Originally Posted by
Noel Liogier
…the possible improvements have to be good not only on the short term…one reason for the longevity of the company….
…Not being able to provide work to one of this 6 companions would be a personal failure I don’t want to experience.
Exactly.
Just because the company hasn’t failed in so many years doesn’t mean it won’t fail in the dramatically-uncertain economy yet to come in Europe and North America. Substitute line shafts, water wheel and mill pond for 3-phase power and I don’t see anything in your video more efficient than 1890 except for the book keeping. Even medium to small cabinet and machine shops around here are going to CNC machines for repetitive tasks so as to increase their efficiency…letting the machines and computers do what machines and computers do best and hand tools what they do best.
But I’m also suggesting you have an untapped market you aren’t even scratching the surface of. Every commercial woodworking shop, however machine-reliant, has three or four basic rasps for those occasional tasks where the work piece won’t fit the machine, there is no machine made for the task, or the frequency of the task doesn’t justify the cost of the machine. You don’t have to convert your entire lineup to increase production and sales, you only have to produce a few basic cabinet rasps at a price point where the superior finish provided by your product justifies its increased cost in labor savings to a commercial operation. I don’t know what that price is, but it’s probably not 250% of a Nicholson #50.
http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com//...egory_Code=TAU
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com...holson_50_rasp
““Perhaps then, you will say, ‘But where can one have a boat like that built today?’ And I will tell you that there are still some honest men who can sharpen a saw, plane, or adze...men (who) live and work in out of the way places, but that is lucky, for they can acquire materials for one third of city prices. Best, some of these gentlemen’s boatshops are in places where nothing but the occasional honk of a wild goose will distract them from their work.” -- L Francis Herreshoff