Multi Use Tool

[Birdhunter]

I've noticed in Europe and in the UK, mutiple use machines like Fielder and Hammer are very popular. Yet, in the USA, those machines are vary rare. I never seen one outside a YouTube video.

Is it that the vendors do not have sales channels in the States or is that the machines are too expensive than the market can absorb.

My experience is that multiuser machines do a so so job at every task and not an superior job at any focused task.

 

[jacko9]

I believe that in Europe a lot of hobbyists have less work space than in the USA where over the past 50 years homes seemed to be getting bigger and garages are expanding to 3 and 4 car spaces.  At the time I started my shop back in the 1970's the few European Multi-function machines were very expensive and very few local suppliers.  I for one like the fact that I don't have to change a machine over every time I'm ready to perform a given function. I did however start my shop with the Inca Major Table saw with the Mortising attachment and made a lot of furniture with that machine.  I bought the Powermatic 66 Table saw with the 5 HP motor and sliding Excalibur table which makes cutting long side panels and tops quick and easy.  I only regret selling that Inca saw (for the same price I paid for it 20 years before).  The gentleman came over to my shop and loaded it into the trunk of his Mercedes.

Jack 

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

At one point, a number of the major US manufacturers of industrial tools actually did manufacture larger multi-purpose power tools. Northfield was one of the manufacturers, but there were others. I'm not sure when they stopped, but it was probably before WW2 or maybe within a decade or so after. Shopsmith still manufactures a multipurpose machine for the US market, but it's much smaller than the Euro machines, and is closer in purpose to some of the tools INCA used to make in Switzerland.

My guess is that after WW2, and with changes in safety regulations in the USA, used industrial equipment became available at comparably reasonable prices. Most Craftsman who would be able to afford the larger Combination machines probably opted for multiple tools rather than a single multi-purpose tool, since it's easier to upgrade the individual pieces, if you need different features or larger capacity. Space is also not as much of an issue in a number of areas of the USA which also helps.

A number of the European manufacturers of Combination machines do sell them in the US, and show them of at woodworking shows. The cost is usually much higher than buying multiple Delta and Powermatic machines to get the same uses.

 

[fshanno]

If you count the Shopsmith then mult-function tools are common in the US.

 

[Birdhunter]

Thanks everyone for the responses.