an option for the mill.

A lot of the CNC stuff made here is woodshop grade, or plasma arc cutter, or water jet, or laser cutter, or wire cutter, or EDM. What they have in common is they don't have a lot of steel or iron. Serious metal working lathes/mills are in the minority, but there are more than I can keep track of. You can buy a complete "working" lathe or mill from china for less than it would probably cost you to make the raw castings in the US. When we lost the steel industry, that was pretty much the end of US made big iron unless it is a modern premium machine (i.e. CNC).

www.southwesternindustries.com makes CNC knee mills, bed mills, and lathes. At least some of the mills have crank handles, too. They have a 130,000 foot manufacturing facility in southern California. Hardened/ground ways with turcite slides. I am not sure about the origins of the base machine. Are the castings made here? Do they import the castings? Do they import machines and retrofit? Wells Index, as as been mentioned, uses US castings. These are manual tool change machines. Probably about as close to US made big iron as you are going to get (other than Bridgeport). But if these companies don't beef up their websites, marketing, and the machines themselves how much longer will they be around?.

The US is behind Germany, Russia, Spain, and Bulgaria:
http://www.osec.ch/internet/osec/de...File.pdf/Annex3_Sectorreport_MachineTools.pdf

The following companies claim the meet the criteria of the 2004 defense authorization act for Horizontal/Vertical turning (not including optics):
Bourn & Koch, Ciincinati Machine (MAG), CNC Engineering, Giddings & Lewis, Haringe, Index, Jasco Tools, Kingsbury, Modern Industries, Wes-Tech Automation Solutions, Haas, Milltronics, T.M Smith Tool International
There are a bunch of other categories.

www.mooretool.com is still kicking.

American Turnmaster lathes "are either made in Taiwan or made in USA. Not China. " - which boils down to US motors/wiring/controls on some machines. Manual and CNC.
This company carries a number of brands of US made metalworking tools:
http://www.machinetoolssouth.com/Products.htm
Versamill portable mills are made in the US.
http://www.versamil.com/

I think there are CNC rod benders, pipe binders, sheet formers, and roll formers made in the US.

Of course, Congress banned the export of advanced machine tools from the US, under the guise of national security, which doesn't help matters, either.

http://standard-industrial.com/ makes shears, press brakes, etc. in the US.

In 1981, there were over a 1000 machine tool makers in the US:
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=1730&page=9
It talks about annual fluctuations in sales from +75% to -50%.
At the time, the top manufacturers were:
Cincinatti Milacron, Bendix, Cross & Trecker, iddings & Lewis, Ex-Cell-O, F. Joseph Lamb, Textron, Acme Cleveland, Litton, Ingersoll Milling, White Consolodated, Gleason Works, Houdaille, Monarch, and Esterline.
Capitol investments by Machine Tool manufacturers were only 2.9% of sales between 1975-1980.

PapaGrizzly bought the remnants of South Bend. Machines will be made in Taiwan. Been discussed here.

Taiwan exported $710million worth of machine tools in the first 5 months of this year, down by half compared to last year. Only $130 million of those came here; considerably more ($213million) went to China.
http://news.cens.com/cens/html/en/news/news_inner_28691.html

Hardinge still sells Hardinge Lathes (CNC only) and Bridgeport knee mills (manual and CNC) and vertical machining centers. "Made in the USA" isn't plastered over their web site. However, the spec sheet for one of the Bridgeports does say it is made in the US. This is lacking from the spec sheet for one of the Hardinge Lathes. They have subsidiaries in England, Germany, Switzerland, China, and Taiwan, ROC
Manual Bridgeports start at $14290. DRO, power feed, chip pans, etc. cost extra.

Things also get confusing with foreign companies with plants in US and US ownership of foreign plants. China's largest machine tool manufacturer is 30% owned by a US company (not a real company, a financial company). Question is, can wall street make a Chinese manufacturer worse?
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2007-06/12/content_892522.htm

"Summit Lathes are American Designed and Manufactured to exact ISO Standards and specifications. ". Hmm. Is that American (Designed and Manufactured) or (American Designed). Apparently the latter:
http://www.summitmachinetool.com/index.html
http://www.importgenius.com/shipments/myday-machine-inc.html

Does Clausing still make their stuff in the US? Looks like drills/saws/punches but not machine tools:
"Today, Clausing provides United States representation and distribution for machine tool manufacturers based in Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Spain and Taiwan. Clausing continues its manufacturing heritage with full production facilities, building the complete range of Clausing drill presses and the "Kalamazoo" range of sawing machines and the "Metal Muncher" range of ironworkers and punch presses."
 
The Hardinge HLVH has been out of production for about two months. I moved one for a friend the Saturday before last. He called the factory to get background on the machine and inquire about accessories. They dropped the lathe because production costs had gone too high. Previously they had a vertically integrated operation with everything under their direct control. Now they are farming work out. I suspect that means the end of Hardinge as we know it. Manual machines may be antiques, but prototyping and small quantity production is still more efficient if you factor in the programming time vs a skilled machinist knowing what to do.

Bill
 
Pacific Press and Shear still builds press brakes and shears and pressformers, and i think bulldozers(metal formers), but only in the very large catagory, in my hometown of Mt. Carmel IL..Later Jason.
 
[The high end lathes from Hardinge are made in Upsate NY yet. /QUOTE]

I'm gonna say...NOPE

They will probably continue to make workholding & some tooling there. Beyond that, Elmira will become an assembly operation but the parts, castings and large scale machining will be sourced...and most likely not on shore. :bawling::bawling:
I wouldn't waste any :bawling: on Hardinge....
They could have surpassed Haas if they paid attention to their customers
and designed, built, and sold accordingly, including -price-.
Rather than ride (coast) on the name and maintain the 'we are the best, and can price as such'....head in the sand attitude that prevailed for the last 20+ years.
Gene Haas said he'd eat 'em for lunch, and it damn sure looks like he did just that overall. Mostly by selling what his customers want, and by providing acceptable service and repairs.
 
Are there any machines other than HAAS that are made and owned in the USA?

Haas use mostly imported parts... ballscrews, linear guides, servo and spindle motors, cartridge spindles, ATCs, hydraulic units, lube pumps, coolant pumps, oil chillers, etc. Castings are made in "North America", which includes Mexico.

Companies like Toyota, with manufacturing plants in the US, are often criticized for using foreign suppliers. Haas does the same thing but gets away with it.
 
Milltronics

The only thing Milltronics makes in US is their proprietary controls. Machines are entirely made overseas. They charge extra for Fanuc controls, which are installed overseas, in which case the machines are 0% USA made.
 
Haas use mostly imported parts... ballscrews, linear guides, servo and spindle motors, cartridge spindles, ATCs, hydraulic units, lube pumps, coolant pumps, oil chillers, etc. Castings are made in "North America", which includes Mexico.

Companies like Toyota, with manufacturing plants in the US, are often criticized for using foreign suppliers. Haas does the same thing but gets away with it.

Interesting. I wonder what the percentage is in absolute numbers and compared to, say, foreign owned Mazak (for the machines sold here).

These days, it would be hard to make a CNC machine tool that used 100% US parts, although it sounds like Haas is using a lot of offshore parts. Electronic components, even ones from US manufacturers, are often made overseas and it isn't that easy to find out where until you get the parts in hand (and even then it isn't always easy) and the next batch might come from somewhere else. I can buy a Texas Instrument part and it is made in the Philippines and a Toshiba part and it is made in the US. BTW, you ever price all those components you mention from both US and offshore sources? I have priced some of them - it isn't pretty.

It is pretty hard for US companies to compete even with foreign parts in a lot of markets. With the added cost and limited selection of US parts only,
instead of getting something that was perhaps 50% US made, you might end up with something that was roughly 0% US made because Haas or whoever was out of business.

All too often, I see entire assembled import products that cost considerably less than just the components would cost me, even without limiting myself to US components. No way I could do US only as a startup; not sure I could do it when well established.

Acting individually, buying US can be shooting yourself in the foot. Collectively, buying import can be shooting ourselves in the foot.
A) Rock, B) Hard place. If one company buys all US, they go under because only a small portion of the money comes back. If a thousands of large companies did it, another story. It is the big (Republican) corporations who started all this offshoring that created this mess, now we are pretty much stuck on the treadmill. Before that, they drove the quality of American products into the ground, so American companies had a hard time competing on quality if they couldn't compete on price. Now, even if a company could stay afloat, a maverick CEO who tried to do stuff onshore would be fired by Wall Street (Republicans). Meanwhile, the Democrats tried to protect us from companies trying to pay us offshore wages (which is a mixed bag, since wage differences are part of the problem), but gave the Republicans at least half of what they wanted every time they tried to sell us down the river. The marketplace is stacked and not in our favor; until the rules of the marketplace change, the situation isn't going to change for the better. Bitch about taxes, but at least a lot of that money stays here. Bitch about environmental regs, but a lot of that money stays here too (China isn't exactly at the forefront of environmental technology), even if some of the regs aren't giving us the best bang for the buck. Companies that were externalizing costs by trashing out environment had an unfair advantage over the ones that weren't. Environmental laws leveled the playing field inside the US. But you can't just open the borders wide to countries with no labor regs and no environmental ones. Import tarrifs based on the difference in labor rates and environmental laws would help a lot. We live in a wealth extraction society, not a wealth creation one. The Republicans are a wholly owned subsidiary of the wealth extractors (and like it that way) and the Democrats a partially owned subsidiary (because that's where the campaign finance money comes from and because if you repeat a lie often enough, voters will believe it, and the wealth extractors control what people see and hear).
 








 
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