General has acquired Sommervile Design

Printable View

04-17-2006, 1:38 PM
Frank Pellow

General has acquired Sommervile Design

I just noticed this announcement:

General International Acquires Sommerville Design
General International is the Montreal based North American distribution arm of General Mfg. Co. a Drummondville, Quebec based manufacturer of woodworking machinery since 1946.
Established in Pickering, Ontario in 1975, Sommerville Design are the makers of the extremely popular “Excalibur - The Ultimate Woodworking System” brand of woodworking products and accessories. Their products include a successful line of Scroll Saws, Sliding Tables for table saws, the “Merlin” Splitter, an over arm blade cover/ dust extraction system, a line of table saw rip fence systems and under license, the EB-3 “Osborne” miter gauge.
This acquisition solidifies General Internationals role and strengthens its positioning within the North American woodworking machinery industry. The agreement includes the exclusive North American rights to continue the manufacture and distribution of the EB-3.

For some time now General has been "fearuring" Sommerville products, so this announcement does not surprise me. I don't know whether or not it will work out to the advantage of woodworkers :confused: , but I am always suspicious of any takeover. In my opinion, a few work out well :) but most do not :( .
04-17-2006, 4:32 PM
Gary Curtis

General and Sommerville

Perhaps the designers at Sommerville can cook up a decent blade guard - one with dust collection - that General can sell. As a retrofit for all us General owners out here. Come on you guys.

Gary Curtis
04-17-2006, 5:08 PM
Jim Becker

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary Curtis

Perhaps the designers at Sommerville can cook up a decent blade guard - one with dust collection - that General can sell. As a retrofit for all us General owners out here. Come on you guys.

Ummm....you mean like this Excalibur by Sommerviille??

http://sawsndust.com/images/excallibur/excalibur-4.jpg
04-17-2006, 9:43 PM
Joe Mioux

Perhaps the guys from Somerville can improve the assembly instructions in General's owner manuals.;)
04-17-2006, 10:15 PM
Frank Pellow

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Mioux

Perhaps the guys from Somerville can improve the assembly instructions in General's owner manuals.;)

I wouldn't count on it Joe. :( The instructions that came with my Excalibur scroll saw are not a lot better than the instructions that came with my General table saw.