Yes, but there is a big problem about Chinese companies treating their employees badly. They pay them almost nothing and, in rare cases, it sounds like some of them are being forced to work for no pay. While a little machining shop like FPM is likely fine, there are cases like this from other Chinese companies. There’s a reason it’s so much cheaper to make stuff there than it is in countries that have tighter laws about this. The quality is probably very good from FPM, it seems like people are very happy with their products. But other countries with, like I said, tighter laws that require employees fair wages and good treatment are where I would always like to see things made.
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I hear you. You might receive flack for saying that, but it’s no different than people wanting fair trade coffee. Many folks automatically assume racism when in fact, it has nothing to do with race but instead fair compensation
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I think there is a bit of hyperbole there. Chinese workers are not forced to work for low pay. Indeed, the news recently was full of Chinese workers protesting when they were not paid what they believed was a fair wage.
Human-rights; especially the Uighur’s, will get more sympathy. Not sure what yo-yo manufacturers and consumers have to do with that though…
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Yeah, anyone getting paid a fair amount would get my support, regardless if I agree with any politics. People are people and need to put bread on the table. Honestly, that can go both ways, even if they aren’t being paid a fair amount, they still need money to eat even if their employer is not treating them fairly and the money is mostly going to the employer. It’s a catch 22.
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Looked into these a while back. Both fully Chinese
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My guess is the OP is a little on the older side. There was a stigma growing up that Chinese was junk. and growing up it was true. Heck in yoyo it was true 6-8 years ago. But they are very good at machining now. Labor practices are a whole different story, but pure quality I don’t think you’re getting anything better in the states on the yoyo machining end. Ano sure. testing sure.
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I thought thermal fitting was the only way to make bimetals. That’s interesting that most are press fit.
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Yeah, I suspected that. Every once in a while something gets tagged incorrectly.
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That’s true. While people, myself included, don’t like to support companies that treat workers poorly, if you stop buying products, that can end up being bad for the workers too.
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The “Buy American Made” ethos is not primarily driven by moral outrage over poorly treated foreign labor. It is largely driven by a nationalistic desire to support domestic labor over foreign labor. It’s part of an “America First” agenda, which I think is something fewer and fewer Americans can financially afford no matter how patriotic they may feel. Ask the average American how badly they feel about exploited Chinese labor, or how important it is to them to support American workers, and then ask them to check where their shoes, shirts, pants, and smartphones are made. Their hearts are writing checks their bank accounts just can’t cover.
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Doesn’t this argument come up once every year with the same answer 
… China or nothing people unless you like one drop…
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USA Aluminum > Chinese “Aluminum”
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It’s not even just a matter of cost, as there’s so many products that simply are not made in the US anymore. And if a product is assembled in the US, chances are that the various components that make up that product are souced overseas.
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Yes. The economic realities of today’s global manufacturing landscape have made many buying choices for us. But these are choices that I suspect most people would have made for themselves anyway just on the basis of affordability.
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You are disregarding material traceability and composition reports. None of my customers will accept non-domestic material (AS9100 yada yada) and they use traceability reports to reliably prove this.
While it is mostly for reasons of national security being aerospace work, the last job I did that allowed for import material was an absolute nightmare to work with and I can fully understand why (even for a consumer job) I would avoid using import aluminum if possible. Internal stresses everywhere ruined most of my tolerances, especially on thinwall features which I do a lot of.
We all have our reasons for supporting what we choose to support. I support American machinists because I am one.
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Does any of this matter for yoyos? i.e. if we manufacture 2 yoyos from chinese vs american AL you’ll be able to tell?
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It appears that the only U.S.A. made bimetal will be the Yoyofactory upcoming one. Which I will buy, thanks @yyfben2.deactivated please make one in black on black 
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Maybe yoyojam made some bimetals in the US back in the day?
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That would be a very interesting expeiment to test!
I machined a recently released yoyo for a friend on a vertical mill (typically you want a lathe) prior to the model being sent to China for full run machining. While I had to ommit some undercut features given the tooling I had, when we tested the one I made VS the Chinese one, mine felt much more dense as if it had more mass. It also vibed more but not bad for a first article haha! Had they both been made on the same machine it would have been a fantastic comparison.
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Out of interest, do you only buy fair trade coffee, fair trade bananas, fair trade chocolate etc?
Do you ensure all your clothes come from sustainable factories made from ethically sourced cotton?
Do you avoid technology with lithium batteries due to mining practices in African countries or look to verify the source of the cobalt used within?
If you answered yes to all these questions then I salute you, if not then avoiding Chinese manufactured yoyos is hardly making a difference to workers rights around the world and just appears a wee bit xenophobic at the end of the day.
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