Lack Of Manuals On Shopsmith Site

SDSSmith · Post by **SDSSmith** » Thu Apr 17, 2014 4:43 pm

Today, I received an email from Incra touting the importance and accessibility of their owners manuals:

It got me to wondering or wandering if you prefer.

As using a tool safely should be paramount to any tool manufacturer, I am a little surprised in this day and age that Shopsmith does not have all of their manuals online and available for download.

We all know how durable Shopsmith tools are and how they have been known to change owners a number of times in their seemingly endless lifetimes. During these changes manuals can get misplaced and lost. An owners manual aids in getting the most out of a tool safely and with less frustration. All good things to the tool manufacturer.

Mike907 · Post by **Mike907** » Thu Apr 17, 2014 4:58 pm

Shopsmith has some manuals for free and others for purchase.

Mike

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Thu Apr 17, 2014 5:19 pm

http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/productmanuals.htm

dgale · Post by **dgale** » Thu Apr 17, 2014 6:25 pm

Seems like they still hold out on manuals being something they can squeeze $10 out of us for...in this day and age, it would seem like a free pdf download of any manuals would be good customer service.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Thu Apr 17, 2014 7:00 pm

There was, at one time long ago, a short movement to put the owner's manuals and parts diagrams on line as PDF files. I thought that it was a reaction to many previous threads expressing a need for these manuals to be made available. The Incra site was highlighted then as "the way it should be".

The only manuals that made it to the site were the Bandsaw manuals. I can not imagine that they sell all that many.

If you buy a manual from Shopsmith, do they tack on the shipping charges? I bought the manual for my Crafter's Station but I don't remember that detail. What I do remember is that I bought the manual because I needed the wiring diagram. The wiring diagram that was included was, in my opinion, unusable.

I should not have been surprised because Shopsmith has never shared information at that leve of detail.

benush26 · Post by **benush26** » Thu Apr 17, 2014 9:19 pm

My thought is that they figured some other users site / group would do it so they would not have to allocate resources.

In the past, I'd often thought that a site promoting swapping/selling parts, advise on what can be bought in the aftermarket which is significantly cheaper than SS, online documents, etc., would do well. However I look at the Yahoo site and it doesn't seem to be very vibrant.

Except for the thrice weekly specials, Shopsmith's commercial site appears to be low maintenance. Even that should be as simple as at midnight adding a link to one page and removing another link. I'm guessing that the Admin spends more time checking this site.

My point (though painfully slow in getting there) is that I don't think that the people at Shopsmth have great amounts of extra time to add the niceties to their site. Additionally, I would guess that, in time and given a few requests by owners, they will place all documentation online.

Just my 2 cents.

Be well,
Ben

dgale · Post by **dgale** » Thu Apr 17, 2014 10:14 pm

I always assumed they would frown on anyone scanning and making available for download the manuals that they have for sale…if I knew they felt otherwise, I'd be happy to undertake making it happen, including finding server space to host them etc., but again, I always assumed such an action would be not received warmly by SS

scooters · Post by **scooters** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 12:02 am

I believe that at one time I heard that they sold the manuals because they wanted to ensure they had contact information for as many current owners as possible. That way they could get them on their mailing list. Hopefully they would then be able to stimulate the purchase of parts and accessories from Shopsmith.

While the new model has certainly helped stimulate sales, the only other way for them to stay in business is with parts and accessories. I'd rather pay the $10US and keep them in business, than lose them and their suppliers.

skou · Post by **skou** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 2:28 am

[quote="dgale"]I always assumed they would frown on anyone scanning and making available for download the manuals that they have for sale&#8230]

The 10 ER users group has a MASSIVE amount of manuals on their Gmail page. While most of them are ER based, there is still quite a few Mk series stuff available.

If you wish to go there, user name is " 10erusers " and the password is " castiron .

If you want to add anything, OK. Just don't delete anything. Oh, download what you want!

steve