Shopsmith Forums

Here is an interesting read about selling multipurpose tools in the US. It is an interview with Laguna tools from Woodworkers Journal.

http://www.woodworkersjournal.com/three ... s-expands/

Laguna started out in this country in 1983 trying to sell the European multipurpose tool made by Robland.

Here is a quote from the article.

"But, Torben soon discovered that Robland’s versatility wasn’t a slam-dunk sell to American woodworkers. It was a radical concept that went up against traditional single-function machining methods.

There was a huge misperception that the machine was difficult to use, lacked precision and quality and took a long time to change from one use to the next. The notion of a combination machine was not in woodworkers’ vocabularies here, Torben recalls.

After attending “hundreds” of woodworking shows to introduce the Robland combo machine, Torben took an equally radical marketing approach for the time: he filmed a 90-minute demonstration video and offered the VHS tapes to potential customers for a $6 refundable fee. It broke the ice in the marketplace by shattering misnomers about the machine, and to this day, Laguna counts that video as one of its milestone highlights."

Sound familiar? I don't think the VHS tape was a radical marketing approach since SS was already doing it.

When I had my commercial operation we were constantly being marketed by Laguna and in fact we did replace a very old Altendorf saw with one of theirs. They invited us to several demos and at one of them they allowed us to play with a Robland. They are very impressive machines. They are not in the same realm as SS. They are indeed multipurpose but not in the same sense as SS. There is little or no conversion between functions as in SS. They are very expensive but for a small commercial operation they are probably worth it. They lend themselves to one or two man shops that need the capacity of heavy duty machinery in a small space. The quality of their machinery is very high.
Paul

masonsailor2 wrote:When I had my commercial operation we were constantly being marketed by Laguna and in fact we did replace a very old Altendorf saw with one of theirs. They invited us to several demos and at one of them they allowed us to play with a Robland. They are very impressive machines. They are not in the same realm as SS. They are indeed multipurpose but not in the same sense as SS. There is little or no conversion between functions as in SS. They are very expensive but for a small commercial operation they are probably worth it. They lend themselves to one or two man shops that need the capacity of heavy duty machinery in a small space. The quality of their machinery is very high.
Paul

I fully understand that a Robland is not the same as a SS. I am not implying that it is. The only similarity is that they are both Multipurpose. The purpose of the post is to point out American's prejudice against Multipurpose machines.

To quote Mr. Torben again...

"There was a huge misperception that the machine was difficult to use, lacked precision and quality and took a long time to change from one use to the next. The notion of a combination machine was not in woodworkers’ vocabularies here, Torben recalls."

As I said, does that sound familiar? That is almost word for word what the uninformed say about the Shopsmith and the misconception still exists.

Luganua's solution was almost the same as SS's, videos and live demonstrations.

jsburger wrote:

masonsailor2 wrote:When I had my commercial operation we were constantly being marketed by Laguna and in fact we did replace a very old Altendorf saw with one of theirs. They invited us to several demos and at one of them they allowed us to play with a Robland. They are very impressive machines. They are not in the same realm as SS. They are indeed multipurpose but not in the same sense as SS. There is little or no conversion between functions as in SS. They are very expensive but for a small commercial operation they are probably worth it. They lend themselves to one or two man shops that need the capacity of heavy duty machinery in a small space. The quality of their machinery is very high.
Paul

I fully understand that a Robland is not the same as a SS. I am not implying that it is. The only similarity is that they are both Multipurpose. The purpose of the post is to point out American's prejudice against Multipurpose machines.

To quote Mr. Torben again...

"There was a huge misperception that the machine was difficult to use, lacked precision and quality and took a long time to change from one use to the next. The notion of a combination machine was not in woodworkers’ vocabularies here, Torben recalls."

As I said, does that sound familiar? That is almost word for word what the uninformed say about the Shopsmith and the misconception still exists.

Luganua's solution was almost the same as SS's, videos and live demonstrations.

That did not stop Mark aka MBCabinetmaker, but then he has multiple SS.