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View Full Version : Leave it to the Italians


NQ6U
03-26-2013, 10:31 AM
They gotta make everything look good. Even something as utilitarian as a machine tool:

http://www.lsgmts.co.za/Lathes,%20Graziano,%20897.JPG

Compare to an American-built lathe of roughly the same vintage and size:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b221/bluevtx/SouthBend%20Lathe%20CL145D/SouthBendLatheCL145D017.jpg

Not that there's anything wrong with the South Bend machine when you look at it strictly as a tool, but you have to admit that the Granziano has far more visual panache.
WX7P
03-26-2013, 10:39 AM
que aproveche!

Or something.
N8YX
03-26-2013, 10:57 AM
Leblond and Daewoo for the win here, folks...
NQ6U
03-26-2013, 11:04 AM
Leblond and Daewoo for the win here, folks...

You are missing the point. Both companies make fine machines, but this thread isn't about that. It's purely about the way Italians always put some thought into the way their products look. For instance, here's a LeBlond lathe:

https://go.dmacc.edu/programs/toolanddie/PublishingImages/Leblond_lathe.jpg

I can't compare a Daewoo because they don't make similar lathes, only CNC machines.
N2CHX
03-26-2013, 11:45 AM
Somewhere along the way Americans lost the art of making buildings and machines look elegant. If you look at 100+ year old machine and architecture, most of them were items of beauty, with creativity and care put into the way they looked. Now it's just slap shit together and make it functional. Apparently the art hasn't been completely lost in other parts of the world.
K7SGJ
03-26-2013, 01:11 PM
They gotta make everything look good. Even something as utilitarian as a machine tool:

http://www.lsgmts.co.za/Lathes,%20Graziano,%20897.JPG

Compare to an American-built lathe of roughly the same vintage and size:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b221/bluevtx/SouthBend%20Lathe%20CL145D/SouthBendLatheCL145D017.jpg

Not that there's anything wrong with the South Bend machine when you look at it strictly as a tool, but you have to admit that the Granziano has far more visual panache.

That's true with the lathe, but not so much with the 1999 Fiat Multipla. Ya can't win em all.

9208
NQ6U
03-26-2013, 03:32 PM
Point taken. Everyone gets it wrong from time to time.
PA5COR
03-26-2013, 03:59 PM
That model was changed fast too for something more normal looking, was a good car 3 people next to eachother spacious and all that...
W2NAP
03-26-2013, 08:12 PM
Somewhere along the way Americans lost the art of making buildings and machines look elegant. If you look at 100+ year old machine and architecture, most of them were items of beauty, with creativity and care put into the way they looked. Now it's just slap shit together and make it functional. Apparently the art hasn't been completely lost in other parts of the world.

actually we dont build anything anymore. machines are built for cheap with no quality in china
HUGH
03-31-2013, 06:48 AM
I have used an elderly South Bend lathe and it seemed somewhat easier to dismantle, restore and recalibrate than the more fancy-looking ones. Appearances aren't everything you know (secretly looking at the shapely legs on a passing person of the opposite sex).
ki4itv
03-31-2013, 06:26 PM
Somewhere along the way Americans lost the art of making buildings and machines look elegant. If you look at 100+ year old machine and architecture, most of them were items of beauty, with creativity and care put into the way they looked. Now it's just slap shit together and make it functional. Apparently the art hasn't been completely lost in other parts of the world.

Function over form.
Same reason the 'Crack Ho' was conceived and put in mass production here. Few other countries would have had a ready market for them.