I've seen his videos since. Yes, it is very good there are still people like him trying to make stuff work against adversity.He's trying really hard to make one in the US. However, it's been more than difficult. In Taiwan, there's a factory that can make them
In the US, it requires shipping an incomplete vise to *four* different factories. So, yeah, the price is much higher for the US made vise ($3,800 vs $1,800). That was from memory, and he goes into detail in one of the videos.
I think it's decent value at $1,800. Not cheap, but there's nothing like it on the market. See his video where he purposely destroys a Wilton and other "high end" vises.
In a way it is easier to bring manufacturing to an undeveloped country/region, than bring it back to a place that "moved beyond". Back when I was in school the most favored economic theory was that there are "levels" of development for entire regions/countries/continents. The lowest one is natural resource extraction, then manufacturing, then services , then "information technology" at the very top(extremely simplified). With it being implied the higher levels are better than lower because they bring better margins, more profit, consequently they pay more to the average person, people have a higher standard of living, more free time, the society advances. This guides various local governments to favor certain types of business activity.
As a result some people view manufacturing as something backwards. "No, I don't want a factory here, it will pollute the environment, pay people the minimum wage and go bust in 2 years. Better build an innovation business park."
Also manufacturing can be "backward". One can save money by not using safety equipment (in places where employees can't do anything about it), by using polluting processes and squeezing extra hours for free from desperate people that are already paid minimum wage. We have (mostly enforced) laws in place that prevent it. So it costs more to manufacture here (as in developed countries).
So in light of the above it is no surprise bringing back manufacturing is extremely hard. Personally I think the first step has to be changing people's minds about the value it brings to local economy. The problem is that to bring that value one has to make high margin products: medical/aerospace/research stuff, high end tools etc, and there is only so much of those products economy requires.