Shopsmith Forums

This is a very interesting interview with Scott Philips who worked for SS during the Folker hay days. He was in product development among other things. Lots of interesting tidbits on SS history. Particularly his comments about Hands On magazine and how it affected SS at the time. They are very apropos given today's "situation".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7owCvu6Ags

I've watched Scott on "American Woodshop". Had no idea he's a SS alum. Can't wait to watch the MGR video!

HopefulSSer wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2023 9:59 pm I've watched Scott on "American Woodshop". Had no idea he's a SS alum. Can't wait to watch the MGR video!

There are probably more than we know. Norm had a SS early on. Another one was George Vondriska of WWGOA. He worked for SS back in the day. He has mentioned it on a few of his videos.

Yes this latest video was very interesting and very informative. Thanks Scott!

John,

Thanks for posting the link for the video. Scott (My Growth Rings) has had some great interviews and this one with Scott Phillips is very interesting. I encourage others to set aside an hour to watch it. One of the most interesting comments was the recent demographic of his show. For those who haven't watched it yet, you will have to watch it to find out what it is.

Didn't think I would watch the entire video, because an hour is A LOT to devote to this and I just didn't know/recognize him. Have to say it was well worth the time to watch it. Both educational and entertaining. Thanks. Encourage anyone interested to watch it but I will share some tidbits and insights that I found helpful to perchance motivate others to check it out. So, back in its heyday, Shopsmith was pulling down $200M in annual sales. I believe he said that they poured the profits from those sales into new products like the Sawsmith 2000 and also the X-6000 and perhaps others that just didn't materialize like they thought they would. So, in essence they poured their profits into products that just weren't commercial successes. They thought the Sawsmith 2000 would be the next Mark V and take over the industry and marketplace. A comment on the reason that they never went beyond the size motor chosen is because someone at the company forced them to keep it on 120V capability which limits you to around 1-1/2HP for an induction motor. Disappointing, especially for me, since I own a 240V Mark V 520 (conventional headstock) and could have enjoyed more power had they just put a different motor in the thing. Unfortunately the product development guys had their hands tied at Shopsmith. Throughout the interview there seemed to be an undertone about the company that I will spell out. This started with him talking about the biscuit jointer accessory for the Mark V that he developed when he worked at Shopsmith. He had set an ASP for the product of $119 each and was overruled to sell it for $149 because they believed the customer had more money in their wallets. Honestly, this is how I have viewed Shopsmith in recent years, i.e. they size the ASP to how much money they think you have rather than to what that function should cost and don't consider how their sales volume will shrink as ASP climbs. Also don't factor in the competition when figuring out ASP's. He actually left the company over this disagreement as his sales forecasts and projections were to sell the biscuit jointer for $119. I like his view of product development and respect it. He believes you should design/develop/buy a tool that performs said function as economically as possible. This doesn't apply to every case, but it is a good rule to go by because if you sell it with a fat margin I can assure you someone will come in and undercut you, UNLESS you have patent protection or some proprietary process or other barrier to entry for your market. Not saying a company shouldn't take a profit, but in my opinion I think he was kind of alluding to why Shopsmith has struggled a bit in the intervening years since his departure. PowerPro pricing is but one example. It was good though to hear about Shopsmith during its heyday and I actually wish more of the interview had been focused on that, so perhaps Scott can do more interviews that focus there please. I am sure it was a great place to work when everything was working well, they had great people working there and money was coming in. Would be interesting to hear more about the "good" days. More of the interview focused on some of their trials and tribulations as a company and those were good insights shared so I am commenting on them here - not trying to be negative, but rather share from insights from the video. I really think he is on to something about woodworking education and how Shopsmith stepping away from this was the beginning of their fall from grace. Didn't know that Hands On magazine was promised free of charge to all Shopsmith owners for the rest of their life, then they decided to kill the magazine. This was followed with their selling off of retail stores, which were also training locations for Shopsmith owners. All to Woodcraft's gain. I do wonder what kind of Shopsmith company we would have today had they stayed in it and focused on customer education and outreach. Perhaps an opportunity for the new owner to explore to resuscitate the company.