IN MY CASE buying old machines, repairing and rebuilding them is the ONLY way I would be where I am today.
My old machines have made me a ton of money over the years.
But there you have it. You are using them as part of a revenue-generating
business. Not as a hobbyist. How many are even light-duty South Bend's anyway? ISTR you have some
industrial-grade "old iron" in that mix?
Consider how much better-off, yet, you might have become if each time out, each "old machine" acquired had been one that needed a little LESS rebuilding, hence was earning revenue sooner, and absorbing scarce resources, less. And....you had steadily kept raising that bar until most-recent additions needed NO significant rebuild at all. Even moved to buying new.
Tired machines clearly isn't "the only way". or there would not be a firm on-continent buying new machines and earning enough to do it again as they go obsolete or worn-out.
You - many here - have basically built a business - or a hobby - off the leavings - table-scraps if you will - of healthier faster-moving, more competitive, and generally larger and more profitable firms.
Heck after a while many of us get to liking rebuilding old machines.... ( Hello, My name is Miles and I have a problem. )
Personal choice. We all make those.
Nothing wrong with that, until...... the addicts try to proselytize all-comers onto the same path, whether it fits the "new guy" and
his desires or plans.... time budget .... pocketbook...,
class of machine or not.
That is not aiming for a healthy national industrial base nor decent compensation for those who work in it.
It is aiming for hobbyists, retirees, and marginal operations dependent on a diminishing supply of Old Iron. Can't re-scrape such "good stuff" as has already been smelted. Should not rebuild some of what should have been smelted in its stead.