Shopsmith Forums

I noticed a posting for Commercial Racks on Craig's List that sounds like the photos might be from the SS factory.

anyone who went to the Owner's Weekend care to tell me if I am right or, if so, whether it is the old or new factory?

http://cincinnati.craigslist.org/bfs/1042758003.html

Ivan

That can't be good.

a shopsmith email address and the listing is in Dayton

The name Jim McCann sounded like someone Nick had on one of his YouTube sessions and sure enough he was....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbdM-bs8j-g

Sorry I just happened to remember the name and had to look it up... other then the name this has nothing to do with the thread.

Ed

otee453 wrote:That can't be good.

I don't think it is necessarily bad. with the downsizing, they would likely need fewer of these. they may be just continuing to clean out older stuff (like the email special on old style router tables last week).

when I showed the ad to my wife, she was of the opinion that the shelves were primarily used to support retail stores. if she is right, then SS hasn't needed these for anything but shelving since they closed the retail store.

Ivan

Hi,

I was at Shopsmith in July, and took the factory tour conducted by Jim McCann. Those blue shelf systems were feeding assembly parts at quite a few places in the plant. If they are selling 2 of them, I'd guess that was =<10% of the total of such shelves used there on the floor. This sounds much more like an adjustment of their junk level, rather than a liquidation. (They probably also had to throw away the pizza boxes that I saw in the break-room that day, too!)

My son and I were there in July and I was there again on November 17th. This picture was taken in their present plant.

they have a huge space, much of it unlit. We all know that they have been trying to sell the building, so that they can lease back a much smaller portion. With this scenario, they would have to dispose of a lot of equipment like the racks shown here. I wouldn't attach any other significance to this sale.

By-the-way, I saw Jim McCann when I was there, and we had a brief chat regarding what Nick Engler was up to.

8iowa wrote:My son and I were there in July and I was there again on November 17th. This picture was taken in their present plant.

they have a huge space, much of it unlit. We all know that they have been trying to sell the building, so that they can lease back a much smaller portion. With this scenario, they would have to dispose of a lot of equipment like the racks shown here. I wouldn't attach any other significance to this sale.

By-the-way, I saw Jim McCann when I was there, and we had a brief chat regarding what Nick Engler was up to.

It is my understanding that ownership of the the building has changed and that Shopsmith has entered into a five year lease on the space that we all know as the new Shopsmith facility.

I see this Craigs List thing as just "more information that is flowing down" to those of us that are not corporate managers. I think that might be called "scuttle butt".

8iowa wrote:My son and I were there in July and I was there again on November 17th. This picture was taken in their present plant.

thanks. I couldn't make it there for the owner's weekend and had hoped that I was finally seeing pictures of part of the facility. it is interesting to see other people's shops - including those of our favorite manufacturer.

Ivan

I agree with the rest of the guy's this is just part of down sizing. Now if we saw 15-20 of them then I would worry. I work for the largest retailer in the world and we just let 800 go at the home office and everyone freaked. We have 14,000 working at the home office so when looking at that I am sorry for the guys that were let go but not worried the company is going under.
Some of the same on a smaller scale.
SS will be here for a while I am sure.

I hope everyone is correct on this. I just can't imagine SS can survive long term as a parts department only in this economy and with the influx of cheap Asian made machines.

Perhaps new sales of Mark V's are still strong, I hope they are.