Shopsmith DEMO

[wlhayesmfs]

Chris, it is good to hear from your invoice following that these numbers are still climbing. I agree that in the future fast growth is going to be something we will not see, Steady growth with some new products will be the future for a lot of companies. Man this job deal is something. Today is my last day at a Second Temp job trying to find something to get me to final retirement and then maybe some of this upgrading will finally get done on my two MKV's. Still have some extra parts for my SPT's to get also. But now some time to make sawdust and get my Scroll saw fixed back up and try it out for the first time. Need to order some quick release's for the blade from Ss and it will be ready.

[wh500special]

I’m new to the Shopsmith family having recently purchased a nice, used Mark V from a coworker who outgrew it. I already had a nice complement of standalone machines but thought the Shopsmith might be a nice lathe and a great drill press…and the price was right. I didn’t anticipate using the other modes of operation when I got it, but lately I’ve been using the table saw and bandsaw quite a bit. Who knew?

My other equipment is decent stuff, but still economical. My table saw is a high-end Craftsman (oxymoron?), my bandsaw and jointer are Grizzly, planer is a DeWalt…I was always happy with each and have grown in my skills on them.

Oddly, the Shopsmith is probably my favorite item right now and I’ve added a few SPT’s from eBay and even lucked into a DC-3300 locally. I find myself poring over Craigslist and eBay looking for specials. Now after seeing one, I’d really like to dump my current planer and get a ProPlaner. I’ve found that Shopsmith stuff just “works.”

I thought changeovers would be a pain; but they’re not. I’d heard accuracy on the tools is sub-par; but it’s not any worse than my other stuff and may be mostly operator dependent. I heard the table saw function sucked…but it doesn’t. Are there compromises? Sure. The lathe is too low for my comfort, the table saw too high…But what item have you ever bought doesn’t give up something?

What impresses me most about everything I have seen from Shopsmith so far is just how nicely done everything is. Everything appears to have been designed really well and the quality of execution seems to be first rate. These things are built the way we’ve always expected American made tools to be. And, I know that those details costs money.

Heck, even their website is nice. Parts availability is amazing. Their customer service is fast and friendly. Even those aspects of Shopsmith “just work” too. It seems like everything is in Shopsmith’s favor to be a market leader among woodworking hobbyists. But they’re not.

Why?

I have opinions of course…

I wasn’t old enough to really appreciate the Shopsmith demos when I was a kid, but I do recall my dad being fascinated with them. As I got into woodworking on my own I always looked at the Shopsmith as a bit of an oddity that probably wasn’t good at any one thing, but acceptable at most. But I never had the chance to use one. And I started buying my standalone tools one at a time as I could afford them…which ended up being cheaper than a new Mark V.

Really, had my buddy not been desperate to sell and had I not been craving a better drill press and a starter lathe I wouldn’t be boring you with this. Kismet.

I think two things will eventually kill Shopsmith. One of which they can’t do anything about:
1. Price.
2. Demographics.

to be continued...

[wh500special]

First, I’ll start with Price:

Shopsmith’s are expensive. I doubt there is much disagreement there.

Sure, they are well-made in the USA and extraordinarily capable. And they last a lifetime (or two). But for $3500 you can buy a lot of sexier tools. And with standalones, you need not buy everything at one time. Most importantly, standalone tools have gotten cheaper in real dollars. Which, of course, is a function of imported goods. Years ago, they cost more in real and dated dollars and some probably weren’t really that much better than they are now. Once a guy has bought a tablesaw and maybe a drillpress, what motivation does he have to buy a Shopsmith?

Shopsmiths were always priced the way they were made: Heavy duty, built to last, upgradable, etc. Not everyone appreciates long term value, reliability, and durability. In fact, a lot of things used to be more expensive than they are now: computers, lawn mowers, tools…

Next is Changing Demographics:

People used to garden. People used to have one-car garages instead of a 3-car hanger. People didn’t spend all weekend at kids’ soccer games, baseball games, football games, gymnastics…(Geez, it occurs to me now that girls sports have exploded in the last 20 years. Before that, only roughly half of all kids (the boys) were really involved in after school activities. The other half watched.) Adult hobbies largely now consist of socializing, barbecuing, golfing, fantasy football, and the like. There’s not nearly as much fiddling alone in the garage or basement anymore.

Men (the primary market for stuff like this) have different lifestyles now. We have more TV, computers, and all kinds of other distractions to tinker with. I know my dad was always (still is) a huge Cardinal baseball fan. He watched the games that were available on local channel 11. Today, he can and sometimes does watch teams from all over the country play baseball on any given night just because he can…he used to piddle a lot more.

People had different kinds of jobs too. There seem to be fewer tradesmen and “real” workers today…mechanics, electricians, concrete finishers, etc. The hands-on generations have come and largely have gone. And I think the wage structure for tradesmen has changed to where big items like Shopsmiths are a tougher luxury to justify.

(Disclosure: I’m a 35 year old engineer who isn’t good at very many trades and who has great respect for those who are.)

Strangely, we seem to have more “things” than we used to. Lots of one-ton diesel pickups do commuter duty. Lots of driveways have 24’ Bayliners in them. Lots of garages have 26 hp Craftsman riding mowers. Lots of kitchens have industrial strength Kitchenaid stand mixers and Viking ranges.

Priorities and interests are different.

Age is key too. I think most Shopsmith users are older and are out of the “buying” stage of their lives. Sure, I tinker, but I don’t think very many people my age (or thereabouts) really have these types of hobbies anymore. In the interest of keeping the baseball team and driver’s education afloat, many school districts have done away with vocational classes and training and have abandoned entire groups of kids.

Lots of guys are out riding Harley-Davidsons or are spending $1000 on a barbecue grill…all valid and acceptable things, but not something that makes it easier to sell a premium piece of woodworking machinery.

I think it’s a societal shift. My other interests seem impacted too. I like to fish (a lot!), hunt, and tinker with old garden tractors. There are lots of exceptions of course, but these are all hobbies that are largely not pursued by generation X’ers, Y’ers or younger.

And, lastly, Shopsmith reminds me of Wheel Horse in that they built expensive machines that last seemingly forever. The used market and poor resale have got to be taking a toll on new machinery sales. Why buy new when a used one will suffice at a fraction of the cost? If they could do a buy-back/trade-in program and scrap a bunch of machines they’d be miles ahead.

The internet is a double edged sword on this problem as well. Sure, it brings like-minded individuals together which is fantastic, but it’s also helped reveal that items we once thought were rare are really all over the place. And can be had cheaply. You don’t even have to look very hard.

Now that I’ve kind of “gotten into” Shopsmiths as a hobby, I recognize that they’re a bit like Barbie dolls for grownups…it’s the ACCESSORIES that make them fun to use. You can have one Mark V but equip it with dozens of add-ons and toys that customize it to be your own. Same way my daughter has 18 pairs of shoes, 27 outfits, and 14 million pieces of jewelry for her Barbie.

I’ve had my Mark V for about a year and it came only with a bandsaw as an extra item. Now, I have a few other SPT’s to make it fit my shop and justify its footprint. All of which were relatively cheap and easy to find. And make it exactly what I want it to be.

and, again to be continued...

[wh500special]

So, all this griping. Do I have any suggestions?

What would I do if I was in charge and wanted to build sales? I’m not sure how it would work out, but I think my first step would be to consolidate the lineup to only include the new Mark 7 Power Pro with the high end table. The price differential doesn’t seem worth it to me to still offer the old style speed controller.

Then maybe develop a proprietary miter saw SPT or standalone. Shopsmith has shown over and over how innovative they are. I would imagine that a miter saw from them might be quite a piece of machinery and is something that just about every craftsman buys. It would help with name recognition and possibly repeat sales.

Then I’d try to determine what the market price point for the Mark 7 would be. I doubt many potential customers would value the disc sander and horizontal boring functions very highly (even though I think they’re both awesome) so I think if the remaining 4 functions were priced in the $1750 range the product might find new homes. I know that’s a huge price cut that may not be plausible (who really knows what it costs to make a machine?) but you’d start to come into the range of what equivalent quality separate tools (Table Saw, lathe, drill press, router table) might be.

I doubt Shopsmith is making a mint off of each sale of the Mark 7, but they certainly “seem” expensive from my perspective since the machine is fundamentally based on a decades-old design for which the tooling, fixtures, and design ought to be paid for.

From discussions on this forum, I get the impression that the Shopsmith factory is a small job-shop type of operation. If they indeed aren’t competing with higher rate manufacturing, it will be extremely difficult to get the price in line with what the market may bear. Years ago almost ALL stationary power tools were extremely expensive and rare in hobbyists’ hands, but today mostly only the high end stuff from Powermatic and the like are really out of the pedestrian’s reach. “Good” equipment can be had for substantially less than decades ago. The only way I can see costs coming down on low run production is to make big batches of machines and stock them in inventory or sell to distributors/retailers.

Entry into a mass retailer seems like a logical place to start, but the machinery sold at Lowes and Home Depot generally isn’t at the same level as the stuff you buy at a woodworking store. And certainly not at the level of a ‘smith. For Shopsmith to make it at one of these types of places they’d have to figure out how to present their machine as a Mercedes level product. Paint it black and chrome or something for eye appeal. Enclose the base with cabinets. Or make it mobile.

Market it to contractors as well. What better tool to have when building a house than a Shopsmith that can do just about everything while being powered off a fairly modest amount of juice at the end of an extension cord? Bigger wheels and wheel barrow type handles might do the trick. Onboard storage for the primary parts might be useful too to keep everything together. Or, make standard a toolbox to carry tablesaw blades, sanding disks, the drill chuck and bits, etc.

In-store demonstrations would almost certainly be a boon to sales, but the machine’s use might need to be geared more toward home improvement and less toward fine woodworking since I think the group of buyers would be much bigger. Find the guys who are remodeling a kitchen or finishing a basement and I think you can move product. Many might put the cost in their home equity loan. I guess you could offer financing as well.

I imagine most modern tool shoppers – especially the “gotta have the newest thing” guys – aren’t particularly interested in woodworking for the sake of woodworking. I think they might have a project goal in mind and are willing to buy whatever it is that they think will get them there faster than the neighbor. And then they will enjoy showing off the machine when they’re completed.

You might have to focus then on local lumber stores and places like Ace and True Value. It seems to me that a different demographic patronizes these stores than the big boxes.

Perhaps it will move users into the woodworking hobby after they’ve used it for more coarse tasks.

Once you’ve made the sale of the machine, heavily market the attachments and accessories. It seems logical to me to try and make most of the revenue stream on continued sales to repeat customers. Keep the website as-is and continue the specials on consumable parts.

I don’t know who the real target audience for the Shopsmith really has been. I think most serious woodworkers have little regard for the machine mostly because they haven’t used it. Personally, I have been pleasantly surprised. I don’t think converting many of them from their standalones is a possibility. Entry-level woodworkers might be sheepish to invest so much money without a hands-on demo. Perhaps the way to reach these guys is to skip demos at places like Woodcraft and instead attend Home and Garden Shows, builder showcases, etc.

Continuing to hand-build new machines is definitely an option, but I imagine the costs and uncertainty of tomorrow would have to be stressful for the company. Oddly, I think with an earnest reintroduction of the product and a revised marketing strategy that the Shopsmith mark 7 could be the Next Big Thing…even ignoring a long hertitage.

Now that I own a Shopsmith I really want to see them succeed and continue to stay in the market. True, I have no real intention right now to upgrade to a Mark 7, but I fully plan to keep buying my consumables from Shopsmith. I’ve found their equipment is hard to cost-justify compared to cheap imports, but I have yet to be disappointed with any of their wares.

Sorry for the long sermon – I type fast and tend to get carried away,
Steve

[dusty]

Wow. Stand aside, Farmer. The new guy, wh500special, is making a bid for your position as the Most Verbose Member.

When he says ..to be continued..he means it.

I think I'll print this out and get comfortable in an easy chair before I attempt to read it again.

[robinson46176]

Sorry for the long sermon – I type fast and tend to get carried away,
Steve

OK, now you guys can quit calling me "wordy"...


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[mrhart]

I think someone told him this was an essay...

Good reading though!

[dusty]

I think someone told him this was an essay...

Good reading though!

It always is an essay, isn't it?

But I thought there was a 500 word limit.

Oops. I was told in a PM a few days ago that I should try hard to stay "on subject" ...on a woodworking subject that is. Sorry, I goofed again but I am trying. Really. I am!

[mrhart]

I'm still a learner here...but I think there is a touch of A.D.D. here, which is completely acceptable.
Some more prone than others.
What waaas this thread about?

[robinson46176]

People think that I ramble as I write...
What they don't know is that I ramble as I live...

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