Exciting News From Your Friends At Shopsmith

[a1gutterman]

Still no mention of price. I wonder if it is that heart stopping?

I believe this will make or break Shopsmith and I think if they price it too high they will have shot themselves in the foot.

My guess they will price it too high. I imagine they are thinking that their existing customer base will be the biggest market. So instead of deciding on the correct market price they will try to recoup everything using existing customer numbers as their base.
What will happen the price will be ridiculously high but they will sell to a small number of existing customers (ones with more money than brains). However in the end they will lose the rest of the market and the company will tank.

What they need to consider is what a new person entering woodworking will have to spend to get a saw, variable speed drill press, variable speed lathe, and a variable speed disk sander.

If it were me I would figure a saw $600, variable speed drill press $300 , variable speed lathe $800 and disk sander $200 and price the whole machine at below that number. Then I would tout the space savings and all the other features and lock up the market. Of course the headstock upgrade would be around 1/2 that cost.

It will be interesting to see what SS does and how it effects their future. Let us hope they use the correct model to set their price.

Wow, Ed!!! So much negativity. I say lets give them a chance before we shoot 'em down. I am willing to wait and see;

1) How much for the upgrade, and

2) Where the "guts" are made

before I make any judgements.

[charlese]

Thank you for the update, Bob!

[Ed in Tampa]

[quote="a1gutterman"]Wow, Ed!!! So much negativity. I say lets give them a chance before we shoot 'em down. I am willing to wait and see]

Tim
I don't mean to be negative. I just hope and pray they make the right decisions. To me it is very important they get this right. I like Shopsmith and I want the company to continue but if they screw this up, I'm afraid they won't get another chance to make it right.

[dickg1]

What exactly does "headstock upgrade" mean? Does that mean you can upgrade an older Mark V headstock with the new Power Pro components? Or does the "upgrade" mean swapping the entire headstock?
.

Heath,
IMHO the control mount appears to mandate a new headstock.
Dick

[dlbristol]

Man, if suspense will effect the sales of this thing positively, SS ought to be able to sell them like hot cakes make a bundle! Sure is a lot of interest from a lot of folks for a lot of reasons.

[etc92guy]

By Ed's hopeful estimate....$2000.00 for the PowerPro.

The current Mark V is 2999.00. Ed, I don't want to sound mean, but I disagree. SS isn't going to present a improved product at a 1/3 price reduction. Just MHO.

Added functionality of reverse, digital speed control, variable rpms we don't currently have, possible presets, and a couple of surprises we don't know about.

I'm guessing two shafts still, quill and idler. No more sheaves.

Based on all the above here's my guess:

PowerPro Mark V $3799
Headstock Upgrade $1899

The above is my gut feel. I don't have any inside info from SS.

Does it violate SS forum rules to start a pool? If not, I'm in for a buck with the above.

[Ed in Tampa]

By Ed's hopeful estimate....$2000.00 for the PowerPro.

The current Mark V is 2999.00. Ed, I don't want to sound mean, but I disagree. SS isn't going to present a improved product at a 1/3 price reduction. Just MHO.

Added functionality of reverse, digital speed control, variable rpms we don't currently have, possible presets, and a couple of surprises we don't know about.

I'm guessing two shafts still, quill and idler. No more sheaves.

Based on all the above here's my guess:

PowerPro Mark V $3799
Headstock Upgrade $1899

The above is my gut feel. I don't have any inside info from SS.

Does it violate SS forum rules to start a pool? If not, I'm in for a buck with the above.

I agree the current Mark V is priced at $2999 however the fact is they aren't selling. That is why SS had to cut back staff to a bare miminium. That one fact alone should tell everyone involved they are priced too high.

I may be kind of slow but to me if you can't sell something at $2999 you reduce the price until it sells. Once you get the price to the point you aren't making a profit and you can't cut cost any lower then you get out of business.

Fact of life if you can't sell it you can't make any money.

However the whiz kids from Harvard Business thinking of years gone by was keep the prices at $2999. Since this thinking limited the customer base only to people who didn't think so good they had to maximize profit on what they did sell. Increasing the profit meant farming out the manufacture to China. Further reducing their customer base. Hence we are in the situation we find ourselves today with 1 of 10 out of work, many for over a year.

The thinking that got the present Mark V price so high it doesn't sell is the same thinking I'm afraid will cause the new Powerhead to be priced so high that instead of saving the company will actually do just the opposite.

Imagine yourself a young wood worker that wanted to get started.
You had a choice between a $2999.00 SS or $600 table saw with granite top, a variable speed drill press, a variable speed lathe and combination disk/stone variable speed sander all for less than $2000 what would you consider. Then add to that all the negative talk from the "experts" about what a pain in the butt it is to have all you woodworking tools in one machine. Add to that the fact you can buy individual tools one at a time as you have money.

I will go out on a limb here and say if they price the new Pro products as you suggest we won't be having this discussion in 2 years on a SS forum. And that ticks me off because I will lose a reliable source of parts and upgrades to my machine.

[dwevans]

OK, lots of speculation here, but this is how I'm figuring it the new motor with all it's new technology around $1000 (that's 3 times the cost of the old motor), new electronics $500, the total cost should be around $1500 or less for the upgrade. From what John said in his message, looks like for the upgrade we will only need new parts, not a whole new head. I would actually expect the cost of a new shopsmith with the new head to be priced about the same as now if not slightly less to attract new buyers.

Time will tell, but let's not be too pessimistic out here, after all, who would have thought that a new power pro was even possible a couple of years ago!

[stevespix]

In these economic times price will be paramont and critical to the product. A $1500 - 2K investment in an upgrade seems "nuts" in these times I could not justify this investment espeically when there are other items like an Incra system I would rather have than an unproven new system. First off I want to see this demonstrated and they don't seem of have a sales force to market a product. They better be willing to spend a whole lot of money for marketing and promotion just to get this off the ground. It's been at least two years since Shopsmith has had any kind of presence at a woodworking or home and garden show. The concept sounds great but considering all of the tools that are on the market pricing will be the most important item.

[wa2crk]

Just a few thoughts
1. Eliminate the following parts
a. The control sheave
b. The pork chop
c. The second half of the control sheave (non moving part)
d. The floating sheave on the motor
e. The fan sheave on the motor
f. The motor spring
g. The long shaft on the motor

Add the following components
1. A "V" belt pully where the control sheave used to be
2. A second "V" belt pully for the motor shaft (one of these to be self
adjusting)
3. And of course the new motor!!!
The poly V belt and it's associated adjustment would remain unchanged as would the quill and the quill handle. This would probably liberate some room in the motor pan to accept a larger frame motor with a bit more HP.
Just my thoughts
Bill V