re: ARE TOOLS MADE OVERSEAS OF POOR QUALITY AND IF SO WHO'S TO BLAME

I won’t pretend to know much about marketing but it seems to me that tools, or anything else for that matter, are produced to hit different price points for different market segments. The quality is usually determined by the price of getting a product to market, though admittedly not always. I think that when high priced quality brands are are not up to snuff it is usually due to a lack of quality control and/or poor design rather than deliberate downgrading. My 18" bandsaw for example is Chinese made with some pot metal parts in the guides which are easy to strip out when adjusting and tightening. Nevertheless it performs very well and being aware of it’s week points helps me to use caution when making adjustments; i.e. not to over-tighten screws. This saw cost me about half as much as I would normally pay for a bandsaw of this capacity and power rating, so I cannot expect the the top quality materials, machining, etc. you would get in a much more expensive tool. That said I am very happy with its performance in every way and I’m glad that I can enjoy the benefits of a bandsaw with this capacity that is within a price range I can live with, otherwise I would just have to do without. On smaller purchases I try to buy high quality, but usually not the top priced stuff. This my take on the subject and it works for me. I think it it great when America manufactures tools, but they too are ruled by the market place.