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A while back, in a previous post, I talked about the news that Shopsmith was in financial trouble. The news today confirms it. Robert Folkerth, the president was quoted as saying,

“…the company ‘significantly reduced’ its reliance on sales representatives who often travel to shows to sell Shopsmith’s tools and accessories.” 

Wait a minute. Did he say they cut their sales force? What that tells me is that they don’t see much hope for the Shopmith product that we’ve known and loved since the mid-70′s.  Has the competition for lower-priced standalone woodworking machinery pushed the Shopsmith out of the market? Sadly, I think it’s just a matter of time before Shopsmith goes the way of other woodworking machine manufacturers. Soon, the only place you’ll be able to read about them will be on the Old Woodworking Machines web site.

I attended a “press event” at Leigh Industries near beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia last week. They’re excited about some new products for this year, and I can see why. They are coming out with a new line of Leigh jigs and accessories. The new Super Jigs maintain the high quality that Leigh is known for. But they come in at a lower price point than previous models. They were able to redesign the jigs to lower the cost of production, providing great value in a top-notch product. I’ve seen the pre-production prototypes, and I think that the quality, capabilities, and pricing of these new jigs far surpass their competition.

Here are just a few of the things you can do with the Super Jigs:

• Variably Spaced Half-blind Dovetails
• Variably Spaced Through Dovetails
• Sliding Dovetails
• 5/16” and 5/8” Box Joints….that fit!
• Single Pass Half-blind dovetails – multiple sizes  

You won’t see the new Super Jigs on their web site just yet.  They don’t expect to start shipping them until mid-July. And the one you see here is shown with the optional $69 VRS vacuum attachment (available now). By the way, you’ll want to purchase the VRS — it’s available for ALL of Leigh’s jigs (even their original and older models). And it’s so practical for eliminating dust and chips. It’s amazing how it works. And the great thing is, it also provides a resting platform for your router.

There will be a 12″ ($199), 18″ ($259), and 24″ ($329) version of the Super Jig.  Street prices are expected to be lower. 

TRIVIA:  Do you know where the name “Leigh” comes from?  The founder of Leigh Industries, Ken Grisley, was born in “Leigh-on-Sea” in England.  Now you know.

It was a warm day last Sunday. An almost perfect day, really, after the winter we’ve had. And since my shop is in my garage, I didn’t hesitate to open the 16-ft. door to let in some sunshine and fresh air. I was standing at my bench using a coping saw to shape a piece of thin birch plywood for a project. The neighbor drives down the street and stops in front of my house. “Hey, Randy! I’ve got a question for you…” 

So I put down my tools and walk out to meet Mike. He proceeds to tell me that he just returned from his storage unit where he keeps his boat and other household items. He points to the back of his truck and asks if I have any use for that old scroll saw. “A friend gave that to me years ago but I don’t do any woodworking. It’s got a little rust on it but runs just fine.”  I take a look and it’s an old Craftsman model 103.20720 (made by King-Seeley) from the 1940′s, I’m guessing.

(You can find out more about this and other old tools at “Old Wood-Working Machines.”)

We unload the saw from the back of the truck and my son and I start cleaning it up. All we needed to do was take off some of the old grime and oil with some mineral spirits. I took the cast iron table off and went after it with some 80-grit sandpaper on a wood block, finishing up with 120-grit. A spritz of Boeshield T-9 will keep the top in good shape.

I stuck a blade in it and fired it up.  It ran as smooth as silk.

Now, about this time my wife walks out and inquires about my new acquisition. But being the learned scholar and astute observer she is, she says, “Don’t you already have one of those?” The quickest response I could come up with was, “Yeah…but this one didn’t cost me anything.  As a matter of fact, the other one didn’t cost me anything, either.”  The “other one” is an even older Craftsman “Companion”, also made by King-Seeley (model 103.0402) that my dad gave me many years ago.

I accused my wife of not understanding about guys and tools…especially ones that don’t cost anything (the tools, I mean).  But she didn’t get it.  She mumbled something about me being “Sanford” and went back in the house.  Oh well.

I have a healthy respect for power tools. Well…maybe it borderlines on fear. I still get a little nervous when I flip on my table saw or router.  I can’t even explain why that is. I’ve never had a serious accident with power tools, so my respect/fear must be working.

I ran across this column by Burt Prelutsky on Townhall.com. In it, he gives a rather humorous account of his fear of changing tires, heights, and “tools with moving parts.” He recalls:

“In the seventh grade, I was required to take woodshop at John Burroughs Junior High. In order to make a bookend, it was necessary to employ a band saw. This, in case your life has been one long strawberry festival and you’ve been spared being introduced to this Satanic device, is an electric blade around which you manipulate the piece of wood you’re sawing. In case you still don’t get the picture, your hands are in extremely close proximity to this totally malevolent moving blade.

“If you’re still wondering why I have this terrible dread of electrical tools, it’s probably because I neglected to mention that our instructor, Mr. Bailey, was nicknamed ‘Fingers Bailey,’ and it wasn’t because he had more digits than your average Homo sapien, but because, all told, he only had four, maybe four-and-a-half of them left.”

He goes on to talk about how he has learned to avoid his fears and the fact that he hasn’t touched a band saw in fifty years. 

That’s too bad.  What contribution might such a creative talent made to the world of woodworking?  One can only imagine…

About 25 years ago, when I was first getting out on my own, I saw a Shopsmith woodworking machine at a woodworking show. I was intrigued that one machine could do so much. And the guy demonstrating it seemed to be able to switch over from table saw to lathe to bandsaw to drill press in no time at all. Pretty impressive.

I liked the idea of a Shopsmith, but wondered about having a “do-all” machine in the shop. But in a period of time when there were limited outlets to buy stationary power tools (think “Sears”), it was one of few woodworking machines around.

Woodworking as a hobby in the last 25 years or so has matured when it comes to tools. There are retail woodworking stores where there once were none. And mail-order resources make almost any tool or supply available with a click of the mouse or just a phone call.

So I wasn’t too surprised when I read this story in the Dayton Daily News. Shopsmith is in trouble, financially. They’ve handed over day-to-day responsibilities to a consulting firm that specializes in financially-troubled companies. When asked about their strategy, they said that they need to increase the value of the company by increasing sales. What does that mean? Lower prices? More options? There wasn’t a clear answer.

If I had the opportunity to lay my hands on a used Shopsmith at a reasonable price, I’d probably grab it…and turn it into a monster lathe.

From the Consumer Product Safety Commission:

NEWS from CPSC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Office of Information and Public Affairs
Washington, DC 20207

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 6, 2007
Release #07-120
Firm’s Recall Hotline: (800) 525-2579
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908
 

One World Technologies Recalls Throat Plates Sold with Ryobi Router Tables Due to Laceration Hazard

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of product: Ryobi Router Table Throat Plates.

Units: About 100,000.

Manufacturer: One World Technologies Inc., of Anderson, S.C.

Hazard: The throat plates do not securely snap into the router’s table top bit opening. The throat plate can come loose during operation and be ejected from the table top, posing a laceration hazard to consumers. Read the rest of this article »

McFeely’s (“The Square Drive Screw Authority”) is having a contest with the prize being a brand new Freud router. All you have to do is submit a photo of your old, worn out router.  It’s amusing to see all the entries and it’s definitely worth a few minutes of your time. Someone even submitted a photo of one of Doug’s favorite routers. You can see it here. It’s the one submitted by B. Aviano.

My first router was a Sears Craftsman. Back then, where I grew up, the only place you could buy a router was from Sears. I didn’t know any better. It worked okay. Until the time I was building a stereo cabinet for my brother-in-law out of birch plywood. I was routing ¾”-wide dados across the side panels. As I was halfway across the panel, I noticed the pitch of the motor changed. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late. The bit had slipped out of the collet and routed clear through my panel!  At that point, I shut the lights out and went to bed. I couldn’t afford to buy new plywood, so I made a plug out of scrap and carefully fit it into place. To this day, you can hardly tell that there was a mistake.

Just remember — being a good woodworker isn’t just one who knows how to put something together. He’s also one that knows how to fix mistakes.

Tempered plate glass, adhesive-backed PSA sandpaper, precision honing guide for sharpening bevels at 20°, 25°, 30° and 35°. Looks like I’ve got everything I need to get started with some hand sharpening on my workbench, right? Well, sort of.

The truth is, I’ve just finished watching a demonstration of the new Work Sharp™ sharpening system. This innovative new product combines all of the best features of sandpaper sharpening with the quality, ease, and repeatability of a top-of-the-line slow-speed wet grind sharpening system. And for about $100 less.

Work Sharp uses an air-cooled, dry sharpening set up (featuring air flow portals and a series of heat sinks) to keep your cutting tools cool without the mess of a wet system. Its 1/5 hp motor turns a horizontal wheel at 580 rpm, but unlike conventional horizontal wheel grinding systems, where you grind from above, Work Sharp is unique in that you set your chisel flat on a platen below the cutting wheel and use a simple “plunge- pull” technique.

Another unique feature is a slotted, see-through wheel that replaces the tempered glass wheel and allows you to see the cutting edge when sharpening carving and lathe tools. It looks like a great new system and I’m looking forward to putting it to use soon myself. Check out the video on Work Sharp’s website for a demonstration.

A few editors from Woodsmith magazine had the good fortune to attend an all-day seminar presented by Phil Lowe. The event was sponsored by the Des Moines Woodworkers Association and held at the Woodsmith Store. (You can read Vince Ancona’s comments here.)

Here’s what Phil Huber, Associate Editor of Woodsmith had to say about Phil’s presentation:

“First, it was amazing just how much he did with just a small assortment of tools — quite the opposite of what you see pitched in catalogs and, unfortunately, in woodworking magazines. When he did the shaping of the (rough cut) legs with just a rasp, file, and card scraper, it was inspiring. The big lesson here is picking the right set of tools for the types of projects you build. After seeing him work, I think a small router plane would come in really handy!

“Another quality of Phil’s work that made an impression was his methodical and efficient working habits. He’s made a well-practiced routine of some basic steps. Applying those skills to a variety of projects saves time and a lot of head scratching. When I spend time in my shop, I’d like to put in some ‘practice time’ with my hand saw, chisels, and smoothing plane and build those basic skills. Besides, building that set of skills is part of what makes woodworking enjoyable to me.

“Along with that, Phil showed a level of confidence that I’d like to have in my woodworking. For example, when the table saw wasn’t cutting up to snuff, he just calmly crosscut a part at the band saw and squared it up with a plane in a short time. The same with making the dovetail sockets for the legs. No one-time-use router jig, just nuts and bolts saw and chisel work. (The photo shows a small joinery saw made by Wenzloff and Sons.)  I spend too much time worrying about getting something perfect or not trying a technique because I’m not sure how it will turn out. The fact is, I just need to do it.”

A few editors from Woodsmith magazine had the good fortune to attend an all-day seminar presented by Phil Lowe. The event was sponsored by the Des Moines Woodworkers Association and held at the Woodsmith Store. Here’s what Vince Ancona, Managing Editor of Woodsmith had to say about Phil’s presentation:

“I don’t know if I can sum it up in a couple of paragraphs… most of what I gleaned were random tidbits of information. In general, Phil seems like a very knowledgeable, down-to-earth woodworker. He impressed me as a no-nonsense New England Yankee, who approaches every task at hand in a practical and methodical way. I was as impressed with the way he worked as much as the end result of his efforts.

“I found the slide show to be very inspiring, particularly the photos of projects made by his students. It made me realize that even a seemingly intricate and complex piece of furniture is not so difficult if you just break it down into a series of smaller steps. It also made me realize that there is really no substitute to actually doing something. You can read and watch and listen all you want, but you have to actually get some hands-on practice if you want to master a skill. Phil made a comment about learning how to do something. He used carving rosettes as an example. He said that if you carve one rosette, you will prove to yourself how it is done, and that it can be done. But if you carve 10 rosettes, you will start to get good at it and learn how to do it better and faster.

“I was impressed by how Phil synthesized the use of power tools and hand tools in a way that made complete sense and yielded top-notch results in his work. Again, a lot of this had to do with his no-nonsense approach. He seemed to pick the tool that would give him the best results in the quickest amount of time. Since he does this for a living, I imagine time is money for him, and he isn’t about to waste valuable time setting up a jig or power tool when a hand tool can do the job faster. Conversely, if he has a lot of repetitious work to do, he will invest the time to make a jig for a power tool.”