Supply chain issues...

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SidecarFlip

SidecarFlip

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Feb 7, 2010
5,273
S.E. Michigan
Pretty inconvenient and getting worse. I ordered a new Astro Pneumatic Thor 1/2" air impact wrench for the shop from Summit Racing and it was on backorder. Just got a tentative delivery date of 01-10-22. Not that I need it right away, just an addition but talk about lead times...wow. I want the Thor because if it's 1000 foot pound breakaway rating which is heads above the competition. My IR Thundergun don't even come close at 600 foot pounds.

Tractors and ag parts are the same deal. My local dealer cannot get any new tractors in (Kubota's) unless he has a signed purchase agreement. No floor plan units available. Same with Kioti. Finally, food prices and gasoline are going through the roof.

Gonna be a hard winter I suspect.
 
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Yep,neighbor went to dealer to get a new belt for his Tundra. Yes the toyota belts are high quality. Dealer had none, and Toyota told them "up to a year" before new inventory comes in. So he went to NAPA.
 
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My good friend in Maine has an issue with his Ford F350 diesel pickup truck. Seems as though the DPF has failed and the truck is not driveable. The dealer picked it up (tow truck) and there it sits. There are no replacement units available and there are 165 on backorder with no expected delivery dates anywhere. So he's out of a truck and waiting...

What a bust. 75 grand truck that won't run.

It's all over. I have a fuse block on backorder with Kubota with no tentative delivery date either. I can get by but it needs replaced at some point.

New car dealers around here have little to no inventory.

I suspect we are heading for a severe recession soon. Sure am glad heat isn't an issue. Food may be for some folks I suspect.
 
We can't get paint of all things at work, the paint manufacturer can't get paint cans and now most of our suppliers are totally sold out of paint.

For your impact have a look at the Milwaukee fuel cordless lineup, I bet you'd walk away from pneumatic completely once you get one of those. We've even got rid of our big pneumatic guns at work in favor of the high torque 3/4" model.
 
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ABMax24 said:
We can't get paint of all things at work, the paint manufacturer can't get paint cans and now most of our suppliers are totally sold out of paint.

For your impact have a look at the Milwaukee fuel cordless lineup, I bet you'd walk away from pneumatic completely once you get one of those. We've even got rid of our big pneumatic guns at work in favor of the high torque 3/4" model.
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Candidly, I don't like expensive cordless tools and Milwaukee is expensive and far as air power goes, I have gobs. Have a Sullaire screw compressor and a Quincy QP on standby if I need it.

According to the 'Torque Test Channel on YT', the Thor outperforms any 1/2" drive impact, air or battery powered. Why I bought one. I typically work on excavator and backhoe buckets and most times with grouser teeth, I just want to break off the bolts and replace with new.

Being cheap, I do use the HF Bauer line in 20 volt cordless and to date, I have not found the 'smoke' in any of them. I can buy 3 Bauer's to one Milwaukee.

Paint is tough right now and so is motor oil. Glad I buy my lubricants in 55 gallon drums.
 
I found out by accident that the HF line of impact sockets (in metric and SAE) are indestructible. Last wear steel I replaced on a commercial snow plow, I broke a Snap On and a MAC impact socket and I needed one quick so I went to HF and bought theirs (a metric and SAE set) and came back to the shop and put them to the test with a 3/4" drive IR air impact (they are 1/2" drive, used a 1/2 to 3/4 impact adapter and didn't break a socket but certainly twisted the nuts off the dome head plow bolts (A325's)

You cannot beat the price and lifetime guarantee.

I also have an Icon 1/2" drive torque wrench. It's spot on in left and right torque. Checked it with my buddy's torque master. Interestingly, the only difference between the Icon and the Snap On is the laser etched trade name on the barrel (have a Snap On as well), and the price. My Snap On was 600 bucks. The Icon was 105 bucks.

They sell junk but if you watch what you buy, you can doo pretty good.

Torque Test just did a side by side test of the Chief long barrel air hammer and the MAC long barrel and interestingly, they are the same tool, just a price difference. The MAC is almost 400 bucks, the Chief is 130. Of course the Chief is black and the MAC is red. While I don't need one, if I did, I know what I'd buy.
 
SidecarFlip said:
Candidly, I don't like expensive cordless tools and Milwaukee is expensive and far as air power goes, I have gobs. Have a Sullaire screw compressor and a Quincy QP on standby if I need it.

According to the 'Torque Test Channel on YT', the Thor outperforms any 1/2" drive impact, air or battery powered. Why I bought one. I typically work on excavator and backhoe buckets and most times with grouser teeth, I just want to break off the bolts and replace with new.

Being cheap, I do use the HF Bauer line in 20 volt cordless and to date, I have not found the 'smoke' in any of them. I can buy 3 Bauer's to one Milwaukee.

Paint is tough right now and so is motor oil. Glad I buy my lubricants in 55 gallon drums.
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I buy Milwaukee because of the warranty. 5 years pretty much no questions asked. And I have had them fix stuff after 5 years. But in the shop I use air usually.

And no I don't have anything against harbor freight. I have allot of their stuff. Some cheap junk and some pretty nice stuff. I would prefer to pay more and buy American but there really aren't many options for that anymore.
 
A supplier at a the restaurant I maintain told us today to expect product shortages after the new year. It’s like a planned crises they know about but won’t do anything to elevate it.
So I said “everyone will either blame it on Biden, COVID, or the Chinese“. The cooks all ran through the door. I didn’t think they understood English. I work for a Chinese Buffet.
 
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coaly said:
A supplier at a the restaurant I maintain told us today to expect product shortages after the new year. It’s like a planned crises they know about but won’t do anything to elevate it.
So I said “everyone will either blame it on Biden, COVID, or the Chinese“. The cooks all ran through the door. I didn’t think they understood English. I work for a Chinese Buffet.
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Everyone wants to find a scapegoat. And yes covid did bring much of this on but the real problem is our insane supply chain and the fact that we manufacture very little here anymore. And that has been a long time in the making with lots of blame to go around to just about everyone.
 
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bholler said:
I buy Milwaukee because of the warranty. 5 years pretty much no questions asked. And I have had them fix stuff after 5 years. But in the shop I use air usually.

And no I don't have anything against harbor freight. I have allot of their stuff. Some cheap junk and some pretty nice stuff. I would prefer to pay more and buy American but there really aren't many options for that anymore.
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My philosophy about that is, I can buy 3 Bauer's for the price of 1 Milwaukee. Like I said, have not found the smoke in any of them so far and I use the 4.5" cordless angle grinder pretty hard. Having said that I also bought a Chief 4.5" air angle grinder (I use angle grinders constantly. Been agonizing over the IR 4.5" air angle grinder but the price of 285 bucks kept me at arms length and the HF came out with the Chief for 99 bucks so I bought one. It's a nice grinder, very smooth and quiet. First thing I do with angle grinders is take them apart to see what kind of schmooze is in the gearbox. To my surprise it was full of quality grease and unlike 90% of them, it has a needle grease fitting on the gearbox to add more if necessary. I quit buying the HF cheapo corded angle grinders, I can find the smoke in them real quick and they stink when they expire.

It is pretty hard to find American made tools today, I agree with that 100%. Last thing I bought from Snap On off the tool truck was a 12 volt test light. 70 bucks and made in Mexico. That did it for me. Could have bought the same thing at HF for 15 bucks.
 
bholler said:
Everyone wants to find a scapegoat. And yes covid did bring much of this on but the real problem is our insane supply chain and the fact that we manufacture very little here anymore. And that has been a long time in the making with lots of blame to go around to just about everyone.
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People here (not all) put the buck ahead of everything else and the Chinese stepped right up to the plate and provided cheaper stuff.

Every machine tool in my shop is American made as is all my measuring tools. I remember back when I took my apprentiship in tool and die making, back then Mitutoyo was considered cheap Japanese junk. Today, they are the world leaders in precision measuring tools. Me, I'm a Starrett person and believe me, I pay for Starrett. Automotive really shot themselves in the foot with their JIT philosophy. That and we want it a cheap as possible and we want it now. I deal a bit with the automakers and believe me, they will cut your water over a dime. With auto makers it's all about maximum profit with minimum cost.

I'm not sure what is going to transpire but I have a bad feeling the 'house of cards' is about to fall and fall hard.

Finally, gas jumped 26 cents a gallon here today. It's up to $3.43 a gallon for regular and I predict 4 bucks before Christmas. Sure glad I drive a roller skate that gets 40 mpg. Guy at the next pump over was filling his Navigator and I watched the pump do 100 bucks. That is scary. Wife has a Suburban . It stays in the garage and we use the roller skate instead.
 
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bholler said:
the real problem is our insane supply chain and the fact that we manufacture very little here anymore
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I jokingly say that the only thing 'Made in America' today are babies and they get delivered with imported surgical tools.
 
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The consumer can only take some of the share of the blame for all products being foreign made, the investor equally shares in the blame. When investors expect to see large dividends or a continuous increase in value, costs must be cut to keep the investor happy and over the last 4 decades that meant shipping jobs over seas to pay lower wages.

The bad part is automation is now beginning to replace many of these jobs, and much of the work is being done by machine instead of by hand, yet the means of production still remain overseas.
 
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One of the major issues is wages. Americans demand and get top tier wages which of course factor directly into the retail price of goods. Over there people make peanuts compared to here so the wage inequality factors into the final cost of anything imported. You can never have a level playing field when domestic production costs far outpace the costs to produce the same item over there...

I find the cost of new vehicles to be extremely over blown. No vehicle being produced today that is even close to being worth what they are asking for them.

Why I never buy new. I always buy off lease and let the original owner take the depreciation hit. How I bought Amy's Suburban. 2 year off lease and got it for about half of what the sticker was and still had factory warranty left. Bought my roller skate the same way and I never finance any vehicle, always pay cash. I don't do finance charges unless it's farm related and then I can write them off.

The automakers will be the first ones hurting when recession time comes and it's coming soon. The economy is not sustainable, especially with the current administration throwing money at it like they are. Infusing money does nothing but increase the rate of inflation and devalue the currency at the same time. You'd think that politicians and Yellen were smarter than that. Guess they aren't.

Gonna be a tough winter in many ways I suspect. Least Amy and I and the cats will be warm...lol
 
SidecarFlip said:
I found out by accident that the HF line of impact sockets (in metric and SAE) are indestructible. Last wear steel I replaced on a commercial snow plow, I broke a Snap On and a MAC impact socket and I needed one quick so I went to HF and bought theirs (a metric and SAE set) and came back to the shop and put them to the test with a 3/4" drive IR air impact (they are 1/2" drive, used a 1/2 to 3/4 impact adapter and didn't break a socket but certainly twisted the nuts off the dome head plow bolts (A325's)

You cannot beat the price and lifetime guarantee.

I also have an Icon 1/2" drive torque wrench. It's spot on in left and right torque. Checked it with my buddy's torque master. Interestingly, the only difference between the Icon and the Snap On is the laser etched trade name on the barrel (have a Snap On as well), and the price. My Snap On was 600 bucks. The Icon was 105 bucks.

They sell junk but if you watch what you buy, you can doo pretty good.

Torque Test just did a side by side test of the Chief long barrel air hammer and the MAC long barrel and interestingly, they are the same tool, just a price difference. The MAC is almost 400 bucks, the Chief is 130. Of course the Chief is black and the MAC is red. While I don't need one, if I did, I know what I'd buy.
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Our Mechanic who has been in the business since he was something like 13 or 14 years of age says the Icon line of sockets and wrenches is actually quite good. Other stuff at HF may be hit or miss in terms of quality. I've got a few tools over the years that I bought with the intention of using them on a single project . . . most of the tools are still in decent working order though and have been used on other jobs.
 
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One thing I learned with HF and that is, you get what you pay for except with the engines. I have 3 Pred 99 buck motors that I bought at least 5 years ago, one on my pressure washer, one on my garden till that replaced a Honda that blew up and another on my cultivator that had a Tecumseh that used more oil than gas. Amazing what 99 bucks will get you.

The small Pred single cylinder motors are made by Loncin who also made Yamaha engines fir years. Never miss a beat.

The HF sockets are good just don't hit the tops with a steel hammer. They are ductile and will deform. Found that out the hard way.
 
I think this country has a real situation unfolding......today there was flooding in BC. Cutting off the Trans canada highway AND rail system is down. The port of Vancouver is cut off essentially.....stay tuned this could get interesting.
 
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