another woodcraft story

[Karl Card]

I had mentioned earlier about the guy at my local woodcraft here in evansville, in said that you could only use walnut oil on walnut, teak on teakwood and so on... Well i am standing there listening to him pitch his spill aobut a jet jointer. He told the customer jet was the only jointer that had a shelix cutter. I didnt say anything but I am thinking you are dead wrong because grizzly advertises that they also have a cutter head like that. He told the customer that others are not true shelix head because the little square blades meet the wood head on. I was thinking i just looked at grizzly catalogue and they show a diagram of how there blades are angles so they slice the wood instead of meeting it head on...

I tell ya I dont have a lot of self confidence but this guy really makes me feel good about what i do know.

[Eric DeSilva]

I had mentioned earlier about the guy at my local woodcraft here in evansville, in said that you could only use walnut oil on walnut, teak on teakwood and so on...

Dagnabbit. You mean I gotta go out and find me some cherry oil, and oak oil, and maple oil?

[Dan Friedrichs]

They go through all that work to squeeze the oak oil out of the oak, and then you want to go and put it back on. *sigh* Some people....

[Michael Peet]

Unless Grizzley's website is not up-to-date, or I'm looking in the wrong place, it still looks like Byrds are the only ones with cutters at an angle:

http://www.grizzly.com/products/cate...spx?key=240460

So is he still technically wrong because Powermatics have them too, or is Jet = PM because they are both owned by WMH? I'll give him half credit .

Mike

[Dave Lehnert]

Unless Grizzley's website is not up-to-date, or I'm looking in the wrong place, it still looks like Byrds are the only ones with cutters at an angle:

http://www.grizzly.com/products/cate...spx?key=240460

So is he still technically wrong because Powermatics have them too, or is Jet = PM because they are both owned by WMH? I'll give him half credit .

Mike

Or maybe the JET was the only jointer in HIS STORE that had one

[Bob Glenn]

Hey, Karl, ask him where you're suppose to use TUNG oil!

[Jeff Nolan]

my friend owns a couple of Woodcraft stores and he has said on many occasions that hiring and keeping good people remains his biggest challenge. I don't think this is all that different from any service or retail focused business.

[Glen Butler]

Hey, Karl, ask him where you're suppose to use TUNG oil!

Or linseed oil.

Grizzly has them both. Shelix heads are set at an angle spiral heads are square. Jet and PM have shelix heads and apparantly grizzly so yes the salesman is wrong again.

[Dan Mitchell]

In my personal experience (YMMV) the information gotten from Woodcraft/Rockler employees in general needs to be taken with a rather large bag of water softener salt. I often wonder if some of them were not at the Radio Shack or Safeway down the street before getting their present job.

Unfortunately.


Dan

[Karl Card]

I used to be in sales and sold office supply and computers. I never once made up a story for a customer. now I would tell a customer i dont know and if he would give me a piece of time i would find out... and I gained alot of respect by just being honest..

[John Shaffner]

Years ago, I worked for Woodworkers Warehouse, first in sales, then in management. While I was in sales, I pulled and read every manual for every machine we had on display and some we didn't. I read everything I could get my hands on to gain knowledge to pass on to my customers. This paid off in several ways. First, my customers were allowed to make an informed decision on their purchase. They learned about what tool could do the job best for them, not just be sold the most expensive one that may or may not do the job.After a while, repeat customers would seek me out to help them spend their money at my store. If I was off that day, they'd actually come back the next day when I was there. And, there was a short time the sales reps offered spiffs (cash incentives) for selling their products and I wouldn't sell what I didn't believe was what the customer needed. I did, however, get some rather hefty spiff checks on a regular basis. Management saw what I was doing and how I was handling the customers and offered me a managers position. I took it, of course, and my store was often the top selling store in our area. Bottom line is that being an informed sales person benefits everyone. It's a definate win-win situation. I wish the big box stores would adopt that ideal.

John

[glenn bradley]

Hey, Karl, ask him where you're suppose to use TUNG oil!

Boo-whaaa-ha-ha-ha-ha . . . whew . . . that one got me

[Jamie Cowan]

I mentioned this in the last thread, but it bears repeating--my local Woodcraft is excellent. Staff is very well informed from the top down, and they aren't afraid to ask each other questions. They all seem to work very well together to get the job done. I have never felt like I was being hosed. Also, I never feel stupid for asking questions. I feel bad that some franchises are probably hurting the reputation of the brand overall. Just to clarify, I have no personal stake in Woodcraft, although they do seem to have most of my money.

[Brian Gumpper]

Unless Grizzley's website is not up-to-date, or I'm looking in the wrong place, it still looks like Byrds are the only ones with cutters at an angle:

http://www.grizzly.com/products/cate...spx?key=240460

So is he still technically wrong because Powermatics have them too, or is Jet = PM because they are both owned by WMH? I'll give him half credit .

Mike

If you want to get technical, Byrd and JET are the only heads with angled cutters. The Powermatics use the actual Byrd head, JET uses a chinese copy they had made wth Byrd's blessing because of cost reasons.

[Van Huskey]

I would have ask if they are so good why does Powermatic (Jet's big brother) not use those heads... it does.