Shopsmith Forums

A lot of you know I have a friend that owns a machine shop. He likes to do short runs for me as a fun job for him and it breaks up his day to day Borden. He was over the other day when I got a speed changer to rebuild. The shaft was worn bad and I said it was good for parts only.

We pulled the shaft and he took it. Two weeks later he brought me a new one. Worked great. He has no problem making them but wants to make 100 at a time so he can run them on his CNC lathe.

Here's my question. Do you think there's a need for them? I'm sure the price would be under $20 per shaft. I'm looking for your ideas as to 100 of them selling or me getting stuck with them

Tom

I have 3 originals, and no wear on the shafts. I dont know what the demand would be. Based on mine, I would think low. There are some here that might have different experiences and will chime in hopefully.

e2512 wrote:A lot of you know I have a friend that owns a machine shop. He likes to do short runs for me as a fun job for him and it breaks up his day to day Borden. He was over the other day when I got a speed changer to rebuild. The shaft was worn bad and I said it was good for parts only.

We pulled the shaft and he took it. Two weeks later he brought me a new one. Worked great. He has no problem making them but wants to make 100 at a time so he can run them on his CNC lathe.

Here's my question. Do you think there's a need for them? I'm sure the price would be under $20 per shaft. I'm looking for your ideas as to 100 of them selling or me getting stuck with them

Tom

Now you understand how/why Shopsmith manages their inventory as they do. If sales are slow - now you have excess inventory on hand and no cash to pay that invoice.

I don't think I need one. I have a speed changer and it does not look like it was used much but then I have not taken it apart to examine nor have I road tested it.

If the shaft were say $10 I might be inclined to buy one as a just in case purchase, if on the other hand they were over $20 I wouldn't do so. If one found then "needed" one then $20 odd dollars might well be worth it.

If you do decide to have a batch made how else did you plan to sell them, ebay??? In that case 100 sounds like a lot to get rid of. If one of the purveyor of 10E(R) Hardware would take some off your hands then that would help, perhaps contacting them might be a good idea.

Ed

e2512 wrote:A lot of you know I have a friend that owns a machine shop. He likes to do short runs for me as a fun job for him and it breaks up his day to day Borden. He was over the other day when I got a speed changer to rebuild. The shaft was worn bad and I said it was good for parts only.

We pulled the shaft and he took it. Two weeks later he brought me a new one. Worked great. He has no problem making them but wants to make 100 at a time so he can run them on his CNC lathe.

Here's my question. Do you think there's a need for them? I'm sure the price would be under $20 per shaft. I'm looking for your ideas as to 100 of them selling or me getting stuck with them

Tom

Which shaft are you talking about? The outer shaft that the sheaves are on or the inner shaft that is part of the pivoting arm. In either case I don't think you would ever sell 100. I have refurbished two here with no damage to either shaft. I have three more waiting in the wings and after a cursory inspection I suspect there is no problem with them either.

I have 5 speed changers and none of them have any noticeable wear to the shafts. Yours must have been severely neglected.

JMO,I wouldn't invest in a run of 100.

Mike