Documentation

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sat Apr 21, 2012 8:13 am

Now this is what I believe online documentation should be like.

I was reading, in another forum, about orbital sanders. Someone was commenting about the virtues of a sander so I googled it just to see what they were talking about.

I dream of the day when this sort of online documentation will be available for ALL of the Shopsmith stuff. Notice the links (lower right hand corner) to available PDF files.

dlbristol · Post by **dlbristol** » Sat Apr 21, 2012 10:10 am

That is impressive. I doubt I will ever have a Festool, but you are right, that is a well done site. Good, usable info and easy to find what you need. From what I know about this company, that is pretty much the way they operate.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sat Apr 21, 2012 10:42 am

dlbristol wrote:That is impressive. I doubt I will ever have a Festool, but you are right, that is a well done site. Good, usable info and easy to find what you need. From what I know about this company, that is pretty much the way they operate.

Yes, it is a very professional operation. It is also fair to note that they sell a very expensive line of tools. That said, they can afford to spend a lot of money on their website (their primary mode of advertising, I assume).

Unfortunately, they are not a "Made in the USA" operation.

algale · Post by **algale** » Sat Apr 21, 2012 11:17 am

dusty wrote:Yes, it is a very professional operation. It is also fair to note that they sell a very expensive line of tools. That said, they can afford to spend a lot of money on their website (their primary mode of advertising, I assume).

Unfortunately, they are not a "Made in the USA" operation.

I think everything you said about Festool applies to Shopsmith, only more so! New Shopsmith tools are very expensive too. Moreover, while Festools have a stong presence in and are sold through high end woodworking stores, Shopsmith sales are now primarily through its website. Shopsmith, even more than Festool, therefore, needs to bite the bullet and really update its website with a better layout, better photography and links to instantly-downloadable pdf manuals (I raised this before]http://www.shopsmithabrasives.com/flash-page.html[/url]

I knew that video was there and it still took me ten minutes to find it! Why that video is not prominently featured on the main Shopsmith website is very curious to me.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sat Apr 21, 2012 12:50 pm

algale wrote:I think everything you said about Festool applies to Shopsmith, only more so! New Shopsmith tools are very expensive too. Moreover, while Festools have a stong presence in and are sold through high end woodworking stores, Shopsmith sales are now primarily through its website. Shopsmith, even more than Festool, therefore, needs to bite the bullet and really update its website with a better layout, better photography and links to instantly-downloadable pdf manuals (I raised this before]http://www.shopsmithabrasives.com/flash-page.html[/URL]

I knew that video was there and it still took me ten minutes to find it! Why that video is not prominently featured on the main Shopsmith website is very curious to me.

Folksy. I like that term. I made two or three Shopsmith related videos that were indeed folksy but did seriously lack technique. I posted them on UTube and linked them to some of my posts here. I hoped to start something amongst the Shopsmith users but it did not happen.