[tirod]

I wouldn't be so quick to blame China. They just sell what somebody wants to buy - cheap. Nobody complains much about their Chinese Iphones. Most of the high end wheels are cast in China. If Chinese labor is inadequate and creates shoddy goods, I suggest trying to not buy Chinese for 6 months - just American.

We don't make stuff here anymore - we are too cheap to pay American wages. That's why the economy grade 1911's are Turkish or Czech, Superformance is in South Africa, and former MIG fabricators in Poland now make aluminum Cobra fenders. Americans refuse to work for $4 an hour. We want to pay $75 a month to watch Mayberry reruns on our smartphones during lunch.

As for "billet," all that means is the part is machined from one big chunk of metal. It doesn't say anything about what that metal is, whether that machining was even any good, or if the overall design is correct. You can machine something very nicely and it could easily fail. Billet means nothing other than the makers production volume was so low he couldn't afford casting or forging. CNC time on a milling machine was his least expensive option. A good example is AR15 receivers - about $50 each retail shipped, forged to shape in aluminum with finish machining and anodizing. Or - CNC billet for $179. You don't get any measurable improvement in accuracy or reliability. All you get is looks.

People machine billet cranks because buyers don't want to pay for having one forged. It's really just being cheap. So is sending your production off shore, because you know the market really doesn't care. The difference in price could be enough to pay for a years worth of unlimited data, and the public wants that more than a quality made forged American crankshaft in a custom stroke.

If we didn't want to buy Chinese made engine parts, they couldn't give them away.