Gordon,
I am like you in that for a number of years I was very ambivelent towards anything made in China or Taiwan. Matter of fact just about anything from asia. I was a child of the 60's and 70's when "made in Japan" was synonimous with junk. Over the years they began to produce some very nice tooling and some excellent cars and the quality improved to a par with US made at the time. Since then Japan has continued to improve and I believe that they build a better car today than we do. The Honda Accord and Preludes are a testimony to that fact. I worked in the dealership and aftermarket world for a number of years and got the opportunity to watch a lot of vehicle manufacturers go from junk to quality. Anybody remember the original Hyundai Excell? Talk about junk, if it didn't burn down or blow up you got a good one. The recall for the reed valve plate in the intake was a major improvement once they figured out how to keep the cars from burning down. They had some trans problems too along the way, but eventually they figured that out and now they make a darn nice car. My wife bought an elantra and put nearly 200K on it in 4 years and other than timing belts it only ever needed a coil because it was breaking down when hot. So Asian equipment is OK by me. As long as the buying public continues to demand quality the Asian manufacturers will respond with the quality we demand. The main reason the Asians dont build a lot of quality into their stuff is because we demand a low price point and will accept a lower quality piece of equipment. Could you imagine if Hobart, Miller, and Lincoln did the same? So my thought is buy whatever you want from wherever and demand high quality. The Everlast and Other Asian import welders are a perfect example of this at work. The first few years were fraught with DOA machines and units that consistently let the magic smoke escape and now you do not hear of that as an issue any more. So as with anything the Asians become more astute and improve the product until it is on par with American or European made. Will they displace the big three, not in a million years but they will force the big three to be competative and offer more machines at a better price point. The reason I am saying this is I got a flyer from Lincoln today, they are bringing back the Square wave 175 tig/stick welder and it is cheaper than Everlast and Millers diversion 165/185 with more options., I think Lincoln has seen the light, now it is up to Hobart and Miller to follow suit or get left behind in the global fight for new equipment dollars. Just my long winded .02, any other opinions would be open for gentle and sane discussion too.
Bob