Every summer, the woodworking industry converges on either Atlanta or Las Vegas for the granddaddy of all trade shows, a 4-day binge of ald faces, new products, and non-stop horse-trading among manufacturers, distributors, and consumers of everything to do with woodworking. The show also provides an opportunity for consumers to interact directly with company executives and the engineers who actually design the latest products. So, this month, I asked our visitors, “If you could attend the AWFS Fair, what suggestions would you have for the folks who make all our woodworking gear?”
“… in a nutshell, move the show around. I’m in the central U.S., and Atlanta and Las Vegas are too far for me to travel. How about Dallas, Denver, etc?”
“For those of us who are at the bifocal stage, I’d like to see easier-to-read numbers on tapes, rulers and other measuring devices; or, failing that, some sort of magnifying device, maybe one that slides? I’d also like to see some sort of LED or large digital readout for angles on table saws. If they can make a table saw as sophisticated as a SawStop, can’t they also incorporate some device that will give you an angle or depth readout?”
“All stationary power tools, especially table saws and band saws, should be available with feature options from the manufacturer that eliminate the need to augment or replace standard parts with after market products. Overall quality is a further issue.”
“I’ve seen few significant changes in tools over the last several years. That is until Festool came along. Admittedly, they are not the cheapest on the block, but it appears that they really think about all aspects before designing a tool. I would suggest that all tool companies look to Festool as a benchmark for the designing and innovation of their own tools, including large stationary power tools.”
“I’ve attended the AWFS and IWF shows since 1996. My recommendation to the exhibitors is to make sure that the staff manning the booth is personable and knowledgeable. Next advice is telling your sales folks not to trash-talk other competitors. It is a turn off. Make sure the staff in the booth knows the product inside out. BS’ing is easy to see through. Finally, and this is for the show operators: improve the food and lower the prices.”
“Vehement agreement with this: Tell your sales folks not to trash-talk the competition. Nothing comes to mind that turns me off more quickly than that.”
“Personally, I’m tired of seeing ‘new and innovative’ as being nothing more than the same tools as everyone else is selling, but with a different color, a new advertising blitz, and a lot of argument over who has the lowest price. For once, I’d like to read a tool review in a woodworking magazine where all of the tools didn’t look alike with the only difference being the color or the location of the switch.”
“I would like to see more high quality, made-in-North-America (USA or CANADA) products. I’m more than willing to pay extra for something I know is made here. There’s nothing better than owning and using good quality tools, and if you know it’s made locally, it makes the dollars spent worth it, because you feel good about the investment.”
“My gripe is that woodworking machines are designed by engineers who don’t have any working knowledge of how they are used. There have been many lathes on the market that were obviously designed without any input from knowledgeable wood turners. Hand wheels that are too small or none at all, small tool-rest posts that won’t handle heavy use, poor locking devices on tail stocks, and motors without sufficient horsepower to do the job. The list goes on.”
“At work, we recently had in-house demos from the big three: Bosch, DeWalt and Makita. All the salesmen were glib and not very well informed. Most had no idea about everyday power tool usage and what was expected of a tool in a multi-user environment. Serious design faults were still being included in the ‘newest and greatest,’ such as a really weak rear connection between motor and base plate on the Makita skill saws.
“Why can’t we have some standardization across brands as far as battery shapes and connections? The bigger battery syndrome has to be laid to rest. Why no corded drills with key-less chucks and lightweight ergonomic designs? Some of the new products were technically intriguing, but the actual longevity and durability seemed very dubious. We weld, grind, and do various metalworking tasks as well as all aspects of woodworking and electrical trades; well built, reliable tools are necessary for our daily functions. The most reliable and usable battery-powered drills that we have are the old 9.5 volt stick-style Makita: 30 years of abuse and still going strong! So why can’t Makita make a 9.6 volt Lithium battery for the older drills?”
“I totally agree about the lightweight corded drill with the key-less chuck. I have two cordless drills, but the batteries never last as long as the one I had and lost ten years ago, I get the distinct feeling the sales reps don’t use what they sell and the manufacturers are clueless. They are more interested in ‘pretty’ than durability, work-ability, and efficiency. I don’t want pretty colors, pretty buttons, and pretty stripes. I want ugly reliability, ugly efficiency, and an ugly hard working machine. I’m surprised they don’t have cup holders on table saws and band saws now.”
“I have had two different brands of 12v cordless drills, where the charger craps out long before the drill or the batteries.”
“I’d like to see a power sander that combines the accessible angle of the Sioux with the duty cycle of a 333 ROS and the dust collection of the Metabo. I want to be able to use the same 2″ and 3″ discs and the same mandrels I have always used. I don’t want some proprietary device that requires specialized sandpaper. I also want a saw that uses a band saw blade to process wood for wood turning, to saw logs lengthwise, to saw log ends off, to saw log halves into discs, and to saw log halves into cones, bark side up or bark side down. The saw doesn’t need a $5,000 price tag. I also want a finish dispenser which can dispense most oil finishes in the small quantities that wood turners use, without the finish becoming no good in a few weeks or months. I would like to be able to start a small gas engine, like a chainsaw for example, with a cordless drill.”
*So, why can’t finish makers package in collapsible plastic containers that would keep the air out?”
“I’d like to see a router with illumination on the bit and a switch that can be reached while securely holding onto the handles. The switch needs to be in the handle or reachable with a thumb. The light needs to illuminate where one is cutting. Also, router bits sized for 13/16″ or /” stock and where the profiles are sections of ellipses, not circles. Elliptical profiles are more attractive, especially for coves. I’d like a source for cast iron plates for sharpening with loose diamonds. I’d also like brass flat head screws where the arris is sharp, so they seat in hinges nicely like they used to, and screwdrivers that are sized to fit the slots in these brass screws. I never understood why screwdrivers have tapered blades.”
“Education is everything in my book. The trades are not supported in the schools anymore, and I believe that is because everyone thinks academic subjects are more important. If the manufacturers would push school boards, then maybe we could put ‘craft’ back into the mainstream.”
“All routers should have a built in dust port.”
“If you are going to make those forked-tailed, whiny, screaming tools to do the work of simple, quiet hand tools, just put on a simple negative ion generator to reduce dust at its source. This is not rocket surgery.”
“One of the biggest holes in the current marketplace is the lack of a flat cast-iron plate to use with diamond paste for sharpening.” “It’s frustrating that hand tools are made with no thought to how they are used. if a tool is made for a specific purpose but the characteristic that equips it for this purpose is compromised by the manufacturer, then it is poorly made. I bought a broad hatchet recently. The back is not flat and has a back bevel on it. I have to put hours of work into the tool to bring it up to speed. Why? Also I’m left-handed. Why can’t I buy a hatchet without the handle attached? As is, I have to cut off the old one, buy a new handle and then attach it. These things can’t be so hard to figure out.”
Thanks to our Editorial Assistant Barb Siddiqui for her work on this article.
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