very high cool factor..........

[Matthew Schenker]

monte,
Thanks for posting about this.  I've actually been following the news of this tool for a while, and am glad to see it available for purchase.
It's great that the author you cite has been teaching at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking "for about 187 years now."  He must be quite experienced!
But this is just the kind of tool that appeals to me, with a small shop and my dislike for big iron.
Matt

 

[neoshed]

It wouldn't be very useful for the shed side of my business but my main business is doing 3d illustrations for architects. I've seriously considered offering physical models as part of my services as I've built quite a few in my time. This saw would be idea for most of that work.

 

[Loren Woirhaye]

I dislike router-noise myself so when I do joinery I prefer other methods.

This thing is pretty cool.

I build a jig for hand-sawing guitar fingerboards once.  It wasn't that
hard to so.  I used phenolic blocks on the side to guide the saw, I ground
the teeth to the kerf-width I wanted on a diamond lapping plate.

I could adjust depth of cut because the saw had a steel back and it would
hit the guides when it reached depth.

I don't know about you guys but I think I could cobble up a fun jig
that does a lot of what this BCT machine does for $100 or so.  I might
use phenolic for the tables.    Woodhaven makes some cool jigs that
follow this style. 

The BCT machine looks like it's all anodized aluminum - cool to have that
much heft if you use the thing all day I guess.

 

[monte]

UPDATE.....UPDATE.....UPDATE......

O.K. here's an update on the Jointmaster Pro........

I just spoke with Michael from the design team over at Bridge City Toolworks  (& taking notes as he spoke)

At this time they are planning on going into production sometime this June, once they do.....the production time

will be about two months. So availability will probably be sometime in August as things stand now.

Sometime in June they will start taking deposits (about $500) on the intro offer. They are not taking any orders at the moment.

You can go to their website and sign up for a notification of when that happens.http://www.bridgecitytools.com/Contact+Us/

The prices are now up on their website.http://www.bridgecitytools.com/Products/What's+New/Jointmaker+Pro.

"The primary material on the Jointmaker Pro is anodized machined aluminum. Acetal and Nylatron are used as bearing and bushing surfaces.

The measurements are 16 inches wide and 28 inches deep, the table top stands at 10 inches high."

As far as the production fence height itself they are working on that at this very moment ............as well as the accessory

package. The saw will include a rip blade and a crosscut blade.

hmmm, I think that's it.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

monte,
Hey, this is interesting...I just exchanged e-mails with John Economaki over at Bridge City Tools telling him about the curiosity of our members about the Jointmaker Pro.
First, he praised The FOG for being such an unusually friendly place (thanks to all of you).  He also gave me some information to share with the forum.
Let me pull it all together and I'll post a little later.
Matthew

 

[monte]

Matthew,

thank you for the imput, I'm looking forward to the feedback.

Monte

 

[Michael Kellough]

"The primary material on the Jointmaker Pro is anodized machined aluminum. Acetal and Nylatron are used as bearing and bushing surfaces.

What?! No Vespel?!

 

[laboroflove]

Hi,
My first post here - sorry it's not exactly about Festool, but I'm taking my time to look around at such a great forum.  I'm going to be buying one of these Joint-Maker Pros for sure.

Lots of great information here on this site, it's tough to know where to start.

Anyway I'm goin back to looking around.

Len

 

[Per Swenson]

Welcome Len,

Great information and nice people is a hard to beat combination.

Per

 

[Michael Kellough]

Hi,
My first post here - sorry it's not exactly about Festool, but I'm taking my time to look around at such a great forum.  I'm going to be buying one of these Joint-Maker Pros for sure.

Lots of great information here on this site, it's tough to know where to start.

Anyway I'm goin back to looking around.

Len

I'm not sure, but I'm assuming Len got here via a Google search.

In only 24 hours the FOG discussion of this tool shows up on the first page
of a Google search for "Jointmaker Pro".

This is a great example of why the FOG is best left open to all.

 

[monte]

I'm not sure, but I'm assuming Len got here via a Google search.
In only 24 hours the FOG discussion of this tool shows up on the first page
of a Google search for "Jointmaker Pro".

This is a great example of why the FOG is best left open to all.

to add to that..........900 hits in 24 hours

 

[laboroflove]

Hi,
My first post here - sorry it's not exactly about Festool, but I'm taking my time to look around at such a great forum.  I'm going to be buying one of these Joint-Maker Pros for sure.

Lots of great information here on this site, it's tough to know where to start.

Anyway I'm goin back to looking around.

Len

I'm not sure, but I'm assuming Len got here via a Google search.

In only 24 hours the FOG discussion of this tool shows up on the first page
of a Google search for "Jointmaker Pro".

This is a great example of why the FOG is best left open to all.

Michael got it right.  Are you a detective?
I'm interested in Festool and Bridge City, but they don't have a forum like this though.  Don't own either one yet.
Still poking around the place reading up on everything  So much to read, so sorry for not posting more!
Len

 

[Michael Kellough]

I'm interested in Festool and Bridge City, but they don't have a forum like this though.  Don't own either one yet.
Still poking around the place reading up on everything  So much to read, so sorry for not posting more!
Len

Hey Len, thanks for the reply and confirmation. This forum is pretty special and we want to keep it that way but we were recently having a discussion about how to get the high number of lurking non-members to sign up and become members. One way is to require a visitor to join before they can get access to anything. But that would also keep the Google web crawlers out and you wouldn't have found out about our interest in the Jointmaker Pro.

As it is, with free access to all (except for picture viewing) you could have found out everything we know about this subject without becoming a member. What made you join? And, as a connoisseur of fine web sites, what do you thinks needs improvement here?

 

[laboroflove]

Michael-
I saw the members only discussion but didn't want to say anything there.  Looks like its not happening anyway.
I joined because I plan on buying Festools pretty soon, just need to figure out which one(s) to buy first, and that's a harder choice after reading up about the tools in the forum because I want to buy several now!
What do I think needs improvement here?  Not much really, it all works great.  My only problem is sometimes I see political stuff that might turn off new members.  I was looking at the talk on sales tax and it bothered me a bit.  It's not that I like sales tax, but there were some barbs there out of character for this forum.  The one I'm talking about is this-http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=2457.0.  I think the owner should have shut it down.  The owner didn't even respond.  I hate to even say anything about this and I could move these comments to the other talk if necessary.
Len

 

[Michael Kellough]

Michael-
I saw the members only discussion but didn't want to say anything there.  Looks like its not happening anyway.
I joined because I plan on buying Festools pretty soon, just need to figure out which one(s) to buy first, and that's a harder choice after reading up about the tools in the forum because I want to buy several now!
What do I think needs improvement here?  Not much really, it all works great.  My only problem is sometimes I see political stuff that might turn off new members.  I was looking at the talk on sales tax and it bothered me a bit.  It's not that I like sales tax, but there were some barbs there out of character for this forum.  The one I'm talking about is this-http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=2457.0.  I think the owner should have shut it down.  The owner didn't even respond.  I hate to even say anything about this and I could move these comments to the other talk if necessary.
Len

Thanks again for your input Len. I feel the same way but I've been here since "here" was somewhere else and you've got fresh eyes.

As to the "predictably political bend" (DW) of the sales tax thread, [ouch, my ears are burning], you're right, we need to resist the temptation to "go there".

Back to the Jointmaker, if you find something interesting please post it here.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Everyone,
I just did a Google search for Joint Maker Pro, and indeed this discussion appears approximately in the top 10 results.  Very interesting.  I've been toying with some Web elements to get the FOG captured more by the search engines, and it appears to be working.  Seems we are capable of pulling other companies under our net as well!

Len, on that political discussion, and the fact that I did not stop it or close it down: I try to leave things alone here as much as possible.  I trust members' judgment, and it has worked very well.  If you take a look around, you'll see that we very rarely have any problems here.  With a growing membership, we're bound to once in a while have discussions that skirt along the edge.  All in all, though, I believe things generally take care of themselves.  If anyone has concerns about this general issue, feel free to start a new discussion in the off-topic zone and we can get into it.  (I did receive a number of complaints from members about that "Sales Tax" discussion back when it originally appeared.  Then the number of complaints spiked again this afternoon.  I was in my office and could not figure out why so many people were suddenly complaining about that discussion today, four months after it had ended.  Then I finally traced the reason back to this discussion.)

Now, back to the Jointmaker Pro...
As I mentioned earlier, I wrote an e-mail to John Economaki a couple of days ago.  I told him we were discussing the Jointmaker Pro, and invited him to join the Festool Owners Group and introduce himself.  In his first reply, he hesitated to join, stating some understandable issues with online forums.  He then sent me another note, which I'll quote below:

Matthew:

Regarding participation in your forum, I may change my mind as I truly like being around intelligent, logical, and open-minded woodworkers. In the meantime, consider signing up on my blog for updates on the Jointmaker Pro, or suggest same to your readers. We are putting together another video of capabilities--ten minutes ago I crosscut a piece of oak and the falloff was .004" thick, which is unbelievable when you consider it was done by hand.

I do have a couple of thoughts and you are welcome to share them with your group...

This saw will cut up to 6" in width and 1-5/8" thick (flip the stock and you can double the thickness) so to say it is for small stock only is not quite accurate. Clearly one would have no difficulty making boxes/drawers, and a host of other uses with this capacity.  There will be a rip blade, but again, the linear table restricts length to 6".

Recently I spent two full days doing nothing but trying to wear a blade out. During my play, I realized that most woodworkers, including myself (I am an ex-professional furniture maker) shy away from small stock operations for the obvious work holding risks or the time necessary to make jigs and fixtures. At that moment it dawned on me that I have new-found capabilities and the exploration of this tool continues as we come closer to bringing it to market. As the size of the project shrinks, the level of difficulty goes up and accuracy is crucial (i.e., a .002" gap in a joint on a blanket chest is the Grand Canyon on a jewelry box...). Actually, I have become obsessed with "rescuing" wooden coffee stirrers and I am dreaming up some really cool project ideas--adult versions of the Cub Scout popsicle stick projects I did 50 years ago... it is really fun for me to be able to play again using this tool.  We really don't know all the uses yet for this saw.

Michael Berg, one of our industrial designers, just informed me that the Woodworking Taliban is hard at work in other forums--so I offer the following clarifications;

1. This tool will not be made in China by Bridge City. The Jointmaker Pro will be made in it's entirety in Idaho.

2. It is my hope that someday, we will license the patents to a firm with deeper pockets. At that time the price should come way down (likely by 60-70%). And it will not be all metal like our version--maybe we should contact Festool?

3. I am an ex-furniture maker because of stupidity--I was careless when it came to wearing a dust mask. For the first time in over 30 years, I am seriously entertaining making things again in wood. There is almost zero airborne dust. After two days and 12 hours of cutting assorted stock, my "mess" could be cleaned up with a Dust Buster--this is life-changing for me and I am excited!

4. There are no tricks or deceptions in the video--you could replicate everything shown with two minutes of practice--push, crank, repeat and you don't have to pay attention--although that is always a good idea. Stock is trapped between the fence and the wooden clamp blocks--they are beveled and stop the negative feed (board riding up the blade) during cuts.

Thanks Matthew for you interest and the link to your forum--I will reconsider participating over the weekend. Again, I commend your forum members for their meaningful participation--it's really cool.

Regards,

John Economaki

 

[joraft]

... I did receive a number of complaints from members about that "Sales Tax" discussion back when it originally appeared.  Then the number of complaints spiked again this afternoon.  

I read that thread back in February, and then again today. I don't understand what's so objectionable about it, except maybe it could have been in a different folder. Over all, I think things work well around here when left alone. Things sometimes get off topic, or a little tense when opinions or personalities clash. But they calm down fairly quickly and everything goes right back to normal. That just adds a little excitement and flavor to the forum.

Matthew (and others), thanks for passing the info along about the Joint Maker Pro. A very interesting (and expensive) device.

John

 

[Per Swenson]

Mr Economacki,

Whether you choose to join this forum or not, let me  first  apologize for my poor taste in

suggesting that the only ones interested in your machine

would be the Amish.  It was meant purely in jest, my apology's to the Amish also.

In your note to Matthew you mention the woodworking Taliban.

That Sir, is damn funny. I may also find the need to appropriate the term,

with your permission of course.

I truly find your machine amazing and welcome your contributions should you choose to join.

I can also say with certainty the sawdust intifada will not start here.

Per

 

[monte]

Mr Economacki
In your note to Matthew you mention the woodworking Taliban.

That Sir, is damn funny. I may also find the need to appropriate the term,

with your permission of course.

Per.....for a fuller expose scroll down to the bottom of John's blog. ;D
http://www.bridgecitytools.com/blog/

 

[Per Swenson]

Thanks Monte,

I just read it.

Rest assured there are splinter cells of the WT in my line of work also.

Per