ShopSmith’s New CEO Has Answered Your Questions!

Ajouté : 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]As promised, here we are at Shopsmith headquarters. I'm Andrew, CEO of Shopsmith, and I'm here with Jim McCann, director of engineering, Shopsmith USA.

[00:00:11]And we want to thank everybody who asked all of the questions. We had pages and pages of questions. So, some of them we combined into sort of a category because it was way more than we expected in terms of questions for us to answer.

[00:00:25]Before we get started, let's pretend it's the Shopsmith News and I'm going to read the news copy for you today. So, number one, people were asking when are you guys going to be back in full production. We are back in what I would call full production with the exception of some of the tiny pieces parts or accessories that have to come from overseas. And we'll talk a little bit about what's going on with our supply chain. But we can, as of today, we're making every day we're making marks and we're making head stocks. We're also making a lot of the kit and conversion things and probably over the next week or so, I would say by June 1st, you'll be able to place an order for either and probably get it shipped within a day or two. They're coming along and we're doing really well. It took a lot of time to bring back a lot of equipment that had sat idle since last year and some of the equipment actually sat idle long before the company had shut down. So, you can just imagine all the tooling and things that go on and manufactured. What was holding us back?

[00:01:23]One thing, this guy here, which is the tie bar that goes, it's basically what goes underneath the table to support and and and manipulate the table. We the machine that processes this, does I believe it's 16 different different things. How many? It's probably 23 different I'm sorry, 23 different things happen to this casting when it comes back. This surface gets leveled. This there's boring that has to happen.

[00:01:45]There's drill holes. It can't be done except with the specialized machine what we have. And that machine is done. As of this week, that machine is up and here's the proof. Here's sort of finished parts of that. This was the last piece. I was joking around with someone so funny, but you know when when you go to the car dealer and he says to you, you know what, $25,000, pay me now. We're going to drop the car in your driveway, but unfortunately the gas pedal is not going to be there for 3 months. How many people are closing that deal? Well, that was our problem. One part that was holding us from being able to produce the entire mark package. So, now we're back on track. The machine's running great. We've overrun these on purpose so we can't run out and we should probably have all of the committed back orders from the previous shops we've been out.

[00:02:30]I would say no later than the end of the month, probably much sooner. I like to uh underpromise and produce. So that's one piece. Some of the accessories that the pieces come from overseas are delayed. you know, we took over a company and there there were a lot of things that, you know, let's let's face it, six-month lead times, minimum order quantities that would enough product that would last for for four years and reactivating with clients that there are vendors that that were not happy with the previous Shopsmith. We've mended those relationships and we're back in business and we're getting those things.

[00:03:04]So, with that happening, they'll be trickling in the website, too. A lot of the questions that came were when is this going to be available? when's that going to be available of stuff that we sell? By the second half of this year, we should have everything and we should be in front of all of those minimum order quantities and we should be good.

[00:03:19]But, you know, right now I if you watch the news every day, things are a little turbulent overseas. So, there's issues with shipping lines. Fortunately, nothing of the import comes through the straits of loose, but there's still a lot of a lot of issues of of just getting getting on ships and getting getting shipped in a good market. We are in front of it. The next is the website.

[00:03:38]So the website that that was in place was with a technology that invokes profanity around the office on a daily basis, but we keep that to ourselves. If you can understand, we have a main software package that run the business on that's called an ERP. We have a website. The two of them are supposed to talk through this intermediary and I know for those of you that are web guys, I'm I'm speaking to you, but everybody else understand those things aren't communicated. So people would place an order because miscommunication said we had it and then we'd have to cancel the order. There was a lot of things that was going on. There is a new website under development. We're we're down to the the final model is in place and now we're doing testing, testing, and more testing. That website should be up. Not going to promise a date, but probably within the next month. And all of those issues are going to go away. The biggest issue we had was freight. The freight costs have gone through the ceiling.

[00:04:32]It's completely unsustainable for a business to be able to offer free trade using EPS, FedEx, and all the other players. And when we reactivated it, the interface with that was giving us the wrong rates. It was giving us problems.

[00:04:46]As of this week, we think that we've got that resolved. So, guess what? If you order something that costs 10 bucks and it's this big, the freight rate is going to be $45, not 30, $40 as the complaints that come in. We finally have it straightened out for the most part. If when you're placing something in the cart, you get a ridiculous rate grade, send me a screenshot, customer [email protected] of the cart and we will recalculate that rate to make sure that you're you've been paying the right amount. There were a few customers overpaid. Those are being taken care of. We're, you know, moving for that. So, that's a real plus.

[00:05:19]Lastly, before we get into the questions, you might have seen Scott Markwood on my growth rings, one of our great YouTubers out there, did a video about a new product that we're launching called Shopslick. I'm just going to give you the quick rundown. It it seems people have asked me why what do I care about flash arrest? I have a little room tape. What shops slick is and here's there's a little piece of it here that we were experimenting with. It is a pressure sensitive ultra molecular plastic. I have here applied it to one of our aluminum tables. And of course, you can't feel things through the screen, but if if you were able to feel here where I cut a piece of the back, you can feel the rough table surface.

[00:05:56]Here, it's as slick as glass. So, for a Shopsmith owner, what you're doing is you're removing almost 99 whatever that percentage is of the surface friction so that the product slides right through this the when you're cutting. It's great on the table saw, the joiner. If you have cast iron tools and of course all of the new accessories that we're making for Shopsmith, then there's going to be a lot of things coming out this year.

[00:06:21]They're they're all designed for the mass woodworking space, not just our ecosystem. So, if you're a guy that's got like an old cabinet saw with a cast iron top and you put that on your saw, you're never going to have to wax again because it has hydrophobic, which means it doesn't allow water to to pass it. It repels water. It covers the surface of the table saw. No friction and it will will not flash rust in the winter time anymore on that surface. That same material is great for your joiner bed.

[00:06:48]It's a bunch. We're going to do the whole commercial here. There'll be a video coming out. It also you can actually write on a Sharpie and it won't stick. There are some glues that'll leave a little bit of stain behind. But when we're using like Tyon 3 and certain CA glues, you could glue on the table.

[00:07:01]It pop off. Experiment with the glues that you use before you you trust that that's the case. After all, the table saw most people shop the biggest table.

[00:07:09]It gives you an opportunity to move else not be so concerned about the new trash in your table. So, anyhow, that was awful, wasn't it?

[00:07:18]I'm tired already. Okay, we're done.

[00:07:20]Let's get to some questions. What we did, and and again, as I was saying, there's I think there's 12 pages of questions here. We consolidated them down so that we can kind of go back and forth by category. Like, for example, one person wanted to know what we're bringing the planer back. 11 don't bring in the scroll saw back you know that that kind of thing we consolidated into I guess Jim could could probably be the best one to answer this about why we don't bring the planer back >> well the planer itself is really made four decades ago there was talking back then but now we've been surpassed by other companies we also have a very low margin or I mean low production so we have to buy two three five years worth of product at a time that becomes very expensive of any pulling cost. We can't dedicate a a specific person to that line to keep that line rolling. That becomes very expensive. Really, all those things put together, the planer has priced itself out of the market is that's where you put it.

[00:08:22]>> Yeah, >> we still can service many of the parts of the planer, the feed rollers, the knives, those are common price parts and we still have those available for anybody. And and the reality is and I'm going to talk about the planer and and just in terms of running a business and it'll make more sense with the other items that we also would wouldn't bring back. You know, at the end of the day that we have products that that people have asked to bring back. The parts require us to make, you know, 100 200 parts or that we would have to make new tooling because it's something that hadn't been made for so many years. I I use the the the analogy of the $500 part that should cost $10. If you look at what it cost us to make aluminum casting, there could be anywhere from 10 to $100,000 to make the mold and we're going to make 10 parts in it. Just the mold divided out. Then there's a setup fee and all the other pieces. So there's things that we've made in the past that we can't bring forward. One of the tools that came up which I think probably six different people asked about was the scroll saw. Well, this is another sort of business decision that has to be made. If you look at market statistics on the sale of scroll saws, the peak of scroll saw sales was the 1950s and60s, they continued to sell but continued to diminish. So to go back and retool and come out with the greatest scroll saw in the world would make no sense to build into a declining market. If we saw a trend that was changing or other application like one of the things that we've looked at people who do need glass will cut glass. There is a market for a scroll saw that can cut glass for getting into into places. If we're able to figure out a way to be price competitive to go into the market with that, the woodworkers, glass workers, and compete against the saws that exist, the ring saws in the glass space, we might consider it. But right now, our focus is getting our core competency back to market, which is the greatest multi multi-use tool in the market. And that's why we're not doing that. Now, we will be studying certain ones that we still have tooling for to maybe do what I I talked about earlier as a onetime tool. So, like for example, the rage duplicator, it's very possible that we might do a one run. What we would do is put out a reservation page. Everybody who wants one can reserve it. We're not going to take anybody's money to reserve it or maybe a $10 deposit just to say I'm interested. And then from that process, if we get enough people interested that we can make a price that we don't lose money doing it, we might do it. We're talking about that with the speed reducer. What was the other talking about the speed reducer? The squirrel saw.

[00:11:02]>> Yeah, the scroll saw probably not. But yeah, I hope that helps. I mean, I've seen, you know, people have asked question, well, why don't you produce parts for the 10 er? I need a casting.

[00:11:13]Well, first of all, I don't have the tooling. So, to make that one part, which I I suppose I could do if somebody wants to pay $10,000 for a part, that would probably be the minimum cost to do it. I know I'm kind of being facitious there, but it's it's just not viable uh economically. In the same way, one of the questions that came in was, why don't we publish all of the old drawings so that people could make their own parts? And you know, at at the end of the day, we're talking tens of thousands of dollars to have them all scanned, digitized, and otherwise to put out a part that probably is out of date, not as safe as new parts. And and the liability of I put a plan out there and somebody makes one and they get hurt and then the next thing you know, we're being sued for something that was technology from 1947. It just it doesn't make sense. Anyhow, so let's move on to some of these questions. And I'm gonna You know what? I'm going to touch one more delicate one up front. I've been asked if we're offering discounts to teachers, if we're offering discounts to disabled, if we're offering discounts to active duty veterans, retired. The list of all of these special groups that are all really important people is enticing, but at the end of the day, there's two problems with it. one, we right price the product so that we're economically good to all customers. If we had to offer discounts to all of those special groups, in reality, we would have to raise the price everybody else to come in and cost those discounts. It's just the other side of it is do do we really want to get in the role of policing somebody proving that they're are you actually a teacher? Are you a stolen valer? All that kind of stuff that it's it's not what we're here to do. So what our commitment to the market is to always offer the best price that we possibly can to everybody and you know we we do have a very strong charitable concept. What we as a company have been donating to and will continue to support is getting shop class back in school for young men, women and everyone to become woodworkers to to have a skill. We know the benefit to the human to be able to create with their hands and take pride in what they do and and gain those skills. But that's really where our corporate dollars are going to go in terms of charity. At the end of the day, we can't help everybody. So, we have to make a choice there. So >> yeah, without um wood shop in junior high school, high school, without my dad showing me even before that, I wouldn't be making the products that I I make make today. It is very important part of my young life instead shot glass woodworking especially and and the other corresponding industrial arts. It it is such a source of pride to I I I tell people this all the time. You know that you're a you're a woodworker.

[00:14:06]you know that you're a glass of heart.

[00:14:07]You know any of these things when somebody comes in your house and they look at something that you've created.

[00:14:12]Okay. Well, my god, where where did you get that from? And you go, I made it.

[00:14:16]That's the moment. There's nothing better.

[00:14:18]>> Yeah. The pride in in people think in your your handcraft store.

[00:14:24]>> It's better than that.

[00:14:26]>> Yeah. So, Jim, one of the one of the questions that came up was the status on our dust collector systems and the upgrades. Where are we with those? I have begun training. I've got the training started. We had some problems with some of the tooling. I had to retail rebuild that first back about a week, but be back into training dust collectors probably Wednesday of this week and probably be sending out dust collector upgrades by the end of the week. What that means is we have back orders on dust collector upgrades. They will be available for sale. Also to get to be clear, we're no longer producing to order. We're producing to inventory so that we can cover. So if I have five orders for dust collector upgrade kits, we're going to make twice that. We're going to keep them on the shelf. We're going to keep an inventory level so that when people place their orders, they can get that item within the two days as promised. Speaking of that though, we had set up and we had made a promise when we started. Now we're not reneging on the promise, but we have to adapt.

[00:15:30]What was happening? We we weren't sure because the website ghosting and doing crazy things that were going on. We didn't want to charge anybody's credit card unless we were absolutely certain that it was in stock and we could ship it within those two days. As of last month based on new orders from the time that an order is placed until it ships 97% I think it is were able to be shipped within the seven days like 90 I think it was 95% within the two weeks promised. And now that we've made some upgrades and changes to the existing website as a patch, we're we think we'll be at 99. So now we we're still on the two-day commitment. If you place an order, it's available on the website. If there's a goof, it's going to be cancelled. We do we're going to charge the card when when the order is in. If you can't ship it within the time, we're refunding the money. So it's nothing nothing to worry about. It's just the credit card company allows us to put a hold for a certain number of days. And if somehow something happens, we don't ship within those days, they cancel the hold and then we have to go back to you and and get it. It's it's whole effect.

[00:16:30]So, just to to be clear. Anyhow, back to question. Someone had asked actually someone six, seven people asked why we don't take in trades to upgrade. There's several pieces will kind of hope to answer this. For us, we look at it as why would somebody want to spend like whatever that freight is to send us a 75 pound item in for us to have to repaint to do all the work to it where it's less expensive for us to get a brand new shell and make a new head. So, we now have the renewal program. If you're looking to upgrade from a conventional to a power pro, what we would suggest you do, and it's better for the shops community in general, anyhow, give the head away on on Facebook Marketplace or sell it for $50, $100 to someone who might want it. Let them know that we have the renewal broker if they want to send in a conventional. We'll make it new and give give the warranty. And we'll talk a little bit about those renewals coming up here today. It would just be a waste of freight and and very expensive for us to bring back something that that we can't utilize. they would end up going to the scrapyard and you guys all have recycled places you do if you just want to get rid of it. But uh you know with our new renewal program, we can take ahead all the way back to the 1950s models and and renovate it with modern and make it a new conventional or if you've got a Power Pro and you want to upgrade it to the Power Pro 2 and actually regain a factory warranty. I don't know of any other company in the world that would take a product that they made in the 1950s, do a repair and give give that type of warranty going forward. So, I don't have anything else on why we don't do the >> Well, the last thing is we don't sell niche products.

[00:18:08]>> Yeah.

[00:18:08]>> Um we sell all new reconditioned um products, reconditioned headstocks. The only thing we're returning to you, the customer, is the outside casting, the belt cover on the end, and the motor cam underneath. So, that's all been cleaned up and put back together. Everything inside is new. The next sort of piece is a misunderstanding about what the virtual program is. So, let's kind of clarify what that in the previous world, somebody's got a problem with their machine. They're they're not able to diagnose it on their own. we try to help diagnose and they they they just what parts they mechanic. So a customer would take that box and ship it to us.

[00:18:52]We would receive it usually broken more because of the packaging. And when it would arrive broken more, then we're we're talking about freight damage and having to do. So that was part of it.

[00:19:01]Then the machine arrives and if it arrived okay, we put it on the bench. We spend an hour plus in the shop diagnosing, writing up a report, sending it to the customer. customer decides either they're going to fix all of it or part of it and then we had to ship it back and you know get the approval. So we're talking days we were storing open machines for weeks waiting for approvals you know and it got very expensive to do it. Well we went through statistically looked at all of the repairs and realized that this was costing more for many people than if we just touched everything and and got it straight. So we said well how do we fix the freight damage issue? How do we make sure that when we do a repair, everything's repaired? We've had situations we ship it back and and three months later another part of the machine goes bad and we're back another site. So, we now have a custom molded foam that goes into a box. If you need your your headstock repaired and you don't want to do it yourself, by the way, we still sell the parts. You can do it yourself. We have kits. We have customer service over the phone. We're not saying you don't repair. We we do, but we do a complete job. So, you get the box, you get the foam, it comes to us. We get the order from you. I'm sorry. We send you the box with the foam and the paper tubes that go into the holes for the weight. You follow the instructions. It's super easy. You put box foam one, foam two, load it. It's all available for you to do. Then seal the box, put the mailing label, and it comes back to us. When it arrives, it's in this special foam. They separate. Remember these things, the the power weigh like 70 pounds. So, that guy gets back here. We don't have to diagnose it. We don't have to do any kind of paperwork. We immediately open it up, replace everything that needs to be replaced, test it, seal it, we put it back in the same box with the same foam, push it like a baby in a in a cradle >> in a cradle, and it shows up at your door with a one-year warranty. And and the actual cost is in many cases less than what people were paying for the same service that involved all of the diagnostics and everything else. That's what that program's about. Um, it also should be able to help you if you're trying to sell your old Shopsmith to buy a new one. If you're one of those guys that's got three or four of them and you want to when you sell it to somebody, let them know the factory still supports this. If you have any issues with it, reach out on the website and you can get it renewed and get a warranty on it. It increases the value of the sale. I I think the other thing that it does for us from a branding perspective is it tells that Shopsmith story. We're an Americanmade product. Next year it will be 80 years since the first Model Ts came off the floor and we're still supporting all the way back to the next generation. If someone has a question about the quality of Shopsmith and our voracious advocacy cut all of you, this is this is ideal. All right, let's move on here. I'm ask if you're in the Dayton area and you want to bring it to us, make an appointment and we discount the freight back out of it, you can leave it here and then come back and pick it up.

[00:22:06]Uh so if if you're able to drop it off and pick it up, there's there's a savings on on that, but we're still not in a position where you bring it in person. We're not set up to do that anymore. We can help you renew in the house. And then the next is regional repair shops. We get asked about it all the time. There there's still a couple out there. We're building a program that probably won't launch until the second half maybe the third fourth quarter of this year to actually entice people to want to be uh shopsmith repair shops.

[00:22:39]We're we're in the process. It's still it's not it's not going to be a franchise thing. We're not the fees.

[00:22:45]What we're looking for is folks who can do it to our standards and our quality and support the community. It doesn't do us any good to have a repair shop out there where the guy's toolbox is a hammer and a and a chisel. We want people who really know how to how to work on our equipment and and satisfy the customer. We'll bring those people in here to train them specifically on the different types of head stocks and the different types of repairs and bolts. So they get hands-on factory training from the people like myself and SAL that have been taking apart headstocks, putting them back together, making them great again in their whole lives. So we'll the people that are in these certified repair centers will have firsthand training from the factory. So, another another one. I know we're kind of jumping around with these subjects, but several people were asking us when we're going to print our next paper catalog, and the answer is we're not.

[00:23:42]The last time Shopsmith sent out a catalog. The cost to do that was, I think it was 25 or $30,000. In today's market, it's probably closer to 40 $45,000 to put a catalog in the hand of every one of our people on our mailing list. in the digital age. Unfortunately, the few that still want a paper catalog, I just don't see it as as a good business decision for us to do that. Um, even sending out a circular of a couple of pages. Uh, we do have a technology that that we create like a virtual catalog at some point will probably work towards everything we're doing is about getting production running, being able to fulfill orders and get our marketing team up and running. Several people asked about there was a model that that never came to market a year ago called the X6000 which was uh sort of a reinvention.

[00:24:31]If everything goes the way and this isn't if this isn't a promise we will be looking at a completely new MAR sometime in the next two years and with it would have a different headstock capabilities.

[00:24:45]It would have an ability to raise and lower tables. We even have a concept if the law requires us to go to a technology similar to what saw stop does for the saw, we have a concept that would allow us to do exactly what they're doing without destroying their blade. Uh the cost of development is so high that until we get everything else going sort of with the back shelves.

[00:25:09]>> Well, and the X6000 created back in the nettle in the late 1980s is really an obsolete machine. The headstock that we have today has greater speed range and more horsepower and is better than the X6000 head stop. The table system we have today with the the carriage and table and Tyler the whole table system dust collection and all was part of that X6000 project and you already have the only thing that's really left for from the X6000 that you don't already have is the base that can adjust for height differences. So, and that wants to do in the future combined with that new headstock, we'll we'll come up with something that's even uh better than you can imagine.

[00:25:57]>> Yeah, there's there's some ideas in terms of finding ways to make the the shops even more stable or turning things that are on the on the lathe differently. We're looking at a lot of technology to bring into the maid space so that a shopsmith would stand up against the top waves in, you know, in the professional space so that everybody could have the safest and and strongest laid program possible. There's a lot of things that that are in development.

[00:26:24]There is a great idea out there that we can't do. There was a thing called the good neighbor program that I I I signed up on. Everybody was talking about it.

[00:26:32]I've got a lot of requests for it. I'm going to I'm going to give you the paranoid businessman answer to the question. So imagine that we bring by the way for those who don't know what good neighbor was. It was a group of folks who volunteered that if somebody in their neighborhood got a shot they needed a friend to come by and teach them how to use it. What all you can imagine all different things. There would be this this master list that you can find. There's two sides to Billy the serial killer just went on the list and asked you to come to his house uh so that he can turn you on the lady. that could happen. I put the list out there.

[00:27:04]Guess guess what they're coming.

[00:27:07]So, you know, I'm I'm giving you I'm giving you the worst case scenario, but I checked it out with our insurance company, checked it out with our attorney, and they were, "Don't you dare." So, if within the volunteer community of Shopsmith, a a movement, a Facebook page sponsored by our our advocates folks out there, we would be thrilled if volunteers decided to put that together. In the current, let's just of our market, as much as I would love to do it, the answer's a big fat.

[00:27:38]I just I just can't. I don't know if if you want to add to that, but >> there's also a concern that you guys have known ways of doing something.

[00:27:48]Those ways have been developed through experiences that you've had over sometimes a lifetime and you go to show a new woodworker how to do the same thing, he may not follow your directions, may not understand, may not comprehend everything and do something wrong and get hurt. So that's the other side of the coin that that the instructions well intended can sometimes back and >> it can be something as simple as you know getting fat at somebody else's house and how do you deal with that or I mean there's so many scenarios. One of the things that my my insurance guy said to me I thought it was kind of funny was what if they get bit by a dog in the front yard and I went yeah what if what if >> Yeah. So if if there's folks out there who want to organize this and do it on their own, I I I don't endorse it, but I like the idea and I unfortunately we can't we can't really play a play a role in that. There were some questions about innovation. I'll let Jim respond to this with where we are between what was the Power Pro one and the two and why how the upgrade from one to two is necessary and when and also some of the improvements there were address one to power pro two upgrade was a simple upgrade where we just had changed a few parts out. Power Pro tune control the control panel touchscreen was larger and so the shaft that moves the grill in and out had to be longer. We added fusing for surge protection the breaker for for over current. So we did some things to protect the power supply. That was that was all well and good. And then this past fall, the components in the and the electronics in both the power supply and the control panel have changed and they no longer support the old programs if even one and cannot be made to support those old programs. So right now, if you need the PowerPro one to Power Pro Gen 2 upgrade to touchscreen, you're going to have to install the new power supply. We've had to increase the cost of that upgrade slightly because of that increase. It was unavoidable because of the technology and we're changing the technology and the components that go in that that power supply. The programming on both power supply and control panel have to work together of course and so the old power supply won't work with the new control panel. new touchscreen.

[00:30:27]>> That's a lot.

[00:30:29]>> But the new the new Power Pro 2s are almost all of I should say almost all the firmware issues that happened in the past have been resolved. All all the new ones that go out, we flash with the new program and they're working great. When we get to the next generation of Mark, if you even call it the Mark, uh there may be some major changes going forward.

[00:30:47]They give more and more functionality, different screen. It's way off in the future. I'm going to hit a couple of quick ones. People are asking is it some type of uh possible underneath small part dust 3 storage? And the answer is yes. There there are plans that have been around for a while that we're digging out. We're looking at possibly making something in the next year to replace that that board that looks something that we seal up and allow you to get closer to the tool. We have some things in the work to that. Someone had asked in shipping if we would add specialty shipping things onto our pallet so you could tell us the pallet was tilted. I guess this one one person had a pallet that had been dumped outside and nobody told them and had had issues. Uh it's so rare. We I I went back to look at freight damage on on pallet deliveries that weren't caught at delivery time and it's almost zero. So to spend the kind of money that we need to do that when we're now using uh specific carriers that we have trust in.

[00:31:49]It just doesn't make sense.

[00:31:50]>> Well, the other thing that we found out here just a month or so ago was the strap that we used around the mark box stretches.

[00:32:00]>> And so we're changing we have changed that strap to one that doesn't stretch.

[00:32:05]We're working on a new damping system so that it it stays on the pallet. Now, that's not going to keep the shipper from knocking the whole thing over, but we saw pictures of one of these marks that the banding had stretched out and and it was completely healthy. I that used to be my business. I was the strapping industry for years. Just a quick nerdy response. They've been using polyropylene strapping, which has high elongation, so it'll it'll stretch and it'll become bender. We're switching to polyester D-strapping which has much better properties for what we're doing.

[00:32:45]And we're also instead of using metal seals, we're we're looking for a tool right now that will friction seal. It could just even better better. The image he's talking about, we got a photo back.

[00:32:55]The customer didn't complain. I did. I saw the photo because every time we make a delivery now, the freight has a photo.

[00:33:01]you can visually see it's been delivered and it just shifted a little bit on the pallet because the strap was too loose.

[00:33:08]So, we've got that we've got that under control. How's that sound?

[00:33:14]>> People are asking can can visitors tour the factory. The answer is yes, but every week now we have one or two people just sort of showing up and we're in meetings and we're planning and we're doing things and we kind of have to stop and and you know we're happy to see this customer and you'd love to to show them and update. If you want to tour, send an email to the customer service department. Let's schedule a time so that when you are greeted it isn't by surprise, it's it's welcome. We, you know, if it becomes a thing where we get too many people doing it, we may have to do some sort of scheduling to make that make that happen. We we welcome people to come check out what we're doing and see what we're doing. If you do come to the factory, though, I can't give you a tour if you don't have glasses, a protective glass, a new pair. You got to have closed toed shoes, no shorts, no loose jewelry, no loose sleeves, and and you have to be was it clean and sober and haven't been convicted of more than one felony? I don't know.

[00:34:18]>> But, uh, you know, it's we we we welcome it, but understand that our day isn't set up waiting for a tour. So, sometimes >> plan for it.

[00:34:27]>> Yeah, we we would prefer to plan for it.

[00:34:30]Canada and the UK. So, we're in the final stages of the distributor in Canada. We're talking about being able to ship them everything maybe twice a month, maybe monthly, and then they can distribute. If you're from Canada before we get it in place, we get four or five a week. Last week, I believe we had nine requests from Canada. If you put everything in a cart, take a screenshot, and send it to us through customer service.com, we will calculate the freight and send you a cart that you'd be able to approve and get shipped to Canada. Once the Canadian distributor is up and running, we're not going to do that anymore, we're going to allow the sales through their location to where they will create the carts and and provide the cost. It will save you on freight. Um, and it won't change your retail price on the product. The UK, there's a gentleman over there who's who has some inventory.

[00:35:24]He's getting back in business. We're talking to a couple of other people that he may help to get into business. It's still going to be a little bit of time, but I would say if I had to guess, by early next year, we'll have inventory in the UK that will be available to those throughout Europe. Other places, uh, we get we've gotten requests. So, we've got one from somewhere in the Middle East, one from the Philippines, Australia, Australia. We we have the ability to ship anywhere in the world. We just can't put it in our cart and have you order online. Again, customer service at shopsmith.com. send us what you're looking for and let's see what we can do to help you. Uh the only thing we can't promise is factory service.

[00:36:05]I would think sending a headstock in for renewal would cost you twice as much as you buy with all the freight customs and everything else involved.

[00:36:13]>> Well, and and then there's been questions about the 240 volt electricity in there. Yeah. 50 cycles instead of 60 there 120 versus 240 within PowerPro head. the motor and electronics and the power pro doesn't care. All you have to do is change the plug. So that's the perfect international machine. Yeah, it's literally cut the plug and learn what properly and code please and and uh you'll be able to use it on any when you go to the 220 even if you're here in the states uh and you want to go to 220 and you're traveling to 220 but it does increase the hor 2% >> or 2% two horsepower two horsepower.

[00:37:00]So video. So here's here's one of the things you know going back to the early days of shops. How did people find out about? They go back to the days when the 80s and the 70s and whatever family goes to the wife wants to do shopping. The guy didn't want to. And they hear a noise in the distance. What is that?

[00:37:17]Sounds like wood. And they would go and watch.

[00:37:20]>> Yeah. Do I smell maple? Do I smell? You know, and they would the gentleman would go and he would watch because back in those days would work was a male focused for the most part. By the way, the fast short segment of what we're working today, females, but so the guy would go and watch the the thing. He would spend whatever the the shop cost at that time and then yell at his his spouse for spend $20 on his shoes and the shopsman could show up at home and he would figure it out and learn how to use it, get some help. Well, we want to bring back those days because that's when shopsmith sold the most. So, we're in the process of building a fully interactive TV studio. And what that means is that if somebody's interested in a shopsmith, they will make a reservation. They'll get a onetoone interview. What does that mean? You go onto a Zoom meeting team or whatever it is that we're going to be using and it's you and a Shopsmith sales professional in front of the machine. You filled out a form. We know a little bit about you.

[00:38:17]Are you an advanced woodworker? you never even pick up a hammer. Well, we're going to demo that machine as if you're our friend because you are. And the way that it was done back in the days of the brick and mortar, you'll be we can hit buttons, switch the directions of the cameras. If we if we're touching the touchcreen, you'll be able to see the touchcreen in operation. We're going to be filming all of that while we're doing the demo for the customer to make that sit. Obviously, you do anything you want to sell that person to shop to get them to what what makes the most sense to them. Then they'll make the purchase and the shops machine's going to ship. It's going to arrive with that polyester strap so it doesn't it doesn't get damaged. When it arrives, you know exactly what's going to happen. That consumer is going to go, "Well, crap. I watched that guy do seven tools. I don't remember how to do any of it." Well, guess what? We have the interactive studio. So, with that sale will come an additional coaching session as part of the purchase price. So they'll pop back on same salesperson or someone technical to answer all those questions and demo it person actually gets an orientation and and those sessions can can continue.

[00:39:23]They may be a like a subscription service so they can get lessons and changes that same TV studio. Now that we've got satisfied customers we're going back to the most requested thing on here which is being able to take classes through shopsmith online. So we'll have workongs. None of them have been designed yet. We'll probably look at what's the second half of the year at the four. Maybe we'll pick a dining room table. Maybe we'll pick a nightstand and Jim and I or Jim and someone else. Each week we'll do a step on camera. When you sign up for it, you'll get electronic drawing so that you can make it yourself and it'll be a workalong so you can do the work. The next week we'll do the next step and we'll teach that. By the way, all of these sessions get recorded for what's really going to be the greatest thing that we're coming up with, which is our knowledgebased app.

[00:40:11]So sometime in 2027, probably the second half of the year, we will have a Shopsmith app where you as an owner will have a password. You go behind that that wall and you'll say, "Gosh, I don't remember how to drill a 3-inch hole and whatever." Every one of those is going to be cut up, diced, and indexable. and on a tablet or a computer, you'd be able to watch five or six videos to show you what it is that you wanted to learn.

[00:40:35]We'll include in that app probably a war calculator and a bunch of other things that every woodworker needs, but we're talking a year plus out. We're already in a planning savings for it. So, there's a lot of technology that's coming because at the end of the day, what good is a shopsmith if you don't know how to use it and you're not improving your skills? We're not learning new things. So all of that is is going forward.

[00:40:57]>> To go back to your start back in the late 70s, 80s, uh when we were so successful, we had direct mail. Now we've got email. Before we had uh the shopping balls and and face to face, now we've got video conferencing. So we're we're moving with the times when we set it up. and through the video conferencing we can have you know direct communication with you just like the salesman did at shops >> one of the questions that came up and I'm not sure exactly what the benefit of this would be but can we can we program the the tickle below 200 RPM I think you would lose the strength of the weight soon as you get below that level >> yeah there's um >> no application require that >> and there's a whole series program electronics and all components that need to be changed to mean that it's it's much more than just a few keys on on the program.

[00:41:56]>> Yeah.

[00:41:57]>> To lower the speed.

[00:41:59]>> Yeah. And there's one of the other was, you know, are we going to have a motor that auto indexes and does a lot of those type of things. Maybe in the next generation when we're those are things that we're studying. How can we add those deliners to our lane? Uh the current one doesn't have that capability. It doesn't mean that it won't someday, but at the moment a lot of those indexing and what is the the tact that's on it for if someone gets catch while they're doing >> there's a uh if they do get a catch the motor will automatically stop for a very short period of time that's a second or less and allow you instead of grabbing and keeping on torquing and pulling it will actually stop allowing you to get chisel out of it. It works the same way on uh if you stall it, you get a pinch on the saw blade or any other sudden stop. It'll stop for just a second, allow you to pull the cutter or the wid out of the work piece, get to the switch, turn it off. Um it's a safety thing that's been in there all along.

[00:43:01]>> Thank you. I'm learning something I didn't know. Thank you. That's a great We need to tell the marketing team.

[00:43:10]>> Oh, well, thank you. Thanks for joining the marketing team. Hey marketing team, >> thanks for asking the question.

[00:43:15]>> Yeah, that's a good one. That that person gets a gold star and a left-handed tens. Um, >> we have several requests for those.

[00:43:24]>> Yeah, the the other one that I I love this question because it's something I'm working on in in the fan shop. We need to do shopsmith lapel bins, hats. We're we're we're in the process of redesigning everything to come out, including the greatest woodworking apron mankind has ever known. It's it's in process. We're coming up with something really cool.

[00:43:45]Premium made in America apron that would be an heirloom that you would pass on to your great grandchildren's kids.

[00:43:53]>> If you don't wear it out first.

[00:43:54]>> Yeah. But, you know, we expect to see them in photos after we make them. But, we're we've got a design in mind that just I think kicks butt going forward or at least covers you but maybe cover your >> Yeah, there's no CYA involved. I love these ones. They say not a question.

[00:44:12]Good work. Oh, thank you. Once called the gas spring table riser show the catalog. Is that something that we're I'm not sure what that was.

[00:44:20]>> Yeah. Again, uh we use the same technology as >> only a smaller gas spring that get the table on the way tubes in the grow and we ceased production in that because the we sold a lot of them to begin with and then sales just fell off the book >> and we couldn't sell them. couldn't um didn't sell them and so that was one of those that that could be another one that we do and they limited edition type.

[00:44:57]>> It may be not a bad idea. There's one really you know we are looking at ways of being able to adjust that table height differently sized people.

[00:45:06]>> Well, this was to raise an order and take one billion.

[00:45:12]One of the other questions that came up and and where we're looking at it is if you've got an old shopsmith and you want to get a new one, having to repurpose the old one. So, we're looking at some ideas of, for example, a wall mount that would allow you to to permanently mount it to be a drill press and some of the other ideas. Again, you know, when we talk about these things, we get excited about that 90% of our effort right now is satisfying the existing product in the existing market while we're making those improvements. Someone had said to us, "Would you please stop posting on Facebook?" I don't have Facebook. If you've got suggestions where else we can post content, announcements, and otherwise, we we're open to posting wherever our community wants us to post.

[00:45:55]Um, as long as it's not something that's can create some sort of public issue for us. So, please, if you've got those suggestions, send them in. Someone asking if we're still making parts for the goalie. This goes back to the renewal program. If you've got a goalie and it's not working, send it in. We will upgrade everything to the modern system >> and I'll get gold back because it's the headstock belt cover and butter can pan that is gold >> but the inside will be our our most advanced conventional headstock. We This is the other why the removal program won't you guys take my conventional and make it into a new one. The answer is if for some reason you think that you know you inherited that that headstock from I don't know who you really want. We we can it'll cost more than an evil. Why?

[00:46:40]Because I don't have the inbound freight. There are multiple steps of machining that has to happen with that head to now allow the power probe to to work on it. So, it it just doesn't make economic sense to do that. Now, we can send you the kit. You can do it at home and you if you if you're mechanically able to drill through your casting and do all that stuff, >> the template's not worth it. Yeah. Drill guides and so on.

[00:47:04]>> Yeah. It's completely doable, but for us to do it for you, happy to do it because you're going to pay out the uh whatever whatever a little bit more >> whatever that orifice is. I'm not going to mention it. Something about an apple, but anyhow, I think there were like 20 questions about this guys. This was supposed to be funny.

[00:47:26]It's the It's the Ambuscribe left and right-handed carpenters pencil, which was April Fools. We wanted to get people in the mood that we're back. We're fun.

[00:47:34]If you took it seriously and sent me one of those emails going, "What kind of an idiot can we knew a company based on pencil?" I apologize that you didn't get the joke. Uh, but I'd love to get you something and and and shared a beverage or something. Because of that, this is the month of May. through June, as long as the supplies are still here, every order over 50 bucks is getting a left and right-handed sharpener and a left and right-handed pencil with their with an order one per customer because, you know, we said that if you're ambidextrous, you can sharpen at the middle. Anyone who successfully sharpens at the middle and posts a picture of it, I'll win a prize for the first one I see. And and if you didn't get the joke, I I don't apologize. Some of the other things that we're doing already. I want to show you product. I'm sure you're familiar with our bandsaw. This guy here, if you look at that finish, is a plastic very high quality injection molded part. We've been experimenting with a new finish called hydro dipping.

[00:48:34]So, we've we've got this is not carbon fiber. It's a carbon fiber look. And I'm going to have to post better pictures on the website so that you can see. We made a whole batch of these. It really looks cool. We we have about 50 of these in stock. If you're interested in one, let us know. We'll probably put it on the website. You can upgrade your band saw to this new carbon fiber look. I I think the price will be on there. It's like a buck and a quarter, 125 bucks with this special finish. They look really cool.

[00:49:02]We're looking at at a whole bunch of finishes that are slightly different going forward for for lots of different parts. We're actually going to build an entire Mark 7 for our demo studio all with the carbon carbon fiber look to see what it looks like. New new models coming out and I'm just teasing this because it's probably six months out.

[00:49:22]You will see the greatest lighter gauge in the history of woodworking coming out. We're so excited about it. It has more features benefits than any other one out there. It's designed not just to fit in the shopsman any any tool that's using a miter slot going forward. Oh, the people asked is the ownership 100% American. Yes, myself and my partner were both American citizens. We're not the uh foreign looking to take over the world with detective soft Americans products have been made. Oh, hands-on magazine returning again with the paper concept. If we do a magazine for the company, uh it would be strictly digital. We don't have plans for it yet because we have to add revenue to cover the cost of something like that, but we definitely want to do that and and it'll be out in the future. Question finance.

[00:50:19]So, right now we take credit cards. We just today implemented if you don't want to use your credit card and you'd like to pay by check, we have an automated check system. We love the check system because we pay less to the bank than with a credit card. We you get the people of money for us. If you want to pay a check, if you got credit card issues, we can do that. We are talking to several finance companies that can turn your purchase into a monthly purchase. The the challenge is the first ones we talked to had rates that were embarrassing uh to offer to a customer that I would want to do. I mean, I I think to to tell the customer they're going to be paying 18% or 15% interest is is unreasonable. We we we're looking at some solutions to the better and we that we're going to offer it, but um I don't think that that we become a successful company by putting you in the ridiculous debt. We would much rather get to keep your money than the fair square. The new website hopefully June will be out. We are going to do all brand new photos of all of our parts for the website and have a much better view so that you can see them better. I know there's some on the website right now that are missing photos and otherwise.

[00:51:32]We actually have a crew of interns that we just hired who are going to be revamping our entire inventory system including barcode scanning throughout our entire manufacturing process uh so that we can be more efficient and and make sure that we don't have that one part missing again that we need so that everything's arriving on time again. You know, there's there the the greatest part of Shopsmith USA really are you guys. Mike Young, Michael Young, the one of our been around the organization for for 40 years. He's been selling, he's been servicing, he's been helping all of you uh to be better woodworkers. He is not gone. He's still he's still working uh as an outside rep for the organization. every Saturday he's going to be doing a webinar to potentially new customers who who want to buy uh or or get to know those shops. Um and he'll also be participating in those onetoone sales calls when somebody wants to talk to a seasoned veteran who's got lots and lots of years of experience. So, thank you, Michael, for for for waiting us out because I know it's been it's been a long wait without without much happening. So, we're glad to still have you as part of our extended family.

[00:52:47]forgot about that.

[00:52:48]>> Yeah, I'm glad I didn't mind.

[00:52:50]>> Yeah, he's an important part of what we're doing. So, if there's any other questions, we're probably going to do another one of these in I don't know, three, three to six months. I'm going to try to do updates at least quarterly.

[00:53:01]Continue to make silly videos, launch product. We're done with pencils. Rock beat us to the board stretchers. I have to table that stupid thing I was getting through. Did I come up with something stupid besides anything else, Jim? No, I just thank you for all the good questions. I'm glad we were able to answer them.

[00:53:19]>> Well, and if if we didn't answer your question, I apologize. Send it again and we'll save it to the next one. But I think we pretty much covered 95% of of what was asked. And thank you so much for being the shopsmith family. Thank you.