Shopsmith Forums

JPG wrote:

jsburger wrote:

Billdit wrote:I thought that when I purchased my Mark 7 NEW, that over $4000 was a good chunk of money. No regrets, but is is quite a sum...


I’ve bought several thousand of “stuff” from SS... never a back order or a long wait...
But i’d Still like to know how stable they are... so I ask again... has anyone been to their present location? How many employees are there? Where is the majority of items manufactured? China...Poland... downtown Detroit?? Who owns SS and is SS their main income source...

Most companies have pictures of their facilities on their website... SS is a mystery...

Just wondering...

It is a family owned company and has been since the early 70's. SS is owned by the son (Robert) of John Folkerth who resurrected the the company in the early 70's. The original company was Magna Engineering. The Shopsmith was invented by Hans Goldschmidt after WW II. The first machines were built in 1947.

I bought my Power Pro head stock in December 2012 from Bob Folkerth (the owner) at Lowes in Salt Lake City during a demonstration he was hosting.

Everett Davis has been to the SS headquarters and manufacturing plant in the last few months for research for his upcoming book on the history of the SS since 1947. You can contact him with your questions but I doubt he will give any answers as to the SS status.

Sure it wasn't his brother Dave?

Oops, you are correct.

For what it's worth. I just received shipping notice today that an item I ordered back in July from a completely different company, not is any way related to Shopsmith is preparing to ship. I also had and email with a different vendor that informed me his stock was backordered and I would be looking at several months.
Starting to be more the normal than abnormal with capital goods these days unless you are buying the generics off the showroom floors. I also had a recent order from Shopsmith that took exactly 10 calendar days to go from Shopsmith to me. Can't complain. Put the order in on a Friday night, order shipped on Wednesday and I had it the following Wednesday as it got hung up with FedEx down south during the hurricane.