Shopsmith rebirth?

[Danl]

 

 

[kmealy]

beat  me to it by a minute

[kmealy]

I was *shocked* that a new Mark V is running $5200+ (plus tax).   Especially since you can get a perfectly working used one with an accessory or two for less than 10% of that.

[Grandpadave52]

Interesting. Thanks Dan.

[Gene Howe]

14 hours ago, kmealy said:

I was *shocked* that a new Mark V is running $5200+ (plus tax).   Especially since you can get a perfectly working used one with an accessory or two for less than 10% of that.

That's probably the electronic version. 

[John Morris]

All I can say is I hope and pray they make it. There is a good guy at the helm right now, and he's investing and getting the brand name out there, he's heavy on social media, making videos, going to trade shows, and much more.

He's also making some tough choices, he did away with their surface planer because it was a profit eating machine for them. He's also going to start farming out more of the castings to American steel mills, where the parts can be made more efficiently. He's doing all the right things.

You go Shopsmith! Made in the USA!

 

[kmealy]

5 hours ago, John Morris said:

He's also going to start farming out more of the castings to American steel mills, where the parts can be made more efficiently. He's doing all the right things.

You go Shopsmith! Made in the USA!

 

I've had several factory tours back 20+ years ago.   It was my impressions that the factory was merely the fitting and assembly.  They had all their parts and castings made externally and only did the final fitting by  grinding some edges and then assembled the parts.  On the  last visit the main assembly line was about 25-30 feet long and ran in the mornings.  Then after lunch the crews split up into the SPT (special purpose tools) assembly areas, most of which where U-shaped benches with a fixture in the middle and were about 15 ft square.  Many of the parts, except maybe the head castings, were "just in time."
 

It sort of rearranged my thoughts on how things were made.  Though while in high school GM opened a new plant near where I lived and I got a tour of there and while bigger, a lot of the component parts came in from outside.  Similarly, I saw the F-150 truck plant and the assembly line was much shorter than I thought.  Robots put the windows in and two guys grabbed a tailgate and put it one.  I  wondered  what happens when a white tailgate comes down and the truck there is red.

[Grandpadave52]

32 minutes ago, kmealy said:

I  wondered  what happens when a white tailgate comes down and the truck there is red.

Somebody in procurement, order scheduling and line sequencing screwed up or there was a white truck with a red tailgate somewhere on the line. Assuming such a obvious mismatch, lights and alarms would be triggered. Experienced assemblers are pretty good at understanding "build sheets" to catch discrepancies based on the customer order. BTDT.

Edited July 4, 2024 by Grandpadave52