Stihl, now made in Brazil

[bwalker]

What do you figure that black spot is in the middle of this pic? What's to the north and west?

 

[bwalker]

Here is a coal plant in Springfield, IL. Even has a abrasives company accross the street, yet it has a land fill right behind the plant. Wonder why?

 

[GrizG]

Tried to order some German steel but this showed up instead. Brazil is known for lots of things but steel is not one of them. Apparently stihl is using its Brazil plant for overrun manufacturing to keep up when demand is high. No part number change so be sure to check with your dealer before you order. I don’t know about you, but for the same price I want my bar made by zee germans
View attachment 1132040View attachment 1132041

My son was stocking the shelves Saturday and found bars for MS170 were from China. The saws themselves were from the US and the chains from Switzerland. A lot of the Stihl battery stuff is made in China... Perhaps the small saw bars will come from there now?? Virginia Beach had furloughed about 30% of the workforce back in August but most of them have been recalled. It seems inventory levels of some products were too high. From what I read, between COVID related job cutbacks and inflation people weren't spending money on outdoor power equipment the way they were. As such capacity needed to be adjusted...

 

[GrizG]

What do you figure that black spot is in the middle of this pic? What's to the north and west?
View attachment 1134702

The big hole is where they stick the battery.

 

[dboyd351]

My son was stocking the shelves Saturday and found bars for MS170 were from China. The saws themselves were from the US and the chains from Switzerland. A lot of the Stihl battery stuff is made in China... Perhaps the small saw bars will come from there now?? Virginia Beach had furloughed about 30% of the workforce back in August but most of them have been recalled. It seems inventory levels of some products were too high. From what I read, between COVID related job cutbacks and inflation people weren't spending money on outdoor power equipment the way they were. As such capacity needed to be adjusted...
View attachment 1134704

Oh well, between that and the Stihl zama carb plant in China, I guess all the China haters and Stihl fanboys will have to look for a new brand of saw.
Echo, maybe?

 

[bwalker]

Oh well, between that and the Stihl zama carb plant in China, I guess all the China haters and Stihl fanboys will have to look for a new brand of saw.
Echo, maybe?

I've not seen a stihl solid bar made in China. Probably just the cheap junknfound on consumer saws.

 

[SteveSr]

Twenty-thirty years ago a plant down south had let a municipality collect their waste oil to spray on dirt roads for dust control. It was found the waste oil was contaminated with PCB transformer oil. Guess what happened next..

I don't think that's the right story since I have been living down here for 35 years. This sounds like the Ward Transformer saga...

The company was Ward Transformer who rebuilt/refurbished utility transformers. They supposedly hired contractors to properly dispose of their used oil. Instead of proper disposal the contractors took it and dumped it on rural dirt roads spreading PCB contamination everywhere. I think that eventually they dug up as much of the contaminated dirt as they could and re-buried it in lined landfills.

The Ward Transformer plant was near RDU airport and is a declared superfund site. The creeks and lakes in the downstream watershed all have posted signs to not eat any fish caught due to PCB contamination.

 

[bwalker]

I don't think that's the right story since I have been living down here for 35 years. This sounds like the Ward Transformer saga...

The company was Ward Transformer who rebuilt/refurbished utility transformers. They supposedly hired contractors to properly dispose of their used oil. Instead of proper disposal the contractors took it and dumped it on rural dirt roads spreading PCB contamination everywhere. I think that eventually they dug up as much of the contaminated dirt as they could and re-buried it in lined landfills.

The Ward Transformer plant was near RDU airport and is a declared superfund site. The creeks and lakes in the downstream watershed all have posted signs to not eat any fish caught due to PCB contamination.

You might be right. It's been decades since I sat through the training talking about it. Or it could have happened at multiple places, I honestly don't know.
It may have been a chain of custody thing as the transformers I probably originated from a utility.
My point was and is most Utilities and industry in general is pretty careful with how they let industrial wastes leave their sites.

 

[bwalker]

You might be right. It's been decades since I sat through the training talking about it. Or it could have happened at multiple places, I honestly don't know.
It may have been a chain of custody thing as the transformers I probably originated from a utility.
My point was and is most Utilities and industry in general is pretty careful with how they let industrial wastes leave their sites.

Did some digging and it appears it was a chain of custody thing and Wards customers were fined. Albeit they got of easy monetary wise.
https://ncnewsline.com/briefs/epa-n...lement-over-pcb-contamination-in-wake-county/

 

[pdqdl]

My point was and is most Utilities and industry in general is pretty careful with how they let industrial wastes leave their sites.

This is true. One of my customers recently had 17 barrels of oil they initially asked me to dispose of. I said "Yep, I'll take it!"

Sometime later, they called me back, and wanted to know my waste oil certification number.
"I was going to put it in my waste oil burner! That will keep me warm all year!"

They: "NOPE! We cannot do that after all. Sorry."​

 

[Bill G]

I use waste oil to get my tires burning in the brush piles. We used to spread it on the road for dust control. That has fallen out of fashion though.