Squares' prices

[leehljp]

I love squares and have more than my share of them. But I haven't checked prices in a long time. Been gone far too long from the US of A. Got an email from Woodpeckers and the squares offered below are beautiful but expensive!

http://www.woodpeck.com/2616squarewp...&rid=233687555

I would love to have a couple - a large and small but there are other items that would benefit my storehouse of tools better at this time! I DO realize that these are "machined" and are worth it for precision. I operate with that percision in making pens (.001), but not in other WWing projects.

[os1kne]

I agree. The stuff they make is extremely nice. It's clear that they spend a lot of time and put a lot of thought into developing and producing their tools.

I only have a few of their products (mostly router related), but they're all top notch. I'd love to have a shop full of their tools, but I can't justify the cost.

[cabinetman]

I only have a few of their products (mostly router related), but they're all top notch. I'd love to have a shop full of their tools, but I can't justify the cost.

+1. Squares are one of the hand tools that get used a lot. I would include combo and try. Besides a framing square, one of my favorites is an 18" combo square. But for that kind of money I would stick with steel.

.

[cwsmith]

I noticed those in this morning's mailing... WOW!

Everything I've ever read about Woodpeckers had been positive, but the prices are way beyond affordable. I'm more of the Harbour Freight scale I guess... which BTW, thier small 3-square set is accurate, in that they really are actually square, though all aluminum.

Framing squares are almost a joke anymore... one would think that making an accurate square would not be such a challenge. I have an old (1961) Craftsman steel framing square that I bought when I was in highschool... it's accurate, but now somewhat rusty here and there.

A couple of years ago I decided to upgrade that but after looking at every single "Empire" that Home Depot carried, I couldn't find one that was even close. I finally found a "Stanley 45-500" steel that was accurate... it takes a lot of examination to find one out of the batch though.

CWS

[conscience]

Wow. They are mighty proud of that. I'll stick with my old Stanley. It is pre-1900 and weighs a ton. I did have to square it when I got it but it has stayed true ever since.

[jussi]

It is pretty expensive. Probably $70 more than I'd like to spend but I'm still getting one. It's hard to find that type of accuracy on such a large square. I'll mainly be using it along with my guide rails for my tracksaw. Should making setting up the rails much faster and more accurate. Its a one time tool and I held out and didn't buy the first time they introduced the square. Luckily they got enough requests and decided to do another batch.

[jussi]

Ordered mine. Just a mere 3+ months till it gets here

[leehljp]

Ordered mine. Just a mere 3+ months till it gets here

3 Months? I thought they had them in stock. Maybe I didn't read it all.

Anyway, congrats! A little envious here!

[cabinetman]

I noticed those in this morning's mailing... WOW!

Everything I've ever read about Woodpeckers had been positive, but the prices are way beyond affordable. I'm more of the Harbour Freight scale I guess... which BTW, thier small 3-square set is accurate, in that they really are actually square, though all aluminum.

Framing squares are almost a joke anymore... one would think that making an accurate square would not be such a challenge. I have an old (1961) Craftsman steel framing square that I bought when I was in highschool... it's accurate, but now somewhat rusty here and there.

A couple of years ago I decided to upgrade that but after looking at every single "Empire" that Home Depot carried, I couldn't find one that was even close. I finally found a "Stanley 45-500" steel that was accurate... it takes a lot of examination to find one out of the batch though.

CWS

I'm also a fan of steel squares. Buying one that expensive would worry me about bumping it. With squares being less than compact, mine are used in the shop, home and gets packed with tools to go to the jobsite. It's a mindful chore to baby tools with their handling and use.

.

[LCHIEN]

Woodpeckers seems to have gone off the deep end on their line of machined, anodized one-time-tools that come with a custom-fitted, machined MDF carrier. They're beautiful and full of nice features but its cost-is-no-object is an apparent philosophy - I wonder who the target market is - I'm guessing its well-heeled tool collectors because as cabinetman suggests, aluminum squares like that are too nice for everyday workers who aren't going to keep them in their machined MDF protective carriers all the time going to the worksite in the back of a pickup truck.

I admire them but I've bought exactly one piece but can't justify buying more at those prices.

[Bruce Cohen]

While I hesitate to comment on the accuracy of Woodpecker's "One Offs", they're still cost less than Starrett, try looking at the stuff that Bridge City Tools, sell.
Now that's what I call overpriced.

Bruce

[jussi]

3 Months? I thought they had them in stock. Maybe I didn't read it all.

Anyway, congrats! A little envious here!

Yah. With their One Time tools (although in this case it's the 2nd Time ) they have a dead line on when you can order and don't start manufacturing them until then. But they don't charge you till item is ready to be shipped. Even then it's still a pretty long lead time. Expected delivery is early September

[LCHIEN]

basically Woodpeckers is taking pre-orders so they can guarantee they pretty much sell out their production run and get the most cost effective quantity breaks on material, setup and machining costs. That way they will have no long term inventory and only have to finance the costs from making an order to when they ship them which is probably no more than a month. Maybe less if they pay the machine shop 30-60 days and get payment from the Credit card companies in 30 days...

makes the high prices seem even higher considering the cost savings they are getting.

its probably also a sales gimmick to make you think if i don't order it now i'll never get one so I'd better act now.

On the one time tools they probably make an extra 10% that I've seen them selling for those who procrastinated or missed the pre-order period.

[cwsmith]

I really do "appreciate" good tools, but I do that appreciated just manifests itself in "drooling".

I used to do carpentry stuff when we were first married (1967) but as the career became more demanding, pretty much all of that stopped, except on rare project, like the deck I built over 20 years ago.

I had two old drills, a 7" circular saw, a little sabre saw, and my RAS which I purchased in 1974... and of course a Stanley level and that steel carpenter's square that I bought in my senior year of highschool (1962).

I still have all of those, they still function well and I keep them in decent, but NOT pretty condition. But when I got dumped into "retirement" back in 2000, I decided (well, actually it was more my wife's idea) to set some money aside and to focus on buying a few things here and there as they went on sale or clearance. That is how I got my "BT" ($150).

Tools, thankfully, don't have to be expensive to be good. They do need to be "appreciated" though. But still, I look at some of the tools and still just drool.

CWS