Shopsmith Forums

Guess they finally took my advice and started to get some free marketing via social media influencers. This is the 2nd interview of Nick that I have seen recently on YT by a social media influencer in the woodworking/shop space. Good to know the reason why they discontinued the planer. Interesting that in their heyday they employed 1600 employees at 10 factories in/around Dayton. Unfortunately the title of this YT video pretty much sums it up:

Please use ANY OTHER PLATFORM than YouTube, preferably Rumble!

Saw it liked it!

+1

Not to worry; unless you have an older Mark or a discontinued item (Planer-no longer supported).

Not to worry; unless you have an older Mark or a discontinued item (Planer-no longer supported).

dusty wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2024 8:35 am Not to worry; unless you have an older Mark or a discontinued item (Planer-no longer supported).

Yep. That part I did not like.




So back to what I was doing 20 yrs ago - stocking up on used spare parts. They were less expensive then.

He'd indicated the castings come from nearby. I'd assumed they came from across the Pacific. That's gratifying.

On the downside, he's looking to outsource their machining. I guess that's to be expected; however, I wonder if he needs to increase the volume before he can find a vendor to do the machining at a reasonable price.

davebodner wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2024 2:41 pm He'd indicated the castings come from nearby. I'd assumed they came from across the Pacific. That's gratifying.

On the downside, he's looking to outsource their machining. I guess that's to be expected; however, I wonder if he needs to increase the volume before he can find a vendor to do the machining at a reasonable price.

There are a plethora of good professional machine shops here in Ohio. It's a competitive business, and you have to be very efficient in order to survive. After seeing what appeared to be all-manual machine tools in the video, it's a wonder to me that they could do any machining in-house at a reasonable cost. It takes only a very small batch of parts for a CNC machine tool to be more efficient than a manual machine. From what I saw in the video, outsourcing machining to one or more good job shops is probably their best option. And perhaps their only one, given limited capital.

The contrast between the antiquated Shopsmith factory and the modern Woodpeckers factory (also located in Ohio) could hardly be more striking. This Woodpeckers factory tour video gives a great overview of the latter.

I think that is a first step. I presume he intends to use the current floor space being used for machining to increase future assembly production.

Fer sure, things are a changing.

I do hope he gets good answers as to why things currently being done are being done that way for good reason. Blindly following a predecessor's method is not wise.

Hope demand will pickup with more social media exposure.