Dugaboy1:

If I understand your posting correctly, you are saying that there is not a significant labor difference between chopper lump and monoblock constructions.

Therefore, I don't understand Searcy's pricing schedule. There is a very significant price increase when using chopper lump construction as opposed to monoblock; although according to him, there is not a significant strength increase (the context here is that he is discussing his action design).

The other factor to consider is the price of labor, rather than straight labor costs. For example, in electronics manufacturing, the manufacturing costs in Asia / China are easily 10 to 20% of USA manufacturing costs. Granted, you have to deal with time differences, international dateline, cultural differences, etc, which all add into overhead (although from experience, I can tell you that not all bean counters and CEOs consider those expenses!). Therefore, for a given level of experience, expertise, and quality of product, labor costs will be substantially less when made in the Far East when compared to USA or Europe, even though the number of hours will be the same.

RobertD