Shopsmith Forums

I just got an email from SS with there surface planer offer, $1400.00 for a 12" x4" planer!!!!!!! I dont know about there newer stuff, but in my limited knowledge and experience with the older items they were over built and designed with good old German mentality. BUT $1400.00 for an item that can only be used on a SS is a bit much, you have a very limited resale addeance if you ever want to sell it, plus for the dollar cost value it is very low IMO. You can buy a Dewalt 13"x6", 3 blade, 2 speed planer for 649.00 and when they have a special sale about 2 times a year they will throw in a laminate size router that normally cost 149.00. It is a quality piece of machinery.
Then lets look at what $1400.00 will buy you in a stand alone planer, a Jet 16", 15" Woodtek for 1100.00, and a few others. I dont want to sound like I am beating up SS, but I just dont see it. Maybe my eyes need to be opened, and if so I am welcome to it. My bit of a rant for the evening.

I have a 20-year old Shopsmith Pro Planer, with cast iron table. After a careful tuneup, it planes 12" wide glue-ups flat to within 0.002" side to side, at whatever feed rate I care to dial in. Snipe is almost never more than 0.005", and then only when I fail to support a long board reasonably well. When powered up, but not machining wood, the sound it makes is a very pleasant Hmmmm ... Its induction motor is indeed more expensive than a noisy brushed universal motor.

No way would I trade it for a brand-new DW735.

Would I pay $1400 for a new one? You bet, if my day-job hourly income (after-tax, of course) exceeded my hourly savings from tuning up a used one. But like most folks, mine doesn't, and I enjoy fixing up machinery anyway. So Shopsmith has to buy parts in low volumes, and thus can't compete head-on with DeWalt on price.

But I often wonder if the Shopsmith brand is still strong enough to capture mainstream market volumes, if they priced accordingly. The planer would be an excellent test case.

If I was in the market for a planer and wanted to go the Shopsmith route, I'd be more inclined to buy a free-standing pro-planer used for $400-$500. I instead opted for a used Dewalt 735 for $200 and it's all the planer I could ever ask for…would I rather have a SS planer? Yes if it was the Pro Planer but no if it cost anything north of about $500-$600. I don't doubt it's built amazingly well and will last forever but $1400 is a whole lotta $$, especially when it's for the non-Pro Planer model.

rbursek wrote:I just got an email from SS with there surface planer offer, $1400.00 for a 12" x4" planer!!!!!!! I dont know about there newer stuff, but in my limited knowledge and experience with the older items they were over built and designed with good old German mentality. BUT $1400.00 for an item that can only be used on a SS is a bit much, you have a very limited resale addeance if you ever want to sell it, plus for the dollar cost value it is very low IMO. You can buy a Dewalt 13"x6", 3 blade, 2 speed planer for 649.00 and when they have a special sale about 2 times a year they will throw in a laminate size router that normally cost 149.00. It is a quality piece of machinery.
Then lets look at what $1400.00 will buy you in a stand alone planer, a Jet 16", 15" Woodtek for 1100.00, and a few others. I dont want to sound like I am beating up SS, but I just dont see it. Maybe my eyes need to be opened, and if so I am welcome to it. My bit of a rant for the evening.

It looks like a good one, but no way I can afford it at this time, and I don't think a 1956 7/8 HP electric motor would be up to the task of running it anyway. I saw that last night as well, and I'll admit to a bit of sticker shock, but there is likely a reason for it. I have been thinking about parts availability, and I watched a Doug Reid "rant" last night, and if they really do stock every part for every machine, well in today's throwaway world that is unheard of anywhere but here. If I were wealthy monetarily, I'd have a few shop smiths, and I'd not bi†çh about the price, at least not too much....

teacherman wrote:It looks like a good one, but no way I can afford it at this time, and I don't think a 1956 7/8 HP electric motor would be up to the task of running it anyway. I saw that last night as well, and I'll admit to a bit of sticker shock, but there is likely a reason for it. I have been thinking about parts availability, and I watched a Doug Reid "rant" last night, and if they really do stock every part for every machine, well in today's throwaway world that is unheard of anywhere but here. If I were wealthy monetarily, I'd have a few shop smiths, and I'd not bi†çh about the price, at least not too much....

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I think I could justify to myself buying a new Shopsmith over separate standalones. It arguably saves money over buying equivalent separate machines -- although that can be debated-- and it definitely saves space and it offers some functionality that is simply unavailable on stand alone machines (whether you care about those unique function is another matter).

But I cannot justify to myself buying a new Pro Planer ($1700+) or the Shopsmith mounted planer ($1400) when there are equally good machines at a fraction of the price.

Neither SS planer really saves space over say a DW735, which as pointed out is less than half the price new. And the DW735 has more more width and height capacity than the SS: 13 wide (vs 12 for the SS); 6 high (vs 4 for the SS).

The only advantages I see for the SS is that it has far more variabiity in feed rate while the DW735 just has two speeds. But I suspect slow speeds aren't particularly relevant to planing and the important thing in a planer is more cuts per inch (to get a finer finish) and I'm not sure that you get more cuts per minute on a SS planer at its high speed range than a DW735 [EDIT: I looked it up the SS planers max out at 205 cuts per inch and the DW735 max is 179 cuts per inch; so theoretically you could get a finer finish on the SS!]. Oh, and I assume that the SS planer is quiter (although it does have a universal feed motor). But ear plugs are cheap!

[EDIT: Another major major difference is disposable/self setting blades (DW735) vs. reusable/non-self setting blades (SS). Each has its advantages.].

You would think SS would include the 2.5" dust collection attachment, but it is extra. Can't imagine running a planer without it, what a mess it would make.

teacherman wrote:It looks like a good one, but no way I can afford it at this time, and I don't think a 1956 7/8 HP electric motor would be up to the task of running it anyway. I saw that last night as well, and I'll admit to a bit of sticker shock, but there is likely a reason for it. I have been thinking about parts availability, and I watched a Doug Reid "rant" last night, and if they really do stock every part for every machine, well in today's throwaway world that is unheard of anywhere but here. If I were wealthy monetarily, I'd have a few shop smiths, and I'd not bi†çh about the price, at least not too much....

Of course Shopsmith doesn't stock every part...I'm waiting for one right now...(proprietary part)...But most of them are available...eventually....And also many parts are available locally...Shopsmith does a pretty good job in my opinion...

If you have deep pockets and you like it...I'd say get it...but not for me...

I got the same email, and although I didn't think the price was "shout from the roof tops" good, it's fair for the quality you get. I have a SS planer I bought in the 90s (for about $650 new, which is roughly $1200 today) and I have never had a problem with it. I'm glad it's not a stand alone taking-up space, since I don't plane wood every day. I tuck it on a shelf under my radial arm saw and it's out-of-the-way.

Now I was at Acme Tool Electric in Fargo yesterday to order a nut die (10-28 thread - an odd ball size Stanley used on their thumb screws for their #78, 190,191, & 192 depth stops. I am making several thumb screws for three of these rabbet planes that I have, but I digress).

It was a big day at Acme with tool shows and reps on the floor. I got to talking to a young man from Irwin. He was selling saw blades, drills, all the things Irwin sells, including their brand of vise grips. When I asked him if he knew that the original Vise Grip company in Nebraska was out of business, he did and admitted that their's are made in the Orient (not sure where, but guess ). "The Orient" put Nebraska Vise Grip out-of-business.

I know we've been down this road before of Chinese/Taiwanese made vs. US made. IMHO SS is a better buy over planers in the same class because of the variable speed option when planing wood, and the quality motor and other parts in the planer. I think this is especially true for the new Mark 7 which I don't own.

Oh, I did buy a 10" - 40 tooth thin kerf rip blade for my table saw from Irwin; You bought one and got another free.

JPG40504 wrote:?????????????????

So you're saying my old greenie motor is strong enough for a big thickness planer like that? That's great. I just figured wit it being 60 years old, it wouldn't be wise to subject it to that much stress. I do like the separate feed motor, that helps I'm sure.