Oregon Insights

FYI, not meant to stir the hornet’s nest. Pertinent information for those of us used to buying their products. Sad to hear.
https://youtu.be/hvfQKZvkjkA?si=zFQ_D7ciKHrdx6C1

 

Welp, I better get some more rims before they are all made of sintered metal.

 

Can’t like this at all…..Just me but I will always go out of my way to buy US and North American produced products. Even if it’s more expensive. The YouTuber is right that the private equity firm is only interested in maximizing every dollar that they can by gutting the company and then later dumping it either in part or whole and move on to the next victim, just like any other predator.

 

Oregon used to be a popular high-quality manufacturer when it produced their bars in the US and Canada. I don’t know the details of it but many of the smaller bars have been made in China for some time. Many people have been fooled for years

 

I noticed early on that the ccp units do not have grease holes.

 

I read somewhere that the grinders are now made in China ......Tecomec closed manufacturing in Italy.

 

Add Archer to the roll of the dice category. I bought this rim sprocket conversion kit for my Husqvarna 61. It seems like the slots in the drum were never finish machined, and horrifically off location. A half hour of back and forth with a diamond file fixed that. But then there was a 0.027” interference fit between the plastic oil pump gear and the bore on the drum. Into the lathe it went.

 

Seems like that kangaroo on the box should be humping a panda or sumptin.

 

From the sound of it, it seems like Eric was the humpee.

 

Used to be a time not that awful long ago where we had the option between paying for a quality product or buying cheap crap. That option is slowly being taken away from us leaving cheap crap as the only option in not all but many cases. So sad.

 

Subaru highlighted this problem for me. They no longer manufacture small engines for consumers. Why would they when so many will run to Harbor Freight so they don't have to 'pay for the name'? The people who buy the knockoffs fuel the death of quality products. Subaru was giving us single cylinder engines with an overhead cam. I'm a big fan of Honda's GX series. The Subaru EX series was a superior engine to the GX's (not by a lot). Better design and just as tough.

The splitter I bought few years ago came with some ccp 6hp unit on it. I swapped a well used GX200 in it's place after cold start frustrations. Vibrations halved when the machine is running, something I had not anticipated. It still fires with 3-4 pulls at 20 degrees.

 

That was basically the entire premise of me making this thread. IF you want to pay extra for quality, all you’re really paying for is the name of a historically good brand.

 

I had almost come to the point if you want quality you have to pay through the nose for OEM parts and it may be cheaper to buy a new saw!

 

Little spoon

 

Looks to me that the option is coming back

 

Unfortunately I highly doubt that. In my opinion all the corporations care about is profits for they're stockholders not the customers they build products for. I wish I could be more optimistic but i don't think we will ever see the manufacturing in the United States that we once had. I may only be speaking for my particular part of our country but by and large Americans seem to have adopted the Dollar store, Harbor Freight mentality. Buy cheap crap use it till it breaks or we get tired of it throw it in the landfill and buy more cheap crap. Then walk around telling everybody we're worried about our planet. Most new appliances, electronics, electric tools, etc. aren't worth fixing anymore. Like Buzzsaw Brad said just go buy a new one. Just my humble opinion of course. I would certainly hope to God that i'm wrong if only for the sake of our children and grandchildren coming behind us.

 

Can I like this twice?

 

Nice work Eric! Is that you airing out that awesome old school KX in the pics under the workbench glass?

 

Thank you and yes, that was my old 1985 KX125 I owned back around sophomore to junior year in high school. It was a snappy bike although the suspension left much to be desired. I ended up putting the motor on a Kawasaki Tecate trike for a while. Fun times.

 

Two strokes and trikes. It was so much different back in the day.