Shopsmith Forums

Ohgary wrote:Maybe others know but I would be curious how his business works. I gather being a YouTube star is not especially lucrative. He did allude once to building stuff for a trade show. He makes too many home built things to merely be a hobbyist. Perhaps Mrs. W. has a good income?

I know that Matthias offers a lot of project plans on his site. Some free, and some for sale. I have a hunch that the for-sale plans are his primary source of revenue, and that the website and YouTube videos serve as marketing/promotion for that revenue stream.

I could well be wrong, but I don't get the impression that he is rolling in dough.

Update.

After this thread came up last year Matthias did indeed build his own belt sander.

But in this recent video (starting at 45 seconds), set in his big shop out in the country, his Shopsmith belt sander makes an appearance and performs flawlessly.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZfOcxgx-j8[/youtube]

I love my belt sander and use it on every project I make. Mine works perfectly at 33 years of age with no maintenance at all. The tracking works perfectly and the tensioning works perfectly.
Maybe he needs more skill in using machinery and less time in front of a camera.

I made a point of acquiring a 6" x 48" belt sander back when I was acquiring SS's but it got shoved back and not used but I want to get it out and sat up kind of semi-permanent on a Shorty.
I have a couple of hand held belt sanders and one of those Ridgid oscillating drum / belt sanders that works nice on smaller stuff. I also have a Foly/Belsaw 1" x 42" belt grinder / strip sander that I use a lot.
I was glad to note that my closest Lowes carries the Shopsmith 6" x 48" belts. Naturally I got distracted by something shiny and failed to pick up a couple. Not a big problem. Even though I have to go to the next county seat (Franklin IN) west to Lowes it is only about 16 miles away and we usually go to a favored restaurant just down the street from Lowes to eat lunch on Mondays.
We are not married to our eating schedule, in fact Diana had an appointment with her hematologist at noon today so lunch was at our local Cracker Barrel. We will maybe go to Franklin for lunch tomorrow if it doesn't snow a bunch.
My written note about SS belts is no guarantee that I will come home with a couple of them...


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rpd wrote:Update.

After this thread came up last year Matthias did indeed build his own belt sander.

But in this recent video (starting at 45 seconds), set in his big shop out in the country, his Shopsmith belt sander makes an appearance and performs flawlessly.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZfOcxgx-j8[/youtube]

I love his videos! Such a quirky woodworker, more interested in the building and testing of various woodworking tools and techniques than I think he is in actually building furniture.

I almost always learn a little something from his videos. The video on different joining techniques was a particularly enlightening one. I had always suspected pocket hole screws were weaker, just didn't know how much weaker than other joining techniques. Clearly, not to be used on mission critical and significant weight-bearing joints.