When I first started working for S&S Machinery in the early 1980s, my job there was as an Industrial Electrician. S&S at the time was importing a line of machine tools from China for resale in the USA. The low prices on these machines made them very attractive, but their reliability was not good because of the poor quality electrical components they used. In the 1980s the cold war was still on. There was no free flow of technology between East and West as there is today. As a result the Chinese resorted to using copies of very old design Siemens brand relays, starters, and operators. The contacts would oxidize rapidly, and the plastic parts had a lot of mold flash on them causing jams. So S&S would rip out the electrics (My job) and install brand new Siemens electric components (Also my job) to make the machines very reliable. The Gear Hobbers were one of their top sellers. These machines used a descending rotating cutter to cut teeth into the edges of a slowly rotating steel disk to make it into a gear for a machine. (See the thumbnail)