[raybbr]

What’s happened is that US manufacturing is on the third wave of CNC equipment, and now some of the older equipment is available in the used market for very reasonable prices. You can find a for-real vertical machining center (eg, a Fadal 40x20 mill) for as little as $10K. A brand-new Haas mill would run $70K, which is enough money to completely outfit a gunsmith’s shop with classic manual machinery.

Yet I work for a company that has over ten million dollars worth of extrusion equipment and they won't let us buy a vertical band saw for our shop.

[Revelation 911]

we have one - …..from the 40’s……sits right next to the cloth clad wire table saw

[NVDave]

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that they don’t want the workman’s comp or insurance hassles involved.

The two machines most likely to produce injuries in a shop are:

1. Drill press.
2. Bandsaws.

There’s no way to put guards, interlocks, etc on these machines and have them do any useful work. They’re very useful machines, but they’re unforgiving of idiots.

And we’re hip-deep in idiots these days.... idiots who have their attorney on speed-dial.