TheSamba.com :: View topic

Thu May 16, 2024 6:04 am

Machinist wet dream

Made in the USA, you don't get that quality from Harbor Freight.

Thu May 16, 2024 6:19 am

Hope they survive. They were bought by a private equity firm in March of this year.

Ray

Thu May 16, 2024 6:34 am

They have some nice stuff. I have a protractor from them that measures in seconds! Super nice tool. List price is north of $900, but got it at a garage sale for $5. :lol:

Also a pink granite surface plate, calibration last checked in 2018 to be within 0.00005” flatness across the top. Very nice.

Thu May 16, 2024 7:47 am

raygreenwood wrote: Hope they survive. They were bought by a private equity firm in March of this year.

Ray

When you get the MBAs involved in machine tools... MBA stands for "Master of Black Arts." They'll break up the company and sell the parts, rob the pension fund and sell the brand to the Chinese when that's all that's left. :roll:

Starrett should be declared a national treasure and a strategic resource. You can't build precision 155mm howitzer shells without precision measuring tools. Deal 'em in on a few $B that would otherwise be doled out to quite rich enough already douchebags who are "researching" things that may never pan out.

Make the hour and a half drive up to Windsor if you're touring.

https://americanprecision.org/

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Thu May 16, 2024 8:00 am

My first micrometer was a Starrett. I bought a stand mixer at Goodwill and it was in the bowl jumbled up with all the attachments, there was also a firefighters badge. Best $1.99 I ever spent. Still have the micrometer today, I can't remember what happened to the mixer or the badge.

Thu May 16, 2024 8:09 am

Found my latest Starrett micrometer perched daintily on top of the scrap metal bin at the municipal transfer station. It's in its original box with its original packing material.

Best $0 I ever spent. :D

I used to have a full set up to 6". They went The Way of the Buffalo when my brother liquidated our workshop. Technically I gave them to him, they went in his Gerstner chest. They went down the road when he sold out.

I shoulda scratched my name in 'em. :roll:

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Thu May 16, 2024 8:28 am

Yep....my best dial indicator was acquired from a previous employer. It was part of a medical device manufacturing metrology kit. When the product li e was obsoleted, by contract all tooling and instruments get destroyed or scrapped :roll:....I picked it up minutes before it went in the scrap bin. It's a 0.0001" model with an NIST certificate. I picked up a $600 O.C. White 5 diopter lighted inspection lamp in the same scrap haul.

My spring loaded center punch is Starrett....superb. My SR-100, electronic surface profile gauge that is in my daily kit is Sterrett....also excellent (even though Starrett bought that franchise from Taylor Hobson).

I have Starrett feeler gauges and ball gauges that are the best in the business.

Ray

Thu May 16, 2024 8:32 am

I thought a lot of Starrets stuff was coming from Brazil or somewhere the last couple years, this is the death knell for them now, as mentioned these private equity firms are going to kill them off; Shame Starrett was the best out there for a while, just have to buy the vintage stuff now....

Thu May 16, 2024 8:40 am

so many skeptics lol

if they are doing great a private equity firm will likely leave them alone - pretty funny to assume otherwise but the sky is always falling on thesamba :lol:

Thu May 16, 2024 11:10 am

Erik G wrote: so many skeptics lol

if they are doing great a private equity firm will likely leave them alone - pretty funny to assume otherwise but the sky is always falling on thesamba :lol:

Must be you don't have an ancient well established machine tool industry in Texas. You might also assume it's something that can be expediently rebuilt after you tear it down.

Just tellin' it like I see it. There are empty former machine shops from one end of New England to the other, two more just recently in my little town. Simply look at the history of Stanley, Millers Falls or my favorite slightly obscure machine, the Fellows gear shaper.

A hundred years to build a business, you'll be lucky to get 90 days notice when they decide to shut it down.

The assumption is we can buy what we need from China.

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Thu May 16, 2024 11:58 am

Dusty1 wrote: Erik G wrote: so many skeptics lol

if they are doing great a private equity firm will likely leave them alone - pretty funny to assume otherwise but the sky is always falling on thesamba :lol:

Must be you don't have an ancient well established machine tool industry in Texas. You might also assume it's something that can be expediently rebuilt after you tear it down.

Just tellin' it like I see it. There are empty former machine shops from one end of New England to the other, two more just recently in my little town. Simply look at the history of Stanley, Millers Falls or my favorite slightly obscure machine, the Fellows gear shaper.

A hundred years to build a business, you'll be lucky to get 90 days notice when they decide to shut it down.

The assumption is we can buy what we need from China.

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What?

My point is that it's a huge assumption to jump from "Announcing we are going private with a private equity company" to "shutting down, go buy from China" LMAO

Private equity companies want to make money and if Starett is doing well, I don't think they are likely to change much, and certainly not "sky is falling they are going to shut down".

MiddleGround Capital is the company in question - I haven't seen them get rid of Alcoa. I haven't seen them get rid of Weisco. They own a lot of heavy hitters.

The rest of your comments are way out there :lol:

Thu May 16, 2024 12:45 pm

Erik G wrote:
What?

My point is that it's a huge assumption to jump from "Announcing we are going private with a private equity company" to "shutting down, go buy from China" LMAO

Private equity companies want to make money and if Starett is doing well, I don't think they are likely to change much, and certainly not "sky is falling they are going to shut down".

MiddleGround Capital is the company in question - I haven't seen them get rid of Alcoa. I haven't seen them get rid of Weisco. They own a lot of heavy hitters.

The rest of your comments are way out there :lol:

True Stories From The Auto Industry:

In my function as a Process Engineer I sometimes also worked as a machine operator. I was operating a machine that needed a sharp poke with a broom handle every so often. Machine needs a Machine Operator, anyway. This machine wasn't so sophisticated it wouldn't walk across the floor and bust down the wall if left un- attended.

Boss comes up to me. He says,

"I need you to come up with as many ways as you can think of to eliminate your job by the first of the month." I just about fell down laughing! You can't make this shit up!

When asked again after the deadline I said,

"Sorry. I got nuthin'."

I might have had something if they offered me the same deal Edison offered Tesla over a hundred years ago. Edison offered Tesla $50k for innovation in electrical production and distribution.

"We" went on strike for a few weeks. Came back to a big empty spot on the floor where "my" machine had been.

Boss came up and asked me if I wanted to go to Mexico and train the guy who would be running "my" machine.

Aw, shucks. I would have led with that idea had they offered me $50k. :twisted:

Erik G wrote:
What? ...

...The rest of your comments are way out there :lol:

I keep forgetting that while they can teach readin', writin' and 'rithmetic teaching analytical thinking is the advanced program. Way I figure it 1984 came 40 years late with 2024's bizarre variety of anti- logic. :roll:

I'll pass along my favorite recipe for improvised explosives. Just mix politics and religion. :twisted:

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