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“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.”— Joseph Chilton Pierce
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JOHN GOES TO THE WOODSHED…AGAIN.
A couple of days prior to departing for my annual teaching gig, I received a rather scathing email from a customer who was incredibly frustrated with his inability to track his tools in progress. Our nightmare run of the CT-17 the exception, every word of his complaint was not only brutally direct, but dead-on accurate as well. We responded, the air has been cleared, but this has been bugging me for a couple of weeks now.
Time to make some lemonade from lemons…
After an internal brainstorming session (lots of cranial hail too) we are going to create something that could be not only informative, but fun as well. The following updates (and more) are going to be made to our website as soon as humanly possible;
- The wording is going to be changed on items we no longer stock from “Out of Stock” to “Non-Stock Item”. This may seem trivial, but it is a big deal in helping those who are new to the site understand our “Make To Order” process, the production frequency, and the manufacturing schedule.
- Items currently in production will be tagged “Currently in Production, Pre-Order Window Closed–Call for Availability”. We do a small percentage overrun in excess of orders to accommodate potential rejects. We keep a wait-list for those who missed the pre-order window.
- We are going to do a much better job of indicating when an item may go into production. FYI, we need to make runs of approx. 500 units to keep to the posted price on our site. As an example, we would need a list of approximately 700 makers who have selected the ‘Notify Me” option for a particular tool to be produced again.
- We are going to create a space on our site where you can ascertain where your tool is on a manufacturing timeline. We will update this once a week every Thursday. For example, when the Jointmaker Pro components are sent to be anodized, this is 2-3 week process. Right now, the CT-17’s have had the soles ground, and currently the sides are being ground square to the soles–next stop is final assembly and fit and finish work. We think it would be really cool to keep everybody updated on all these steps, both from an anticipatory perspective and an educational view. We are even tossing around the idea of included pics or video of work in progress. Regardless, you will be able to track your tools on a weekly basis.
It is not fun to get screamed at, but in the end everybody benefits and I can sleep at night. OK, that is not happening. If you would like to see further changes PLEASE let us know–the way our website is constructed, all of these changes involve de-compiling and re-compiling so it is not an inexpensive, nor fast process.
TOOL MAKING 101
Both of my classes were a blast from my perspective. The Tool Making class was really cool as most students had no prior experience working with dissimilar materials. (hint: it is primarily an abrasive process). The class size was ideal (12) and the work was astonishing. Each student was able to make a try square, miter square and a marking gage. For most, it was their first time on a milling machine. And what a piece of junk that was! Please, if you are going to add a milling machine to your shop, find an old machinist, find out what kind of wine he likes, and ask him to tag along while you review old Bridgeports. The cheap, imported garbage of a milling machine that Marc bought new barely worked for us. There. I feel better.
The tools and class are going to be the cover article of an upcoming Popular Woodworking issue. Megan Fitzpatrick and Ajax Alexandre came down and shot stills and video and then we munched on some pasta and talked tool making.
Everybody did B+ work or better, and a couple of nascent tool makers got to see an old tool maker pull out some tricks on how to turn a disaster into a flawless fix. That was fun!
There is a method to my madness. I hope by teaching this class a couple of new tool makers are born–there has never been an easier time to start a business than today. I would love to teach this class again, and a next level class with more advance projects.
Here is a pic of the tools made by student Mark Sterner;
They came out fantastic yes/no?
–John
I can understand the frustration when the ct 17 was suppose to be delivered back in sept /2010.Shit happens,but its nice to know that when it get delivered it will be perfect,as all your stuff is.All good things are worth waiting for,all i can say chill out .
First, I love your epigraph. I learned that early in teaching: if you can’t admit you’re wrong, you’ll never learn. And you’ll be a crappy teacher.
Second, I love the idea of having “baby pictures” to go with the progression of the tool being made. I’d like to see not only the tool, but the tools that are making the tool. The pics you posted of the CT-17 were really fun (no offense to your usual drivel) – I’d love to see more. Show how the sausage is made, so to speak.
Third, WOW! Gorgeous job on the tools! All in one week? Impressive. I’ll look forward to seeing the centerfold in PW. Will it be Rutager naked, draped in BCTW tools? (Oops! I think I threw up in my mouth a little there…)
Keep up the great work. Just think: if all your tools came in on time, what would we have to rib you about?
– Peter
There must be something wrong with me. I can’t wait to order the next one of John’s creations, but then I just forget about it until it arrives. I think the feedback you got is probably realistic though. Most people looking at BCT for the first time don’t have the history or the business model you are working with in their mind. It isn’t normal……
I’m really stoked about the JMP fence system as example. If ever there was a perfect match for creativity, need, and possibility this is the grand slam. Once this baby hits the web page, you probably can count the number of JMPs you have sold and go ahead and place your manufacturing order…
Sorry I missed the tool making class. I really wanted to go, but I was unable to this time. Did you catch my note on the new saw line? Hope you did and peeked in Marc’s cabinet to find the thicker zero kerf saw. This would be a great addition to the pack.
DJ
“It isn’t normal…”
Why does this appeal to me?
Missed the note on the zero kerf saw-I am interested! Please re-submit.
–John
John, I really admire your willingness to consider criticism and craft changes. The louder voices in society seem to create not much more than a culture of reflexive and energetic disavowal of responsibility; Wall Street, FIFA, IMF… Don’t you know that you could make a lot more money shoveling mediocre dunnage at a broad, uncritical sponge of consumerism?
A friend of mine who still has a thumb and a pinky after an inadvertent interaction with a horizontal mill once told me that his favorite woodworking tool was his Bridgeport. Your admonition against crappy mills should be taken seriously especially because, speaking of uncritical consumerism, there’s a large subset of the Home Shop Machinist world that spends a lot of energy polishing that fecal matter to make the ubiquitous mill-drill work not as well as the clapped-outest Bridgeport.
Certainly Bridgeports are the de-facto standard among mills, but there are a few less-common machines that can do superb work and fit more easily into a home shop. My favorite is the Deckel FP-1. They cost $50,000 when they were last imported from Germany, I bought mine for $500 from an optical equipment surplus dealer who priced it according to its scrap value and $2-3000 isn’t unusual, just because they are. It is smaller than a Bridgeport, immensely rigid and capable of extreme precision. Deckel produced a fantastic array of tooling for the FP-1 that will enable a machinist to do unbelievable things with a manual mill. Other good, small mills include the Swiss Aciera and Swedish Arboga. Also, The Nation probably already knows that with a $400 VFD (variable frequency drive) we can run 3-phase machinery off of household single-phase current which opens-up a whole world of really good machinery.
Gary
Ordering a tool (as opposed to buying a tool) is not unlike going to a restaurant and ordering dinner. It’s incredibly frustrating to just sit there and wait without knowing when you may get your food, or even if your order has been forgotten. It’s not that I won’t wait for an extraordinary meal to arrive, but I do need to know at regular intervals that things are progressing. An informed customer may not be a happy customer (I’m still the impatient sort), but at least they won’t be an angry customer.
Your site changes are most welcome.
Gary,
Here are a couple more tips for buying used mills;
Generally speaking, stay away from the used stuff from shops that mill steel castings and get excited about shops that work primarily in the softer non- ferrous metals.
Always look at the shop floor-I am willing to bet a years wages that a clean floor means well maintained equipment.
Look at the table top-if it is peppered with scars and partial holes…
Rust can be removed but is rarely a good sign.
Y’all chime in here now.
–John
I agree-we should have had the ability to track production years ago. I can’t wait to see the changes go live.
Thanks for your post.
–John
On most mills and lathes, as well as other machine tools, most of the wear occurs in a narrow range of travel, so crank each axis of a machine to its extremes then grab the table or quill and try to wiggle it, then do the same in the center of its travel. Adjustable gibbs can be tightened to reduce slop, but if they are tightened when the table is centered, they will be too tight at the left and right extremes. Backlash in screws can often be adjusted-out or a mindful machinist can anticipate and compensate, but we wouldn’t be paying attention to John if we were inclined to compensate for deficient tools.
I like the changes to see these tools through their production. Sure, I’m antsy to try out whatever I still have on backorder (yeah, I can forget 🙂 but regardless of that, I’d love to see how these things move through production. I also loved the photos recently of the CT-17 being milled. I’m not a machinist so that’s a whole different world for me. Megan liked them, too. 😛
I like the change to non-stocked item. There was a thread on a forum about how everything is out of stock not realizing it is a “we’ll make it if enough of you want it” item. That said, I’d like for you to make a badge or something on the website to indicate which items are part of the “Bridge City Essentials” that are planned to be produced at least once a year. Things like the KM-1, TM-1, and some marking tools. Similarly, it would be nice to know which tools will be made again should there be enough demand. Obviously the commemorative tools are one-shots, but some of the others I’ve never too sure about (hint: I would love an FC-1… maybe make an FC-2 of a different design?!)
As an example, the JMPv2… it was never altogether clear if it would be made again, but I jumped at the second run. Loved using it just hours ago.