Shopsmith Forums

I recently ordered parts from Jet. They are no different. It was $8.99 to ship a speed label via UPS. It could have been mailed in an envelope. I also ordered some casters from Peachtree that were on sale and that lowered their shipping by two notches from what it would have been if purchased at regular price.

wa2crk wrote:Someone has to make that thing for SS. I did a quick check online and found out that O rings are measured by the Inside diameter and the thickness of the cross section. If you can measure the original there should be a replacement somewhere.
Bill V

That is exactly what I am going to do, with this $14.95 O-Ring. And when or if I find another lower cost supplier, you can bet your bottom dollar, I will post it on here!

dusty wrote:

ExtraMile wrote:From 1 cent to $20 shipping is $6.99 and from $20.01 to $40, shipping is $8.99 and so on!

I assume you got this information from Shopsmith and I think you are telling me that they charge shipping based on price. Based on price ????

You would be correct, sir. And yes, I got this directly from Shopsmith and yes, based on price!

It's not just what the shipping company charges, be it Fed Ex, UPS or the Post Office. You have to add on associated costs as well. As a business owner I have to recoup the cost of having an employee or two or three to be on hand to handle the item, pack it and possibly deliver it to the shipper (or be on hand to release the package to the shipper). That costs. How much does it cost? Let's assume that I'm paying him/her $15 an hour with benefits (by the way, benefits aren't free). That's $31,200 per year per person, plus maybe a couple thousand to match his/her social security, plus maybe health insurance, maybe pension as well. Lets round off to $40.000 per person. How much product does Shopsmith have to ship just to break even, and they're not in the business to break even. At $6.99 They would have to ship 5700 plus items, assuming only one employee. Remember, Shopsmith is a very small company.

THANK YOU, CHRIS!

Now if we want to complain about high prices, take a look at those one time Woodpecker tools!

http://www.woodpeck.com/pocketcompass15-WG.html

(See how I changed the subject? )

ChrisNeilan wrote:Now if we want to complain about high prices, take a look at those one time Woodpecker tools!

http://www.woodpeck.com/pocketcompass15-WG.html

(See how I changed the subject? )

The "One Time Tool" says it all. They only make the amount of each item that people preorder during a certain window. They are never offered again. Well, a few times due to popular request they will reissue one but it is still only made in the numbers ordered. They are also made in the USA. Of course they are more expensive than massed produced junk from China or wherever. People must be willing to pay a higher price for an USA made premium tool since they regularly offer different tools.

Have you ever seen the prices of quality hand planes like Lie-Nielson or Veritas? They are in the $200 - $700 price range and are hand made in the USA or Canada by the same company that sells them. They make everything in house the same as Woodpeckers. High end planes made one at a time by individual makers are in the thousands of dollars.

jsburger wrote:

ChrisNeilan wrote:Now if we want to complain about high prices, take a look at those one time Woodpecker tools!

http://www.woodpeck.com/pocketcompass15-WG.html

(See how I changed the subject? )

The "One Time Tool" says it all. They only make the amount of each item that people preorder during a certain window. They are never offered again. Well, a few times due to popular request they will reissue one but it is still only made in the numbers ordered. They are also made in the USA. Of course they are more expensive than massed produced junk from China or wherever. People must be willing to pay a higher price for an USA made premium tool since they regularly offer different tools.

Have you ever seen the prices of quality hand planes like Lie-Nielson or Veritas? They are in the $200 - $700 price range and are hand made in the USA or Canada by the same company that sells them. They make everything in house the same as Woodpeckers. High end planes made one at a time by individual makers are in the thousands of dollars.

Yes, that is all true. But most of us with Shopsmiths don't have a bunch of those expensive quality tools in our tool cabinet.

ExtraMile wrote:And OBTW, it will be shipped today or tomorrow! IMHO, it wont be shipped today.

Also IMHO, someone needs to light a fire under their a$$es so that they can get with the program.

Paying $6.99 for such a small replacement part, heck that thing should be in my mailbox, tomorrow!

It is just absurd to say "IMHO, it wont be shipped today". How do you know?

Please tell us what program SS needs to get with? There isABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with the SS program. They have the best customer service of any company I have ever dealt with. They don't even want you to send minor parts back if they made a mistake. They just ship you the correct part for free. I have personally seen this more than once over the 25+ years I have been dealing with SS. If you have a problem with a major part they may want it back to inspect it then they send you a correct part for FREE.

You think you should get everything you order the next day. Even if you lived down the street from SS you would not get it the next day for the standard shipping price. If I mail a letter to the house across the street it goes to our tiny local post office two miles down the road. They don't sort anything. All incoming mail goes to Salt Lake City 30 miles away. They sort it and then send it back to my tiny local Post Office and then it gets delivered across the street at least two days later. UPS and FedEx are the same way. If you want it the next day then pay for it.

As far as the belt for your stand alone scroll saw (I have one BTW), I doubt it is a plain O-ring that is used for a seal. It is a belt that happens to be round and look like an O-ring. My Unimat mini lathe uses the same round belt. It is NOT an O-ring. Try to pull on one of the round rubber belts and break it. It does not stretch. You may be able to break it but if you pull on the same size O-ring made for sealing it will stretch and break with a LOT less force. They are made from a different material.

So, if you find an O-ring the proper size please put it on and exercise the scroll saw aggressively and tell us how long it lasted.

dusty wrote:

jsburger wrote:

ChrisNeilan wrote:Now if we want to complain about high prices, take a look at those one time Woodpecker tools!

http://www.woodpeck.com/pocketcompass15-WG.html

(See how I changed the subject? )

The "One Time Tool" says it all. They only make the amount of each item that people preorder during a certain window. They are never offered again. Well, a few times due to popular request they will reissue one but it is still only made in the numbers ordered. They are also made in the USA. Of course they are more expensive than massed produced junk from China or wherever. People must be willing to pay a higher price for an USA made premium tool since they regularly offer different tools.

Have you ever seen the prices of quality hand planes like Lie-Nielson or Veritas? They are in the $200 - $700 price range and are hand made in the USA or Canada by the same company that sells them. They make everything in house the same as Woodpeckers. High end planes made one at a time by individual makers are in the thousands of dollars.

Yes, that is all true. But most of us with Shopsmiths don't have a bunch of those expensive quality tools in our tool cabinet.

But some of us do so what is your point? What does owning a Shopsmith or 3 or 4 have to do with it?

Chris wrote a perfectly beautiful post about shipping costs and then gave an example of high cost tools that fall in the same category of the shipping costs.