Shopsmith Forums

The March '08 edition of Wood magazine has a shop test titled "The Best Home-Shop Dust Collectors". After reading the article I decided to write the following to the editors;
"Dear Editors:

I have read and studied your test and reports on dust collectors. I must say that it was very well done.

However, since the title of the test was "Home-Shop", the testing and report does not reflect the title very well. Actually all your fine work applies much better to the small 1 to 3 man semi-pro and professional free standing shops.
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Most newer homes today have 200 amp service, usually with no more than two 15 amp 120V circuits in the garage, often sharing use with receptacles in the house. It is of course possible to add electrical capability, but this is not cheap. If someone wants to put a dust collector with a 1 1/2 HP motor in his garage he will have no other choice than to call his electrician and get out his checkbook. Remember, this was supposed to be a test for dust collection systems in the home! Also, these dust collectors that you tested are all really designed for hard ducted systems with blast gates. This is great for a professional with a separate shop building, but really, who is going to do this in their garage! Besides, when you get into ducting a system this is going to be added expense. You didn't mention this in your article. By the time someone puts a Grizzly G1029Z system in their garage they will have to spend a lot more than the $240 shown in your chart. You did not mention the sizes of the respective dust collectors. In a true home-shop, every square foot is precious. Also lacking in the test was any mention of noise level. We are not paying nearly enough attention to noise levels in our shops and woodworkers are suffering permanent hearing loss with continued exposure. The best place to put one of the units that you tested is outside the shop in it's own enclosure.

For the past 25 years I have had my home-shop in a little over 1/2 of a two car garage. I did add an extra 20 amp circuit because I got tired of tripping the breaker and being left in the dark. Since 1988 my dust collector has been Shopsmith's DC3300. It has a 1/2 HP motor with the capability of handling three 2 1/2 inch hoses. The 2 1/2 in hose diameter does not have to have as much HP as your tested units in order to achieve the necessary velocity to suspend dust particles. It is very efficient. There is no "jumper" hose. In fact the fan itself is only a straight 7 inches from the port where the hoses are connected. It does a great job of collecting dust and chips from my saw, jointer, planer, and belt sander. The DC3300 comes with two 8' hoses, floor attachment and wands, 90 degree elbow, dusting brush, and six plastic bags. It is also very quiet. The footprint is only 20"x26" and it is on casters, with a handle. If you had included the DC3300 in your test you would at least had one dust collector made in the USA. Is that so bad? This is truly a more of a home-shop dust collector than the units you tested."


I have cancelled my subscription. Wood magazine seems to be more and more oriented toward professional and semi-professional woodworkers who have moved out of their homes into separate free standing shops. In looking at the ads it is easy to see that manufacturers are moving them in that direction. I can see why Shopsmith doesn't advertise in this and other similar magazines.

Perhaps the editors need to have more letters written by some of us who truly are "home-shop" woodworkers.

WTG 8iowa. i also canceled my subscription to Wood magazine several years ago for just about the same reason. they are not into "home" woodworking anymore.
bob

Next month Wood is doing a review of "home" table-saws and I am sure Shopsmith will also not be represented. The question is "Is Wood solely at fault"? All of these magazines publish editorial calendars as much as a year in advance. For some reason I got on their email list as a manufacture and get notices and calendars, I can't believe it would be difficult for someone from Shopsmith to do the same. If anyone subscribes to Popular Woodworking they also publish an online newsletter version and are always featuring companies that don't advertise in the printed magazine. While I agree that the tool tests in Wood really don't target the home audience many of the projects do.

Paul:

Looking at the March issue of Wood magazine I see both the inside front cover and opposing first page covered with an ad from Grizzly Industrial. Most of these tools are table saws, bandsaws, planers, shapers, and jointers in the 500 to 1000 lb category. Now I ask you, is someone going to put two to four machines like this in their garage or home basement? Not likely! The inside of the back cover is a full page ad by Jet for their deluxe Xacta saw. Specs aren't given but this is also probably an 800 to 1000 lb machine and it appears to be at least 6 feet wide with it's table extension. I don't think I'll be putting one of these in my garage very soon. Doubtless many other "home-shop" woodworkers won't be doing it either.

What these ads represent is a lot of advertising dollars. While the publisher will be glad to include some projects and plans that we can use, when it comes down to reviews, tests, and recommendations, the advertising dollars are going to drive the process. If this is what they want to do, OK, but it is ridiculous for them to try to pass themselves off as a "home-shop" oriented magazine.

Question to 8Iowa and BettyT44720 What magazines do you support?

I haven't seen one that includes Shopsmith products in any review.

As for representing home woodworking I think most of these magazines are simply following the crowd. Look at any forum and you will see one post after another trouting the virture of a Delta Unisaw or Powermatic 66.

Both of these machines were either built or are direct descendants of machines that were built as production machines. They were designed to be used 24/7 and with power feeds and endless supplies of wood stock to be cut.

Why does any home craftsman need a production machine?

However that is present the line of thinking that has over taken the home woodworking industry, if you don't have a Unisaw, a Powermatic 66 or $3600 Sawstop you don't have squat.

Nearly every tool that is now discussed in any of the "Woodworking" magazines is total overkill for any hobbiest shop.

The thinking is if the dust collector can't suck the eye balls out of an elephant 100 yards away it can't be expected to pick up the dust output from your orbital sander. Oh yeah it has to do it using on commerically manufactured parts heaven forbid someone would walk into the shop and see something homemade like Nicks vaccum spider connected to the dust collection system.

I'm not getting on you guys but I would like to know what magazines you do read.
Ed

Fine Woodworking, Wood, The Woodworker's Journal, Woodsmith, Shopnotes and The American Woodworker.

However, I am now reading and rereading issues that I have collected over the last fifteen or so years. For economic reasons I now subscribe to only one magazine and that is Wood.

paulmcohen wrote:Next month Wood is doing a review of "home" table-saws and I am sure Shopsmith will also not be represented. The question is "Is Wood solely at fault"? All of these magazines publish editorial calendars as much as a year in advance. For some reason I got on their email list as a manufacture and get notices and calendars, I can't believe it would be difficult for someone from Shopsmith to do the same. If anyone subscribes to Popular Woodworking they also publish an online newsletter version and are always featuring companies that don't advertise in the printed magazine. While I agree that the tool tests in Wood really don't target the home audience many of the projects do.

Paul
I would think it would be a waste of time for Shopsmith to try to be included. First the common line of thinking of most of the readers of these magazines is if it ain't cast iron, doesn't weigh a ton, doesn't have a 5hp motor and didn't cost more than my first car it can't be any good.

Second everyone knows Shopsmiths don't make real tools, just turn and ask your neighbor he will tell you a Shopsmith can't be any good whether he has ever seen one or not.

Third if the product isn't used on TV by one of How to Shows or at least mentioned by them forget it.

The problem is psychological to some extent. While I have no formal way of testing I believe the Shopsmith motor is as powerful as 99% of the motors presently used on contractor saws sold today.
Yet if someone posts a question on a forum about his "X" saw's bogging down in a cut, the common response will be something is wrong, your fence must be wrong, your blade needs sharpened, etc.
Ask the same question of a Shopsmith and they first thing they say is what do you expect with a motor that size, totally ignoring the fact that the person asking the question is using a wet dry tile blade he found in his granddad's shop.

It even happens on the Shopsmith forums where many are convinced the Shopsmith comes with too small a motor. If Shopsmith did like everyone else and stuck a sticker on the thing stating it had 2 hp motor many of those that find fault with Shopsmiths would suddenly be happy.
Ed

Ed, currently I am getting Fine Woodworking and the American Woodworker, bob

The 'underpowered' thing really amuses me. Don't people realize that induction motor HP 'ratings' are concocted from fluff and marketing? The fact of the matter is, you cannot buy a 120V motor bigger than 15 amps in the US. UL won't approve it. The SS at 13.5 amps is just a tad smaller than the biggest, brawniest motor you'll find on any contractor's saw, unless it's had a 240 conversion.

What's really funny is that my dad's 40-year-old Model 100 Craftsman is rated at 'only' 1 horse (12 amps, IIRC); but with a good blade has in its time ripped huge quantities of teak, rosewood and padauk as well as oak and rock maple without a complaint.

A lot of the problem is a sort of Tim Allen hairy-chested macho, where 'underpowered' is used to mean 'insufficiently excessive.'

Of course, if the OP is correct, Wood et al are pitching themselves to guys with three-phase wiring installed.....

I currently subscribe to Wood, Woodworker's Journal, Shopnotes, and Woodsmith. The latter two don't bother me with advertising. I will probably let the subscriptions for the first two expire. I can get all the tool reviews I want online. Why should I pay for a magazine that is already paid for with ads.