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devonwoody

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Se Phil's been busy again :) and Ian (sorry thinking about the script to follow)


However have readers of this magazine noticed that many retailers are not advertising in the magazine these days as previous.
Agree many manufacturers are placing adds but competertive prices that the previous advertisers placed are not available.
We are used to seeing Manufacturers RRP and knew that they were not high street prices.


Are us consumers being lead in a certain direction?

I'm in a stirring mood this morning :wink:
 
Another member of this motley crew that is once again gracing the pages of GW is IanDalziel and his excellent pool table. Well done Ian, what a truly fantastic project.

Regards

Woody
 
Is this all a method to control prices by the manufacturers and prevent competitive pricing?

I don't know whether this adds to the debate, but I have this view over the 'close' relationship between magazines and manufacturers. If the reviews are kept to a positive slant, how will the manufacturers ever improve their design and details if they are not told the faults and poor features. How many times do we complain about poor documentation, poor design or manufacturing processors with little response. Get a bad review (= poor sales) and things would need to change. Just ask Hotel Managers who fail inspections?
 
Did you notice that all the dowel jigs (Six of the best - pages 88-89) all received six stars, even though there were a few (muted) criticisms? Apart from that, I don't know what to make of the new format. There were several excellent constructional articles but the whole was let down by articles which didn't really come to any useful conclusion.

Bob
 
If the reviews are kept to a positive slant, how will the manufacturers ever improve their design and details if they are not told the faults and poor features.
Depends on theproduct.
Reviewing high class stuff such as L/N, Veritas etc, or in the powertool market, Makita, Bosch, DeWalt etc and you have loads of positives to see, with negatives more difficult to spot, and then, as with all reviews, only an opinion. What I like or don't others find different, but my job is to spot these and make comment, good or bad.
I disagree with part of your comment, as an example, the two planers from Charnwood I looked at recently were pretty poor in my opinion. They both do their jobs, so no problem on that front, they are budget models, so meet a specific audience and were marked and reviewed accordingly, but both have switching that as far as I am aware doesn't meet current CE regs, and in the case of the jointer, the guarding is dangerous in certain modes. Both commented on negatively in the review, and both taken into account on the final marking.
This is also where the inherent instruction manual problems come in. Product sourced in the Far East is inevitably bought at a price which includes often poor Chinese interpretations of English, but to have a proper translation done affects the overall cost which is then passed on to the consumer. Brand name manufacturers with their own R&D depts etc may still be out there because labour is cheap, but they build to their own specs and designs, have proper quality control and also produce their own specific documentation, not a generic hash at it.
I think in the case of DevonWoodys Scheppach, the lack of English manual IS poor and needs to be addressed.

but I have this view over the 'close' relationship between magazines and manufacturers.
There has to be a 'relationship' of some sort to get the product for review. We are not'Which?' magazine, we have to rely on manufacturers to let us know what they have new to the market, and for them to supply samples (which are not given as a freebie!) so I spend a lot of time sourcing stuff, and have to speak to people within the industry to do so. Nature of the beast i'm afraid.
'Close relationship'is one thing, being 'bought off' is another. My reviewing is impartial, despite what members of this forum may think, and manufacturers know this. Other reveiwers who have posted here such as Alan Holtham, Keith Smith etc are the same. We do our jobs to the best of our ability, and give advice where needed if we can.
To give a positive review on a poor product would be both misleading and damaging.
Did you notice that all the dowel jigs (Six of the best - pages 88-89) all received six stars, even though there were a few (muted) criticisms?
Apologies for this one. It appears the grids we use for marking were not altered to reflect differing marks.
I won't go into the reasons, but we will try and be more diligent in the next issue.

Cheers
Andy
 
Andy

A good response. I should have been more careful in my comment, as I was making a general observation, rather than a GWW specific point so no critism of you personally was intended.

Sorry!
 
Andy King:
Thank you for your comments with regard to translation of manuals the Scheppach Slitter accessory was the only item that did not come with a translation.

However I did send an email to Scheppach last week and one of my complaints is that the main tablesaw manual does not really apply to the machine supplied to me.
Extraction details are very different.
Fence details are substantially different even the adjusting calculations are not applicable to my saw.
So I await comments from NMA and from their forum correspondent.
 
Hi Andy

Thank you for taking the time to clear up those points.

Did you notice that all the dowel jigs (Six of the best - pages 88-89) all received six stars, even though there were a few (muted) criticisms?

andy king":1vxdr34k said:
Apologies for this one. It appears the grids we use for marking were not altered to reflect differing marks.
I won't go into the reasons, but we will try and be more diligent in the next issue.

Do you happen to know what the star rating should have been?

Thanks
Neil
 
Hi Neil,

I'm at home at the moment, and I'll be in the workshop all day tomorrow doing photography but i'll try and dig out the proper ratings later in the week.
PM me to remind me if I haven't done it by wednesday!

cheers,
Andy
 
Woodythepecker":1c2jwflx said:
Another member of this motley crew that is once again gracing the pages of GW is ....
Woody

And another member if you look carefully. In fact I read the article, thought that I recognised it from descriptions on here, and low and behld the author was the same!

Adam
 
Something strange here - my copy has proper star ratings for the PH jigs. Perhaps this is a printing issue then?
Anyway, for those who would like them, this is what my copy says:

Trend 4
Dakota Double 2.5
Dakota Adjustable 4.5
Axminster PH 4
Axminster Deluxe 4.5
Kreg Propack 4.5
Kreg Mini 3

Cheers
Steve

Edit - Goofed. It's the dowel jigs that are all 5's. Engage brain etc, etc.
 
Steve Maskery":19mcl2e3 said:
Something strange here - my copy has proper star ratings for the PH jigs.
Just looked; so has mine. Looks like the corrections section on the letters page might become a regular. :roll:

Cheers, Alf
 
And they've got a time travelling section!

Look at the letters page. Someone has written in to say just how much they have enjoyed building Ian's (great) pool table, in the same issue that the 'how to build' is published.

Didn't think much of that sheet storage idea though. :twisted: :whistle: O:) :lol:

Cheers

Tim
 
GCR was talking about dowel jigs on page 88. Mind you I only counted 5 stars each.

Sheet storage?? I have seen a good one quite near the Welsh border somewhere. :wink:
 
Tim, i think you will find that the letter was about building his football table.

Sorry :(

Regards

Woody
 
waterhead37":21wdbxgs said:
GCR was talking about dowel jigs on page 88. Mind you I only counted 5 stars each.
Ah, you're right. Missed the dowel jig blurb entirely, possibly 'cos they don't seem to be listed in the contents. At least I don't think so, but then I over-looked the pocket hole jig listing at first too assuming it'd be "Tools on Test". Ack, my head hurts. But I can definitely only count 5 stars. I think. :?

Cheers, Alf
 
andy king":28q2nw2l said:
['Close relationship'is one thing, being 'bought off' is another. My reviewing is impartial, despite what members of this forum may think, and manufacturers know this. Andy

I don't think many members of this forum doubted the truth of this statement for a minute
 
In my experience there has never been a link between advertising and review. Ever.

In fact the relation could go the other way. Reviews are used to get ads. Not much wrong with that. BriMarc never follow copy.

I have never been shown a review for comment where it receives a score. Rarely we receive reviews for technical comment. It has been so long I can't remember the last.

Hope that nails that?
 
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