The most obvious answer to the title of this one would be a single word: China.
But, on a more serious note, they are a dying trade.
Engines today are more of the throwaway design. Look at automotive engines. They mostly use overhead cams, multiple valves per cylinder, exotic timing chain configurations, and sleeved aluminum blocks. Gaskets and seals for these engines are expensive. Disassembly and re-assembly are complicated and require many special tools.
This all adds up to engines that are too expensive to repair for most repair shops and customers alike. So, there goes most of that work. Most repair work that involves engines ends up going to re-manufacturing facilities and engines are exchanged rather than repaired at the repair shop end of things. That basically eliminates the machine shop work that used to support them.
There are other things as well. Brake drums and brake rotors are another thing that mostly went away. In general, it costs less to replace a rotor than to resurface it. Labor rates went up and replacement costs went down. To make it worse, many rotors and drums simply do not have enough material on them to cut more than once.
The little bit of small engine work that comes in the door along with whatever restoration work comes in just isn't enough to keep the doors open or the lights on. So, as the work goes away, there is less for machine shops to do so they start going broke or just retiring. some of the younger guys find another line of work.
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Today's Featured Article - Product Review: Lead Substitutes - by Mike Schordine. Lead was oriinally added to gasoline as an upper cylinder lubricant. It lubes the valves and seats. If you rebuild the motor, you could use hardened seats and valves, and unleaded fuel. But if your old tractor runs good, a simple lead substitute added to the gas is a perfectly reasonable solution. And, if you are like me, your tractor is under cover, but it sits outside. So with every temperature change, the humidity in the air collects in the fuel tank, in the form of water.
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