Seriously?

[Jerome Stanek]

My Starrett spring punch is at least 30 years old, it has thousands of punches under it's belt and still works as good as new. I don’t see the HF giving me that performance.
Mine is steel.

My harbor Freight punch is brass and I was using it to punch hundreds of times a day every day for 5 years used it for hanging signs that needed 20 to 30 punches per sign plus centering drill holes in steel doors and steel gondola. great tool for the price. When I bought it I was skeptical also but that is one of the gems I found at Harbor freight

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I could make one exactly like that for a lot cheaper prolly like five bucks. I have files, countersinks etc., probably all the tools I would need and aluminum is easy to machine. I know some guys that do anodizing.

I'll order 10.

[Myk Rian]

I asked the seller if they were insane. I'll let ya know if I get a response.

[Tom Walz]

One-time tools are very important to Woodpeckers becausethey keep people employed during the slow season. Once the weather warms up woodpeckers’ salesdrop way off and pick up again when the weather cools down.

I tend to be pretty careful with my money. I live in a secondhand house, drive asecondhand car, and even old Feebi the dog is a secondhand dog.There are places where I think it isworthwhile spending money.Grandkids atChristmas is one of them.If I thinksomething is worth the money, I buy it.IfI do not think, something is worth the money I just do not buy it.

We sell Woodpeckers and we sell it at the lowest prices theywill allow. Woodpeckers has strict ruleson advertised prices.

Woodpeckers does not allow us to offer any discounts on one-timetools. However, we can offer discountson your order we just cannot tie it directly to a one-time tool.As an example, we are offering the one-timetools at full retail but there is a 10% discount at checkout if you enter thecode “creekers”.In addition, some ofthe marketing people ran a little contest for a discount on Woodpeckers toolsthis week.If you posted on our Facebookpage, you were entered in the contest.Firstprize was $40 off any woodpeckers purchase and there were a couple of other prizes.

Tom Walz
President
www.carbideprocessors.com

[Moses Yoder]

Thats almost as bad as this harbor frieght $2.99 Starrett $37.99

Yes, but, my Starrett was $2

[Chris Parks]

Tom, if they want to keep the production floor going they should halve the price and sell three times as many. I see your point but pricing something as ordinary as a speed square as they have the sales will be miniscule if the reaction here is anything to go by.

[Keith Weber]

You don't hit it with a hammer they both are spring loaded. I have had the Harbor freight one for 15 years and it still works like new. I used it every day for the first 5 years installing CVS pharmacys. How do you not center a point? If you want to bang on the Starrett with a hammer then go a head also the Starrett is aluminum.

Well, pardon me -- it looked like regular center punch that you DO hit with a hammer. I couldn't really see the spring in the picture. I'm not saying that there's not a market for HF tools. The fact that they're in business and sell a lot of their, uh... stuff, proves that there is a market. It all depends on what you do. If you're just installing CVS Pharmacys, then you're probably right -- you won't see a difference. I realize that this is a woodworking forum, but for some of us, woodworking is just one of many things we do. You won't find many HF tools in a precision machinist's tool kit. Using my Ball-screwed Bridgeport with an Albrecht chuck holding pricey, American-made cobalt drill bits, I'm able to accurately drill small holes in very small parts. My buddy has a Chinese Mill Drill, with a Chinese Chuck holding drill bits from a HF set that cost about $20. You can actually see the wobble in the chuck, let alone the bit. Needless to say, he's a frequent visitor to my shop when he needs something fixed, or redone.

Yeah, there's those few HF "jems" out there that everybody talks about. The ones where you get 99% of the function for 20% of the price, but they're definitely not the norm. I'm not in any way knocking people that buy HF stuff. They allow a lot of people to get into woodworking/metalworking/welding/etc. that would not be able to otherwise. For that, they're great. My point is that you shouldn't knock the quality brands because you can buy a Chinese knockoff for 10% of the price. You might not always be comparing apples to apples.

"How do you not center a point?" Haha! You should ask the Chinese that question. They seem to be experts on that. I've seen Chinese punches where the ground point is not even close to being in line with the center line of the punch itself. If it were ground on a lathe, it would be centered, but if it was ground after the fact by hand on a grinding wheel, it can be off center by quite a bit. If you're punching a mark on a flat piece with lots of lateral room, then it's not really a problem -- you just line up the point visually with your mark and strike the punch. But what if you've lined up a part, and you need to transfer a hole center onto the other piece? If your punch barely fits in there, you don't have the option to shift it laterally to compensate for the fact that your punch point is off center. They actually make a type of punch specifically for this purpose (called transfer punches). They come in a set with different outside diameters to match the hole whose center you're trying to transfer. Funny enough, I've seen a cheap, Chinese transfer punch set that was obviously pressed instead of machine ground, so the points were all over the place. The whole idea of a transfer punch is to have a centered point. But when you're a Chinese knockoff factory, you probably don't even know what the function of what you're making is, so you don't harden the steel, and you don't grind the points. As long as it looks like what you're copying, somebody will buy it and you'll make money.

It really boils down to what kind of performance you get and what you want to spend. I don't own any HF power or hand tools myself, but I am guilty of owning a HF engine hoist. It does its job (kind of). The casters suck and seem to have a mind of their own as to which way they want to travel, the jack will leak over time, so if I left shop for a couple of days, whatever I was lifting will be resting on the floor, and I would never put any needed body parts under the hoist. But, at $129, I couldn't have bought the steel to weld my own. So it's there, I use it, I curse it, I put up with it. It does what I need it to. If I used it every single day, or I needed it to hold a load steady for a long time, I'd spend the money and get an American-made one. By comparison, my 15-year old, American-made Southworth scissor lift table (also a 2-ton lift), settles 1/4" in 3 months (vs. 36" in 2 days for the HF lift.) You USUALLY get what you pay for.

[Justin Ludwig]

I tend to be pretty careful with my money. I live in a secondhand house, drive a secondhand car, and even old Feebi the dog is a secondhand dog.

I'm glad you don't make secondhand saw blades. I'm very happy with my World's Best Saw Blades, and I'm eagerly waiting the arrival of my latest purchase for my RAS. Keep up the good work, Tom.

[John Sanford]

Anybody who thinks this particular One-Time Tool is aimed at the average carpenter is smoking something. On the other hand, given all the complaining here about shoddy workmanship by the average carpenter, maybe those carpenters should be investing in better tools than they're currently using.

Many of the OTT's seem a mite bit silly to me, but others seem like home runs. If you don't want to drop $100 on this particular tool, well, then don't. Going on and on about it, and even worse, insulting both those who produce it and those who see value in it, well, that's just rude and uncouth.

[eugene thomas]

I don't see value in this tool but some of the ott are pretty handy. I use their gap gage every time set up my dado blade.

[Keith Hankins]

The one time creates a sense of urgency so you have to "buy it now or never get another chance" which is really a smart marketing strategy. If you don't know what you need its easy to get confused. My hats off to their marketing department (although my wallet will stay in my pocket).

No not really a marketing team. The take advance orders since these are cnc'd and not regular runs all the time. Matter of fact if you ever get the chance check out their site and see the size operation they have. They run these in batches and want to schedule those. They will run those again, as they have their other OTT runs, but it won't be for a while. They cant' just spit out a few, and they don't keep inventory on hand for the specialty tools.

[Keith Hankins]

Anybody who thinks this particular One-Time Tool is aimed at the average carpenter is smoking something. On the other hand, given all the complaining here about shoddy workmanship by the average carpenter, maybe those carpenters should be investing in better tools than they're currently using.

Many of the OTT's seem a mite bit silly to me, but others seem like home runs. If you don't want to drop $100 on this particular tool, well, then don't. Going on and on about it, and even worse, insulting both those who produce it and those who see value in it, well, that's just rude and uncouth.

I have been watching this thread with interest. I noticed the same thing. These are not the same as the aluminum squares for a contractor building a house. I did contracting work back in my early years. I never measured length with them, and if they were off a degree big whoop.

Some times having a good tool to do a particular job is really nice. Some could question why buy an expensive Starrett square, or Lie-Nielsen plane, or Knew concepts coping saw. However if you have used any of those tools you know the worth. (if you every get to use the knew concepts coping saw you will agree with me).

I myself did not see the need for this one, but I would never challenge anyone that decided to get it.

Tool envy (no jokes here please) is unnecessary.

[Larry Copas]

Have I missed out on this deal?

I catch fish with gaudy, flashy, expensive lures. Worms work better....

[Ryan Mooney]

No not really a marketing team. The take advance orders since these are cnc'd and not regular runs all the time. Matter of fact if you ever get the chance check out their site and see the size operation they have. They run these in batches and want to schedule those. They will run those again, as they have their other OTT runs, but it won't be for a while. They cant' just spit out a few, and they don't keep inventory on hand for the specialty tools.

I would argue its both (and I'm not dismissing your point at all here - the cost of one offs is certainly considerably more than a batch run, and eating the overhead of stocking the inventory would indeed be rough). I still think its a smart marketing move they way they do it though - I can't imagine they'd get half the sales in twice the time if they just did the run and then sold until sold out.

[Cary Falk]

I have been watching this thread with interest. I noticed the same thing. These are not the same as the aluminum squares for a contractor building a house. I did contracting work back in my early years. I never measured length with them, and if they were off a degree big whoop.

Some times having a good tool to do a particular job is really nice. Some could question why buy an expensive Starrett square, or Lie-Nielsen plane, or Knew concepts coping saw. However if you have used any of those tools you know the worth. (if you every get to use the knew concepts coping saw you will agree with me).

I myself did not see the need for this one, but I would never challenge anyone that decided to get it.

Tool envy (no jokes here please) is unnecessary.

.

+1 on everything in this post. Those names crossed my mind when I read some of the responses. Some of the planes cost more than my tailed jointer. A lot of people complain about Chinese crap(they can make good stuff) and then there is a well made USA made alternative and people cry bloody murder. I am confused about this offering since they have a standard 12" carpenter square for the same money and a 6" for $70. I have the 18" OTT and use it quite often.